Humanitarian funding cuts : power, prioritisation, and systemic injustice in global humanitarian aid

The international humanitarian system entered 2025 facing a crisis of legitimacy, morale, and funding. By mid-2025, global humanitarian aid had collapsed by 43%, from $36.9 billion in the previous year to $20.8 billion1, driven by the dismantling of USAID2 and compounded by cuts from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. This policy analysis examines the drivers, impacts, and implications of these unprecedented cuts, proposing structural reforms for a more equitable system. The analysis documents cascading impacts across health, food security, gender programming, and displacement responses. Critical data infrastructure has collapsed or reduced capacity, undermining needs-based prioritisation. The system’s ‘hyperprioritisation’ response has compounded inequities. Situating these patterns within a political economy framework, the analysis demonstrates that funding allocation reflects geopolitical interest, colonial legacies, and path dependency rather than only humanitarian need. The ‘Humanitarian Reset’ risks becoming managed contraction rather than strategic transformation. The analysis proposes four policy shifts: redesigning coordination architecture to centre local leadership; pluralising knowledge production so crisis-affected communities lead needs assessments; diversifying the donor base beyond Western governments; and investing in independent data systems tracking donor accountability alongside humanitarian need.