UN agencies that provide aid worldwide slash jobs or cut costs as US funding drops

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Several U.N. agencies that provide aid to children, refugees and other vulnerable people around the world are slashing jobs or cutting costs in other ways, with officials pointing to funding reductions mainly from the United States and warning that vital relief programs will be severely affected as a result.

The U.N. World Food Program is expected to cut up to 30% of its staff. The head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it would downsize its headquarters and regional offices to reduce costs by 30% and cut senior-level positions by 50%.

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That’s according to internal memos obtained by The AP and verified by two U.N. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal personnel decisions. Other agencies like UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, and OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, have also announced or plan to make cuts.

One WFP official called the cuts “the most massive” seen by the agency in the past 25 years, and that as a result, operations will disappear or be downsized.

The U.N. agency cuts underscore the impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. back from its position as the world’s single largest aid donor. Trump has given billionaire ally Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency power to redo the scale of the federal government, with a focus on slashing foreign assistance. Even before the administration’s move, many donor nations had reduced humanitarian spending, and U.N. agencies struggled to reach funding goals.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply troubled by the drastic funding reduction.”

“The heads of our humanitarian agencies are being forced to take impossibly painful decisions as budget cuts have an immediate and often deadly impact on the world’s most vulnerable,” Dujarric said in a statement. “We understand the pressures on national budgets faced by governments, but these cuts come at a time when military spending again hits record levels.”

The U.N. also is engaging in a larger reform effort ahead of its 80th anniversary this summer. Guterres’ office issued a system-wide memo last week ordering an internal “functional review” of all U.N. entities to make cost reductions and efficiencies.

“The UN80 Initiative aims to strengthen our programmes and operations, charting a path towards a sustainable United Nations for the future,” U.N. Undersecretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder said in the memo obtained by The AP.

World Food Program

The WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, received nearly half of its funding from the United States in 2024.

Asked about the planned cuts, the organization said in a statement that “in this challenging donor environment, WFP will prioritize its limited resources on vital programs that bring urgently needed food assistance to the 343 million people struggling with hunger and increasingly facing starvation.”

The WFP internal memo said personnel cuts will “impact all geographies, divisions and levels” in the agency. It suggested further downsizing may be needed and said the agency will review its “portfolio of programs.”

In early April, the Trump administration sent notices terminating funding for WFP emergency programs in more than a dozen countries. The terminations were reversed days later in several countries but maintained in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

The U.N.'s top refugee agency provides help to some 43.7 million refugees worldwide, along with others among the 122 million people driven from their homes by conflicts and natural disasters.

It said a statement that the agency will “have to significantly reduce our workforce,” including downsizing the headquarters and regional offices. UNHCR said some country offices will be closed, but it did not give an immediate figure on how many staff will be cut.

“The impact of this funding crunch on refugees’ lives is already devastating and will get far worse,” the agency said. Programs providing food, clean water, medicines, emergency shelter and other services “will reduce or stop.”

For example, it said, reduced funding will cut access to clean water for at least half a million displaced people in Sudan, increasing the risk of cholera and other disease outbreaks.

It will also hurt efforts to house and provide schooling for refugees from Sudan in South Sudan, Chad and Uganda. It warned that the lack of facilities in host countries will push more refugees to attempt dangerous crossings to Europe.

UNICEF

The U.N. children’s agency projects that its funding will be at least 20% less in 2025 compared with 2024.

“Hard-earned gains and future progress for children are at risk because of a global funding crisis in which some donors are sharply decreasing their financial support to UNICEF and our partners, as well as their contributions to international aid more broadly,” UNICEF said in a statement.

The organization said that while it has already implemented efficiency measures, “more cost-cutting steps will be required,” said spokesperson Tess Ingram.

Officials are looking at “every aspect” of operations in over 190 countries and territories focused on delivering life-saving humanitarian aid and advocating for policies that promote children’s rights.

Other U.N. agencies

The International Organization for Migration said last month that it had been hit by a 30% decrease in funding for the year, mainly because of U.S. cuts. It said it was ending programs that affect 6,000 personnel and reducing its staff at headquarters by 20%.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, also announced this month that it is cutting its 2,600 staff who operate in more than 60 countries by 20% because of “brutal cuts” in funding that have left it with a nearly $60 million shortfall.

In a letter to staff, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher didn’t say which country was responsible for the cuts but indicated it was the United States.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.