The United States has announced major changes to how it will fund United Nations humanitarian activities, marking a significant shift in its approach. These changes are expected to affect several countries, including Kenya.
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| PHOTO: USAID Kenya |
On Tuesday, December 30, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, announced the changes, which come from a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Geneva between the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
In a statement, Waltz said, “Today, the State Department and the United Nations signed a groundbreaking agreement to overhaul how the U.S. funds and oversees UN humanitarian programs.”
Officials have described this as a “new paradigm” for funding UN humanitarian aid globally.
Under this new agreement, the U.S. will stop funding many individual, project-based grants.
Instead, humanitarian help will be provided through pooled funds managed by OCHA at the country or crisis level, allowing for more flexible and coordinated support.
According to U.S. officials, American voluntary donations to UN humanitarian agencies have increased significantly in recent years, reaching an estimated Ksh 1 trillion (USD 8 billion) annually.
However, concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of these programs.
The State Department said in its statement, “While annual U.S. contributions to the UN have skyrocketed in recent years, many UN bodies have abandoned their mission.”
This is due to what it calls “bureaucratic inefficiencies, duplication, and ideological creep.”
Going forward, the pooled funds will operate under a country-level policy agreement that aligns with U.S. priorities.
These priorities include “hyper-prioritised life-saving activities” such as food assistance, emergency health care, and protection for vulnerable groups.
Kenya is among the countries affected by this change, as it hosts many UN humanitarian operations related to drought relief, refugee support, and regional instability.
Before the new MoU, U.S. humanitarian support in Kenya was mostly delivered through a project-by-project grant system.
For example, funding for drought relief would be negotiated and managed separately with agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP), UNHCR, and UNICEF, among others.
One major issue with this system was that multiple UN agencies often worked in the same areas with overlapping responsibilities.
The new MoU will replace this system with a country-level pooled funding mechanism, managed by OCHA.
This change will allow resources for Kenya to be distributed more flexibly among agencies and sectors.
According to the State Department, the new funding model aims to “nearly double the life-saving impact of each U.S. dollar spent” on UN-led humanitarian aid while significantly reducing indirect costs.
U.S. officials now estimate that the improved efficiency and focused prioritization could potentially save American taxpayers KSh245 billion (USD1.9 billion) compared to previous funding models.
As part of this agreement, the U.S. has pledged an initial Ksh258 billion (USD2 billion) to fund life-saving humanitarian assistance in dozens of countries in 2026.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said, “At a moment of immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is a humanitarian superpower.”
He added, “It shifts U.S. funding of UN humanitarian work onto clearly defined, accountable, efficient, and hyper-prioritized funding mechanisms.”
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