UN agencies on Tuesday offered a dire assessment of the global impact of deep cuts to grassroots humanitarian funding by the incoming U.S. administration and reiterated calls for Washington to retain its position as a global aid leader.
The development followed the pause announced to billions of dollars of funding on Jan. 24 by the U.S. administration, affecting “nearly all U.S. foreign aid programmes, pending a 90-day review”.
Pio Smith from the UN’s sexual reproductive health agency, UNFPA, disclosed this at a news conference briefing in Geneva.
Smith said that in response to the executive order, UNFPA “has suspended services funded by U.S. grants that provide a lifeline for women and girls in crises, including in South Asia”.
The UNFPA Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific warned that between 2025 and 2028 in Afghanistan, the absence of U.S. support would likely result in 1,200 additional maternal deaths and 109,000 additional unintended pregnancies.
Smith said the agency was seeking “more clarity” from the administration “as to why our programmes are being impacted, particularly those which we would hope would be exempt” on humanitarian grounds.
Meanwhile, the UN aid coordination agency OCHA, said there had been no “layoffs or closing down access” in response to the executive orders.
Spokesperson Jens Laerke added that the agency’s country offices were “in close contact with local U.S. embassies to better understand how the situation will unfold.”
He explained that the U,S. Government funded around 47 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal across the world in 2024; “that gives you an indication of how much it matters when we are in the situation we are in right now, with the messaging we’re getting from the government”.
The move followed the announcement that the new U.S. administration has placed the country’s principal overseas development agency, USAID, under the authority of the Secretary of State.
Staff from the agency had been locked out of their offices, while the head of the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency has accused USAID of criminal activity and a lack of accountability.
“Public name-calling won’t save any lives,” OCHA’s Mr Laerke said, while Alessandra Vellucci, head of the UN Information Service at UN Geneva, highlighted the UN Secretary-General’s appeal for a relationship of trust with the Trump administration.
“We are looking at continuing this work together [and listening]…if there are criticisms, constructive criticism and points that we need to review,” she told reporters, underscoring the “decades-long relationship of mutual support” between the UN and the US.
At the same scheduled press encounter, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Council responded to news reports that President Donald Trump planned to issue an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the 47-member world body.
The U.S. was a member of the Council from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31 2024, meaning that since Jan. 1 this year, it had been an “observer state…like any of the 193 UN member states that are not Council Members” spokesperson Pascal Sim explained.
“Any observer state of the council cannot technically withdraw from an intergovernmental body that it is no longer part of.”
Amid uncertainty about future U.S. funding, UNFPA’s Smith underscored the immediate impact on at-risk individuals in the world’s poorest settings.
“Women give birth alone in unsanitary conditions; the risk of obstetric fistula is heightened, newborns die from preventable causes; survivors of gender-based violence have nowhere to turn for medical or psychological support.
“We hope that the U.S. government will retain its position as a global leader in development and continue to work with UNFPA to alleviate the suffering of women and their families as a result of catastrophes they did not cause.”
UNFPA works across the world including in Afghanistan, where more than nine million people are expected to lose access to health and protection services because of the U.S. funding crisis, it said.
“This will impact nearly 600 mobile health teams, family health houses and counselling centres, whose work will be suspended, Smith explained.
“Every two hours, a mother dies from preventable pregnancy complications, making Afghanistan one of the deadliest countries in the world for women to give birth. Without UNFPA’s support, even more lives will be lost at a time when the rights of Afghan women and girls are already being torn to pieces.”
“In Pakistan, the UN agency warned that the U.S. announcement will affect 1.7 million people, including 1.2 million Afghan refugees, who would be cut off from lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services, with the closure of over 60 health facilities.
“In Bangladesh, nearly 600,000 people, including Rohingya refugees, faced losing access to critical maternal and reproductive health services.
“This is not about statistics. This is about real lives. These are literally the world’s most vulnerable people,” Smith insisted.
