By Olivia Le Poidevin and Daphne Psaledakis
GENEVA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Monday pledged $2 billion in aid next year to tens of millions of people facing hunger and disease in more than a dozen countries, part of what it said was a new mechanism to deliver life-saving aid after the Trump administration slashed foreign aid.
The United States has cut aid spending this year, and major Western donors such as Germany have also cut aid in favor of increased defense spending, triggering a severe funding crunch at the United Nations.
The State Department said the billions of dollars in aid Washington pledged on Monday would be overseen by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a new aid model agreed with the United Nations to make aid funding and delivery more efficient and increase accountability for how money is spent.
United Nations data shows that the United States’ total humanitarian contributions to the United Nations will drop to approximately US$3.38 billion in 2025, equivalent to approximately 14.8% of the global total. This figure is down sharply from $14.1 billion the year before and will peak at $17.2 billion in 2022.
U.S. State Department and United Nations officials said in Geneva that the United States and the United Nations will sign 17 memorandums of understanding with priority countries identified by the United States.
But U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said some areas prioritized by the U.N., including Yemen, Afghanistan and Gaza, would not receive U.S. funding under the new mechanism, adding that the U.N. would seek support from other donors to find funding for those areas.
Jeremy Levine, the U.S. State Department’s undersecretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs, and religious freedom, said more countries will be added as more funding is provided to the mechanism.
“I think these are countries where our interests overlap … but we will add more countries thoughtfully over time,” Lewin said.
Gaza to be treated on separate track
A U.N. spokesman said Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sudan were all included in Monday’s package.
But Lewin said Monday’s announcement did not cover Gaza, which aid agencies have repeatedly said more aid is needed to gain access to the small and crowded enclave, but will be dealt with on a separate track.
He said the U.S. had approved more than $300 million in funding after President Donald Trump’s administration helped broker a ceasefire in Gaza “to provide a pipeline for U.N. agencies,” adding that the U.S. would work to secure more donors for a joint mechanism under a separate track for Gaza’s second phase.
Donors will make “specific requests” for which countries and what type of work should be funded, Fletcher said.
“But on the other hand, humanitarian action must always remain neutral, impartial and independent, and the work we do together in this partnership must not undermine these principles,” he said.
Lewin said funding would be focused on life-saving aid, while funding for climate-related and other projects that were not among the government’s priorities would be cut.
In early December, the United Nations launched a 2026 aid appeal calling for $23 billion in aid to help 87 million people at risk, half of the $47 billion sought in 2025 and reflecting a sharp decline in donor support despite record global demand.
Fletcher acknowledged it had been a difficult year for the United Nations, with humanitarian crises surging in war-torn countries such as Sudan after a series of cuts, but said he was optimistic about the U.S. commitment.
“Millions of lives will be saved in 17 countries,” Fletcher said.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Dave Graham and Nick Zieminski)
