Foreign Aid Funding Cuts Harm the World's Children
For children caught in humanitarian crises around the world, foreign aid can mean the difference between life and death. The sharp decline in funding support is already rolling back hard-won progress in children's health and nutrition.
Humanitarian aid matters. Millions of children caught in unimaginably difficult circumstances — conflict, displacement, extreme poverty, the deadly consequences of climate change — rely on it.
But as countries reexamine their commitment to foreign aid, the sudden withdrawal of financial support is already putting more children in harm's way. Initial analyses by UNICEF indicate that at least 14 million children are expected to face disruptions to nutrition support and services in 2025 because of recent and anticipated global funding cuts, leaving them at heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death.
Abrupt reductions in aid will put millions more children at risk
In the past 25 years, the number of stunted children — kids whose growth has been impaired by a chronic or recurrent lack of nutritious food — has decreased by 55 million, or one-third. In 2024 alone, UNICEF and partners reached 441 million children under 5 with services to prevent all forms of malnutrition, while 9.3 million children received treatment for severe wasting and other forms of severe acute malnutrition, which can be fatal if left untreated.
"This progress was made possible through the efforts of governments and the generosity of donors — including those in government, the private sector and philanthropic organizations — whose unwavering support was critical to the prevention and treatment of child malnutrition at a global scale," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden said at a Palais des Nations briefing in Geneva on March 21, 2025.
“Today, those hard-earned gains are being rolled back because humanitarian and nutrition partners face a different, deepening crisis — namely the sharp decline in funding support for our lifesaving work," van der Heijden warned. "But it is more than the quantity of the reductions … the problem is also how they have been made — in some cases, suddenly and without warning, leaving us with no time to mitigate their impact on our programs for children."
Funding cuts leave the most vulnerable children at death's door
Impacts across 17 high-priority countries due to funding cuts could leave more than 2.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition without access to Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for the remainder of 2025, and up to 2,300 lifesaving stabilization centers — providing critical care for children suffering from severe wasting with medical complications — at risk of closing or severely scaling back services.
Almost 28,000 UNICEF-supported outpatient therapeutic centers for the treatment of malnutrition are at risk — and in some cases, have already stopped operating.
Earlier this month, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof traveled to South Sudan, where 70 percent of nutrition assistance has come, until recently, from the U.S. In a village northeast of Renk, near the Sudan border, he saw firsthand the consequences of the abrupt withdrawal of humanitarian aid from lifesaving programs.
Funding cuts to USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, have already put a stop to the village's regular deliveries of RUTF, a low-cost, nutrient-rich peanut paste that can bring a severely malnourished child back to health in a matter of weeks. "So now children in the village are starving," Kristof wrote in a March 15, 2025 opinion piece.
Related: Malnutrition Crisis: Reaching Children in Need in South Sudan
Stockouts of lifesaving Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food are imminent
On a recent visit to the Afar region in northern Ethiopia and Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, van der Heijden also witnessed what happens when budgets are slashed without warning. In Afar, a region prone to recurrent drought and floods, only 7 of the 30 mobile health and nutrition units supported by UNICEF are currently in operation, a direct result of the global funding crisis. These mobile units are critical to supporting children with vital assistance including treatment of severe wasting, vaccinations and essential medicines.
Funding gaps in both Ethiopia and Nigeria could prevent nearly 1.3 million children under 5 suffering from severe acute malnutrition from receiving treatment this year — leaving them at heightened risk of death.
“We estimate that without new sources of funding, UNICEF will run out of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF) to treat children suffering from severe wasting in May — which could have dire consequences for the nearly an estimated 74,500 children in Ethiopia who require treatment each month," said van der Heijden. “In Nigeria, where around 80,000 children per month require treatment, we could run out of RUTF supplies sometime between this month and the end of May."
Funding cuts rob children in conflict zones of their last lifeline
In Lebanon, where more than half of children under age 2 experience food poverty in the eastern part of the country, "We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs," Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Lebanon, told reporters on Feb. 28, 2025.
We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs. — Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Lebanon
The number of children facing food shortages in Lebanon's densely populated eastern Bekaa and Baalbek governorates has more than doubled in the past two years, according to a February 2025 UNICEF report examining the toll of 14 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel beginning in October 2023. Both regions came under heavy attack during intensive Israeli air strikes. By January 2025, nearly 80 percent of families were in need of urgent support and 31 percent of households did not have enough drinking water, putting them at risk of disease.
The report's data was collected just as several governments announced further funding cuts, making a bad situation even worse. Between January and April 2025, UNICEF warned, over 500,000 children and their families risk losing critical subsistence cash support from UN agencies, stripping the most vulnerable of their last lifeline.
More than 213 million children in 146 countries and territories will require humanitarian assistance in 2025
Even a brief halt of UNICEF’s critical lifesaving activities risks the lives of millions of children at a time when needs are already acute: UNICEF estimates that more than 213 million children in 146 counties and territories will require humanitarian assistance in 2025.
“We are determined to stay and deliver for the world’s children – particularly at a time of unprecedented need," van der Heijden said. "And UNICEF is committed to collaborate with our partners to ensure global humanitarian and development efforts remain efficient, effective and accountable."
We are determined to stay and deliver for the world's children — particularly at a time of unprecedented need. — Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director
Every child has the right to a safe and healthy childhood. Foreign aid helps fulfill that promise. And every $1 invested early in high-risk humanitarian contexts saves an average of over $4 on the next emergency. Children whose needs are met have the best chance of reaching their full potential and growing up to shape a more peaceful, stable and prosperous future for everyone.
Related: 5 Ways Global Humanitarian Aid Benefits the U.S.
“While reviews of foreign assistance are ongoing in capitals around the world, I want to remind government leaders that delaying action doesn’t just harm children — it drives up the cost for us all," van der Heijden added. "Investing in children’s survival and well-being is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the most economically sound choice any government can make."
Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance.
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