The United Nations has launched a starkly reduced global humanitarian appeal for 2026, warning that international "apathy" and severe funding cuts are forcing impossible life-and-death choices for millions trapped in the world's worst crises. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher unveiled a plan seeking $23 billion to provide life-saving aid to 87 million of the most vulnerable people, a figure that represents only half of the $33 billion the UN believes is needed to assist 135 million people globally.
The scaled-back appeal is a direct response to a catastrophic collapse in donor support. The UN's 2025 global appeal received just $12 billion, the lowest level in a decade, leaving aid agencies unable to reach 25 million people they had aimed to help. This drastic shortfall forced the closure of hundreds of aid organizations and slashed critical programs, even as famines gripped parts of Sudan and Gaza. Fletcher described aid workers as "overstretched, underfunded and under attack," noting that over 380 were killed in 2025, the highest number on record.
Confronted with this reality, the 2026 plan is a "highly prioritised appeal" targeting immediate survival needs. The largest single allocation is for the occupied Palestinian territories, where $4.1 billion is needed to assist three million people. Sudan, home to the world's largest displacement crisis, requires $2.9 billion for 20 million people, while a regional plan for Syria seeks $2.8 billion. The appeal prioritizes 87 million individuals in 50 countries where the shocks of war, climate disasters, and epidemics hit hardest.
At the launch, Fletcher delivered a searing indictment of global inaction, condemning "the ferocity and the intensity of the killing" and a "complete disregard for international law" witnessed in 2025. He lamented a time "when politicians boast of cutting aid" and when public conscience has been "numbed by distraction and corroded by apathy". To bridge the funding gap, Fletcher made a direct comparison to global military spending, arguing that the full $33 billion needed represents "only just over one percent of what the world is spending on arms and defense right now".
Fletcher illustrated the human cost with a harrowing account from Sudan's Darfur region, where he met a young mother who fled ethnic violence in El Fasher. After witnessing the murder of her husband and child, she escaped with a neighbor's malnourished baby, only to be attacked, raped, and left with a broken leg along the journey. "Does anyone... not think that we should be there for her?" Fletcher implored, framing the appeal as a fundamental test of global solidarity.
The UN will now take its appeal to member states over the next 87 days, one day for each million priority lives it aims to save. If government coffers fall short, the campaign will widen to directly appeal to civil society, corporations, and the public, challenging the disinformation that suggests aid is ineffective or misdirected.