US $2B Pledge to UN Comes With a Warning

The US on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for UN humanitarian aid, a move that comes as President Trump's administration slashes US foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to "adapt, shrink, or die" in a time of new financial realities. The money is a small fraction of what the US has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration says is still a generous amount that will maintain America's status as the world's largest humanitarian donor, the AP reports.

• "This new model will better share the burden of UN humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the UN to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media.

The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to agencies and priorities, a key part of US demands for drastic changes across the UN that have alarmed many humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and services. The US humanitarian funding for UN-coordinated programs in recent years has run as high as $17 billion annually, according to UN data. US officials say only $8 billion to $10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The US also pays billions in annual dues related to its UN membership.

• "The piggy bank is not open to organizations that just want to return to the old system," Jeremy Lewin, the State Department official in charge of foreign assistance, said at a press conference Monday in Geneva. "President Trump has made clear that the system is dead." The BBC describes Lewin as a "Trump loyalist who reportedly masterminded the shutdown of USAID and the firing of its thousands of staff."
• Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed US soft power around the world.
• The move caps a crisis year for many UN organizations, including its refugee, migration, and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has already cut billions in foreign aid, prompting the agencies to slash spending, aid projects, and thousands of jobs. Other Western donors have also reduced outlays.
• The cuts will have major implications for UN affiliates like the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Program, and refugee agency UNHCR. They have already received billions less from the US this year than under annual allocations from the Biden administration—or even during Trump's first term.

• The US pledge for aid programs of the UN—the world's top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of US humanitarian aid money—takes shape in a preliminary deal with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs run by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.
• Fletcher, who has spent the past year lobbying US officials not to abandon UN funding altogether, appeared optimistic at the deal's signing in Geneva. "It's a very, very significant landmark contribution. And a month ago, I would have anticipated the number would have been zero," he told reporters. "And so I think, before worrying about what we haven't got, I'd like to look at the millions of people whose lives will be saved, whose lives will be better because of this contribution, and start there."
• Asked by reporters if the State Department's language of "adapt or die" worried him, Fletcher said, "If the choices are adapt or die, I choose adapt."