By Eric Bebernitz
NEW YORK, May 22 2025 – In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that upended humanitarian efforts globally, leaving millions of vulnerable people without lifesaving services. The administration’s decision to slash American international aid by 83% is creating daily tragedies in the world’s most fragile regions.

The United States was previously the largest humanitarian donor globally, providing an estimated $64 billion in 2024 – approximately 42% of all humanitarian aid worldwide. Now, nearly 5,800 grants have been canceled, leaving only about 500 programs operational.

Even prior to the aid cuts, a child died due to hunger-related causes every 11 seconds. Now, unthinkably, things are getting worse. According to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises released earlier this month, more than 295 million people faced acute hunger last year, the sixth consecutive annual increase, driven by conflict, displacement, and climate extremes.

Meager rations are being cut in refugee camps, pregnant women are losing access to medical care, and entire communities are without clean water as cholera cases surge.

The Human Cost to the World

In Afghanistan, therapeutic nutrition units at public hospitals in Kabul and Badakhshan have faced the heartbreaking task of turning away children in need of lifesaving care after being forced to close in March. Fortunately, with assistance from the European Union, these facilities have recently reopened, at least for a few months.

Since the halting of US funding, more than 396 nutrition sites have closed across the country, as well as more than 400 health facilities. More than 29,400 people have lost emergency monetary and food aid amid growing food insecurity.

In Madagascar, after four consecutive years of drought, mobile clinics treating malnourished children have closed. We’ve had to let go 200 staff and close two centers in the south. Roughly 3,000 children with severe acute malnutrition – the deadliest and most urgent form of hunger – no longer receive treatment. Sadly, that number is likely to grow, since 35,000 people have lost essential food aid.

In Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, already traumatized by eight years of armed conflict and recently hit by three cyclones, the sudden interruption of funding has led to more than 30 staff members losing their contracts, considerably reducing our capacity in areas where we were the only humanitarian presence. More than 17,000 people no longer receive food aid or the support they need to access clean water.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, US funding accounted for 70% of the world’s total humanitarian response to deep poverty and worsening conflict that has displaced more than seven million people – roughly equivalent to the population of Tennessee. Stretched thin, health centers there are now charging fees that many families cannot afford. The DRC has one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally—three women die every hour from pregnancy-related complications. US budget cuts leave us unable to help.

False Savings, Greater Long-Term Costs

The US administration justifies these cuts under “fiscal responsibility” and “America First” policies. Yet international aid represents just 1% of the federal budget, while the long-term benefits of aid far outweigh any short-term savings.

Studies show that every dollar invested in preventing undernutrition delivers up to $81 in return through GDP gains that can benefit the global economic system. Early warning systems – such as the now-shuttered Famine Early Warning Systems Network inspired by President Reagan – saved money by identifying potential crises before they required massive intervention.

Even Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State and briefly the Acting Administrator of USAID, once acknowledged that the U.S. invests in aid “because we’re a compassionate people, but we also do it because it’s in our national interest. Because perhaps more than any other nation on Earth, we understand that a world that is freer, more just, more peaceful and more prosperous poses less of a threat.”

In other words, in our increasingly interconnected world, strategic foreign assistance isn’t charity—it’s a necessary investment in our shared prosperity and security over the long term. It is also strikingly effective. Over the past 45 years, humanitarian assistance has contributed to a 60% drop in children dying from hunger’s deadly effects. This remarkable progress is now at risk.

Eroding Trust and Contradictory Messages

For humanitarian organizations, the administration’s approach has created an impossible situation with a devastating lack of clarity. Where exemptions were supposed to be granted for “life-saving” activities, the promised funds have not materialized, forcing organizations to deplete their reserves or shut down vital programs entirely.

The impact reaches far beyond individual organizations to affect the entire humanitarian ecosystem. Thousands of field staff positions have been eliminated across multiple countries, leaving critical gaps in service delivery.

This funding crisis comes at a time when more than 300 million people worldwide need humanitarian aid. Nearly 733 million people—almost 10% of the world’s population—suffer from hunger, and one in three people globally don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

It will take an estimated $44.7 billion in 2025 to begin to meet these basic needs. So, the sudden disappearance of US funding leaves a catastrophic gap that other donors simply cannot fill.

A Call to Renew American Leadership

We’ve seen the power of American leadership before. The Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe after World War II. Plan Colombia changed the trajectory of that nation. America’s rapid response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak prevented a global pandemic.

As global citizens, we must recognize that hunger anywhere threatens stability everywhere. Food insecurity drives migration, fuels extremism, and exacerbates conflicts.

Congress is currently laying out a budget for next year that includes funding levels for foreign assistance. We are urging Members of Congress to support funding levels that are equal to or above the foreign assistance funding levels they agreed to last year, with guarantees that the Administration will spend these Congressionally appropriated funds.

America has always been greatest when we are at our most generous. As the richest and most powerful nation in the world, we should be thinking bolder, not smaller.

We have the ability to end chronic hunger for everyone, for good.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
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Excerpt:

Eric Bebernitz is Director, External Relations, Action Against Hunger