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New York, NY, May 5, 2025 —  In response to a rapidly shifting global aid landscape marked by rising needs and shrinking resources, the ̽����ѡ (̽����ѡ) is calling for a renewed focus from donors on the world’s most vulnerable communities where conflict and climate change are driving humanitarian needs and extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated, and on the delivery of the most impactful solutions to meet needs. As international donors slash aid budgets, the ̽����ѡ warns that without a decisive shift in towards what, where and how aid is delivered, millions stand to suffer—and decades of progress may be reversed.

“The new era for foreign aid is here - whether we like it or not - for governments, for humanitarians delivering aid, and for people in need. To maintain progress with fewer resources, the aid system must prioritise its work on where it is most needed and can be most impactful,” said David Miliband, President and CEO of the ̽����ѡ. “This requires new thinking on where aid is spent, what it is spent on, how it is delivered, and how it is funded.” 

Needs are increasingly concentrated in fragile states, yet the aid budget is being both reduced and spread across multiple priorities, undermining spending on what aid does best: delivering life-saving assistance where it is most needed, establishing a pathway towards lasting development. The ̽����ѡ’s newest report, “A New Era for Aid,” lays out a roadmap for initial steps by:

1. Prioritizing the Most At-Risk Countries: The ̽����ѡ has identified 13 countries most at risk from the fallout of aid cuts, based on levels of humanitarian need, pre-existing reliance on US aid, exposure to debt distress, and vulnerability to conflict and climate shocks. These countries—Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen—face overlapping crises of extreme hunger, malnutrition, poverty, violence, and displacement. Despite hosting over a quarter of the world’s population living in extreme poverty, they received less than 10% of ODA in 2023. An additional eight countries, including Cameroon, Lebanon, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, and Ukraine, also face significant risks and merit urgent attention. All of the ̽����ѡ’s Emergency Watchlist 2025 countries feature in this list.
2. Investing in Best Practice, Proven Solutions: With fewer resources, support to proven, cost-effective interventions across sectors will be key to maximising impact and ensuring available funding goes further to support the services affected populations need, and that set the stage for development, including:

• Simplified malnutrition treatment: Treatment for malnutrition among children is an essential basis for future development of individuals, communities and countries. Prior to the aid cuts, of the 45 million children facing acute malnutrition worldwide, only 1 in 5 received lifesaving treatment. Yet with the same financial resources invested in a refined system for diagnosing and treating malnutrition - such as the ̽����ѡ’s simplified protocol, which also cuts treatment costs by up to 30%- thousands if not millions more children could be reached.
• Vaccinations and community health: Infectious disease outbreaks cost an estimated per year globally – these outbreaks know no borders and can impact us all. In contrast, disease prevention through vaccination and routine immunisation, particularly when delivered by frontline actors, have proved highly effective. The ̽����ѡ-led REACH initiative delivered 9 million vaccine doses in East Africa in just 19 months at an average cost of $4 per dose.
• Cash assistance: The regarding the effectiveness of cash transfer programming is one of the strongest in international aid, reducing poverty and creating. The ̽����ѡ’s Cash First program delivered $79 million in assistance to over 2 million people across 37 countries.
• Anticipatory action: With sophisticated and more readily available climate forecasting, extreme climate events like flooding are predictable- yet the majority of assistance is still provided after a crisis has struck. ̽����ѡ’s Anticipatory Action (AA) programming is getting ahead of climate disasters: in Nigeria, Guatemala, Somalia, and Afghanistan, the “Follow the Forecast” approach uses AI-enabled climate forecasts and local knowledge to provide pre-shock, cost-effective cash support.

3. Delivering Aid Where It's Hardest—and Most Needed: Prioritising the impact of aid means delivering not where it is easiest, but where it is hardest - reaching communities often overlooked but most in need. Donors and member states should use all diplomatic levers to protect and expand access to affected communities, upholding obligations under international law. Funding to strengthen frontline humanitarian responders is a low-cost and high-impact investment that will ensure aid continues to reach those that need it most.
4. Empowering Local Responders: Local aid responders play a critical and effective role in humanitarian response and recovery, more targeted and tailored to the needs of affected communities, and often cheaper. To fully harness the contribution of local responders, donors and the wider humanitarian sector must catalyze progress toward an aid system centered on locally-systems change that achieves durable outcomes for people impacted by crises. ̽����ѡ’s PEERS partnership model, recognized as sector-leading, has already helped the organization channel over 15% of global funds to local partners—on track to reach 25% this year.
5. Unlocking Smarter Financing: With ODA projected to shrink by 20% in 2025, donors should ensure that aid is spent in ways that bring the greatest possible benefits to those impacted by crises. Grant-based aid that avoids adding to debt burdens should be safeguarded for the most vulnerable contexts, aid quality should be prioritised through flexible and multi-year funding and expanded partnerships to ensure those that need aid most are able to receive it. Donors should also explore all options, including innovative financing via climate insurance and humanitarian debt swaps, to bring more money into the aid system and protect grant-based funding for countries that need it most.

The ̽����ѡ will remain focused on the most effective and impactful humanitarian interventions to meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable. ​̽����ѡ programs are cost-effective and evidence-based or evidence-generating. While accounting for just 3% of the global humanitarian budget, ̽����ѡ has conducted 30% of all impact evaluations in humanitarian settings and over 400 cost analyses across 37 countries to enhance the effectiveness of our programmes.