Washington has pledged an initial $2 billion for United Nations humanitarian aid in 2026, far less than it has provided in recent years, warning U.N. agencies to "adapt, shrink or die."
With its pledge, announced at the U.S. mission in Geneva alongside U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher, the United States is pursuing a dramatic overhaul of how it funds U.N. humanitarian work.
Instead of handing funds to individual agencies, the United States will funnel its contributions through the U.N. aid agency OCHA, headed by Fletcher, which earlier this year launched a so-called Humanitarian Reset to improve efficiency and accountability.
The U.S. funds, welcomed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will then be distributed to 17 selected countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine.
The U.N.'s Central Emergency Response Fund, which provides swift aid as new emergencies erupt or when existing crises rapidly deteriorate, will also receive a tranche of money.
"It is an initial anchor commitment," Jeremy Lewin, the senior U.S. official for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, told reporters.
"There are other countries that we will add, as we continue to get more funding into this mechanism."
Among the crises not listed were Yemen and Afghanistan, where Lewin stressed the need to "prevent diversion to the Taliban and other U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations."
Gaza was also absent, but Lewin said there would be more focus on aid for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory as U.S. President Donald Trump's truce plan with Israel moves forward.
"This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.
According to U.N. data, the United States remained the top humanitarian aid donor in the world in 2025, but that amount fell significantly to $2.7 billion, down from around $11 billion in 2023 and 2024, and from over $14 billion in 2022.
Other key donor countries have also been tightening their belts, triggering major upheaval in the global aid sector.
"Individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die," a State Department statement said.
Guterres said the U.S. pledge would help save lives.
"Every dollar counts, and we are committed to making the most of this support to deliver real results for people in desperate need," Guterres's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
The U.N. estimates that some 240 million people, in conflict zones, suffering from epidemics, or victims of natural disasters and climate change, need emergency aid.
In 2025, the U.N.'s appeal for more than $45 billion was only funded to the $12 billion mark, the lowest in a decade.
That only allowed it to help 98 million people, 25 million fewer than the year before.
