UN refugee agency faces deep funding shortfall, chief warns

Deep funding shortfalls are forcing the UN refugee agency to make significant cuts to its humanitarian operations worldwide, with its chief warning that restructuring cannot indefinitely offset shrinking donor support. Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told the agency's executive committee in Geneva that UNHCR has secured only $3 billion, or 35%, of the $8.5 billion it requires for 2026.

The shortfall follows aid cuts by countries including the United States under President Donald Trump, occurring at a time of record global displacement. Funding for next year remains uncertain, though an expected figure of around $2.68 billion could improve after a UNHCR donor pledging conference in December, Grandi said.

UNHCR has launched one of its largest restructurings in its history due to the budget squeeze. Grandi stated that the agency's workforce has been reduced since 2024 from 20,000 employees to just under 12,000. "Protection has a floor. Below it, the system does not simply become smaller. The protection we can provide begins to fail," he said.

Grandi cautioned that restructuring could not compensate indefinitely for lower funding and that the crisis was already having tangible consequences for refugees and humanitarian partners. He added, "There is a difference between doing more with less and being asked to do the impossible."

The agency is seeking to preserve frontline operations by cutting jobs at its Geneva headquarters and worldwide regional offices, with 88% of staff remaining outside headquarters. About 95% of staff doing protection work, such as registering refugees and providing legal assistance, have been retained in field locations.

Several programmes are under threat. In Chad, insufficient funding risks disrupting specialized medical care and legal assistance for over 50,000 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who fled Sudan. In Ethiopia, refugee registration has been suspended for tens of thousands of refugees from South Sudan and Eritrea. Colombia has raised concerns on behalf of Latin American countries, stating their region is disproportionately impacted. The Americas face a budget reduction of 32% in 2027 compared to this year, or about $485 million, the largest budget reduction of any region, while the number of forcibly displaced and stateless people in the Americas is projected to increase by 4% to about 24.5 million people in 2027.