UN makes 2026 aid plea with half the cash it needs — era of triage humanitarianism?

The United Nations opened its 2026 funding appeal on Monday with an uncomfortable paradox: asking for only half of what it says is required, at a time when global humanitarian needs are breaking record after record. The institution is seeking $23bn, a figure it admits will leave “tens of millions” without support, simply because donor money has collapsed.

Last year the UN initially set its 2025 requirement at $47bn. Then came the aid cuts, first out of Washington under the new administration, then the domino effect across Europe, Germany included. By November, the UN had received just $12bn. A decade-low. Barely a quarter of what was needed. The result: relief efforts trimmed to the bone, help for only the most desperate.

The tone from headquarters isn’t optimistic. Conflicts multiply, regions destabilise, climate shocks hit harder.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief chief, went blunt:

“We are overstretched, underfunded, and under attack. And we drive the ambulance towards the fire. On your behalf. But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we’re being shot at.”

He pointed to what he called rising global “apathy”, warning that the system is now forced into “brutal choices”.

Under the 2026 plan, 87 million people count as immediate life-or-death priorities. In reality, around 250 million need urgent help. The UN hopes to reach 135 million, but only if donors step up, at an estimated $33bn price tag.

Top of the list is a $4bn request for the occupied Palestinian territory, most of it for Gaza, a strip shattered by Israeli attacks, with nearly all 2.3 million residents displaced and reliant on aid. Sudan follows, then Syria.

“(The appeal) is laser-focused on saving lives where the shocks hit hardest: Wars, climate disasters, earthquakes, epidemics, crop failures,” Fletcher said.

The UN estimates 240 million people globally are living through conflict, epidemics or disaster fallout. If funding falls short again, it may expand appeals to businesses, civil society and the general public, a move that would mark a shift away from the decades-long reliance on big Western donors.

Historically, the US has bankrolled most of the system. It stayed the top donor in 2025 even after Trump-era cuts, but its share slid from more than one-third to just 15.6 percent. The gap isn’t theoretical, it’s oxygen.