It’s a simple but brutal equation: The number of people going hungry or otherwise struggling around the world is rising, while the amount of money the world’s wealthiest nations are contributing toward helping them is dropping.
The result: The United Nations says that, at best, it will be able to raise enough money to help about 60% of the 307 million people it predicts will need humanitarian aid next year. That means at least 117 million people won’t get food or other assistance in 2025.
The UN also will end 2024 having raised about 46% of the $49.6 billion it sought for humanitarian aid across the globe, its own data shows. It’s the second year in a row the world body has raised less than half of what it sought. The shortfall has forced humanitarian agencies to make agonizing decisions, such as slashing rations for the hungry and cutting the number of people eligible for aid.
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UN officials see few reasons for optimism at a time of widespread conflict, political unrest and extreme weather, all factors that stoke famine. “We have been forced to scale back appeals to those in most dire need,” Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said.
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The majority of humanitarian funding comes from just three wealthy donors: the US, Germany and the European Commission. They provided 58% of the $170 billion recorded by the UN in response to crises from 2020 to 2024.
Three other powers – China, Russia and India – collectively contributed less than 1% of UN-tracked humanitarian funding over the same period, according to a Reuters review of UN contributions data.
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With a 2023 gross national income (GNI) less than 2% the size of America’s, Norway ranked seventh among governments who gave to the UN that year […] It provided more than $1 billion.
Two of the five biggest economies – China and India – gave a tiny fraction as much.
China ranked 32nd among governments in 2023, contributing $11.5 million in humanitarian aid. It has the world’s second-largest GNI.
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[Former UN humanitarian chief and now head of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan] Egeland noted that China and India each invested far more in the type of initiatives that draw world attention. Beijing spent billions hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and India spent $75 million in 2023 to land a spaceship on the moon.
“How come there is not more interest in helping starving children in the rest of the world?” Egeland said. “These are not developing countries anymore. They are having Olympics … They are having spaceships that many of the other donors never could dream of.”
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When aid does come, it is sometimes late, and with strings attached, making it hard for humanitarian organizations to respond flexibly to crises. [This includes that some] Donors dictate details to humanitarian agencies, down to where food will go. They sometimes limit funding to specific UN entities or nongovernmental organizations. They often require that some money be spent on branding, such as displaying donors’ logos on tents, toilets and backpacks.
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The US has a long-standing practice of placing restrictions on nearly all of its contributions to the World Food Program, one of the largest providers of humanitarian food assistance. More than 99% of US donations to the WFP carried restrictions in each of the last 10 years.
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In 2014, António Guterres, now the UN’s secretary-general and then head of its refugee agency, suggested a major change that would charge UN member states fees to fund humanitarian initiatives. The UN’s budget and peacekeeping missions already are funded by a fee system. Such funding would offer humanitarian agencies more flexibility in responding to need.
The UN explored Guterres’ idea in 2015. But donor countries preferred the current system, which lets them decide case by case where to send contributions, according to a UN report on the proposal.
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