{"id":485025,"date":"2026-01-01T15:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:48:12","slug":"us-adapt-shrink-or-die-terms-for-2bn-aid-pot-will-mean-un-bowing-down-to-washington-say-experts-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485025\/","title":{"rendered":"US \u2018adapt, shrink or die\u2019 terms for $2bn aid pot will mean UN bowing down to Washington, say experts | Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The $2bn (\u00a31.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week<\/a> may have been hailed as \u201cbold and ambitious\u201d<\/a> by the UN but could be the \u201cnail in the coffin\u201d in changing to a shrunken, less flexible aid system dominated by Washington\u2019s political priorities, aid experts fear.<\/p>\n

After a year of deep cuts in aid budgets<\/a> by the US and European countries, the announcement of new money for the humanitarian system is a source of some relief, but experts are deeply concerned about demands that the US has imposed on how the money should be managed and where it can go.<\/p>\n

When the US state department announced the pledge on Tuesday, it said the UN must \u201cadapt, shrink or die\u201d by implementing changes and eliminating waste, and demanded that the money be funnelled through a pooled fund under the UN\u2019s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) rather than to individual agencies.<\/p>\n

It also stipulated that the money be used for 17 priority countries chosen by the US, excluding some undergoing profound humanitarian crises such as Afghanistan<\/a> and Yemen.<\/p>\n

Themrise Khan, an independent researcher on aid systems, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a despicable way of looking at humanitarianism and humanitarian aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

She criticised the way the UN had praised Donald Trump and the pledge as \u201cgenerous\u201d despite the many conditions placed upon it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also points to the fact that the UN system itself is now so subservient to the American system \u2013 that it is literally bowing down to just one power without actually being more objective in how it views humanitarianism and humanitarian aid,\u201d Khan said. \u201cFor me, that is the nail in the coffin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17 priority countries include some of the world\u2019s most desperate, where the US has political interests, including Sudan, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a>, as well as some Latin American countries.<\/p>\n

Ronny Patz, an independent analyst specialising in UN finances, said: \u201cThe fact that they are announcing a selected list of countries in advance shows they have very clear political priorities for this money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was concerned that Washington\u2019s demands on where the money could be spent \u201csolidifies a massively shrunk UN humanitarian system\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a new humanitarian crisis breaking out in some region of the world next year that they haven\u2019t prioritised funding for, it\u2019s not clear that they are willing to let the UN respond with US money,\u201d Patz said.<\/p>\n

There are also concerns that the amount of money will not be enough. Thomas Byrnes, chief executive of MarketImpact, a consultancy for the humanitarian sector, has been tracking aid cuts throughout the past year and said the $2bn was significantly less than the $3.38bn in funds given by the US to the UN in 2025, all of which was provided under the previous Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a carefully staged political announcement that obscures more than it reveals,\u201d said Byrnes.<\/p>\n

He said the contribution was better than nothing but that it would have a limited impact in the context of other US decisions, including cutting $5bn in foreign assistance already approved by Congress<\/a> as \u201cwoke, weaponised and wasteful spending\u201d and a proposal to end support for peacekeeping<\/a> missions \u2013 for which it already owes the United Nations $1.5bn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Byrnes suggested that channelling the money through Ocha may be less about partnership and more an attempt to centralise control and have one UN body on which to make demands about how aid should be distributed.<\/p>\n

Patz shared that concern and said he was worried about whether the money would even materialise if the UN failed to meet the expectations set out by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to \u201ccut bloat, remove duplication\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be cautious,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is $2bn promised, but not $2bn given.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The $2bn (\u00a31.5bn) of aid the US pledged this week may have been hailed as \u201cbold and ambitious\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":485026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-485025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115820632884975216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}