UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations humanitarian body announced plans on Friday to reduce its staff of more than 2,000 people by 20 per cent, citing “a wave of brutal cuts”.

In a letter to staff, UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs head Tom Fletcher wrote “we will reduce bureaucracy and reporting layers. We will become less top-heavy, substantially reducing senior positions... but have dynamic and full responses where we are present”.

In the letter sent on Thursday, excerpts of which were posted on the office’s website, Fletcher said the agency is facing a funding gap of almost $60 million.

Since February, OCHA has implemented austerity measures to save $3.7m internally, but that won’t be enough.

The latest cuts will also “reduce its presence and operations” in Pakistan, Turkiye, Iraq, Cameroon, Colombia, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

The broader aid situation has grown dire since the Trump administration scrapped 83 per cent of humanitarian programmes funded by the US Agency for International Deve­lopment. The agency had an annual budget of $42.8 billion, representing 42 per cent of total global humanitarian aid.

“The context we face is the toughest it has ever been for our mission as OCHA, and the system we coordinate,” Fletcher wrote. “The humanitarian community was already underfunded, overstretched and literally, under attack. Now, we face a wave of brutal cuts.”

The Office for the Coor­dination of Humanitarian Affairs is an advocacy arm of the United Nations that delivers reports from the front-line of conflicts “to amplify the voices of crisis-affected people”, according to its website.

It has long been active in response to ongoing strife in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and other conflict zones to provide humanitarian aid.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2025