Reducing humanitarian relief could mean less help from people in Gaza, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, the UN Aid Director said.
Tom Fletcher, director of the UN Humanitarian Agency, told reporters that recent cuts in humanitarian funds have caused a global “earthquake shock” as 300 million people need assistance.
“Many people will die because of the depletion of that aid,” Fletcher, secretary general for the UN Humanitarian Cooperation and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said at a news briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
“The program is currently suspended across the humanitarian community,” Fletcher said. “The staff are now being let go. I think 10% of NGO colleagues were fired during February,” he said, referring to people working for non-governmental aid organizations.
Fletcher also spoke in particular about his recent visit to Gaza last month, saying that “materials are clearly running out very quickly” amid a new lockdown on all food, medicines, fuels and other products in Israel.
“The fact that we’re not taking fuel means that our incubators are off, so this is already authentic and soon becomes a humanitarian crisis,” he said.
Describing his visit to Gaza last month, Fletcher said, “One of the first shocking things I saw driving is the dog’s way through the tile rub.”
“I don’t think I can prepare you anything,” he said. They look for the bodies of people trapped under the bombed buildings, referring to the sight of stray dogs in Gaza.
“A humanitarian superpower”
Fletcher’s press conference comes days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States concluded 83% of its US Organization for International Development (USAID) programs around the world.
The US was the most dramatic, but Fletcher pointed out that other countries have also cut their relief budgets significantly.
“It’s not just the US government. I’m spending much more time than I expected in other donor capitals trying to bolster cases for what we’re doing,” he said.
“All I can say is, for years and decades, the United States has been a humanitarian superpower, and its funds have saved hundreds of millions of lives,” he added.
Fletcher, a former British ambassador to Lebanon, did not elaborate on which countries specifically halted aid, but announced at the end of February that the UK was cutting aid spending to increase spending on the military. British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said the government will “full fund” the “increased investment in defense” by reducing the government’s 0.5% of national income from 0.5% of total national income to 0.3% in 2027.
With the change from aid to defense, the UK will spend £13.4 billion ($17 billion) on its military each year starting in 2027, Priority said.
Several other countries have also reduced aid spending, including Dutch right-wing governments. This was announced in November last year that it would cut approximately 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) over five years.
Fletcher said the response of the UN Humanitarian Agency to the prospect of slashing funds would be to focus on “a completely essential life-saving work in areas that are absolutely necessary,” including Gaza.
However, some organizations have warned that it could feel more widespread.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that US cuts could retreat efforts to treat tuberculosis, the “most deadly infectious disease” in the world.
Ebola surveillance work in Africa is also under threat as NGOs funded through USAID are forced to stop their work.
Health experts and aid organizations have also warned that US funding cuts to HIV/AIDS programs in many African countries could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent.
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