The United States announced it will transfer more than $1 billion to UNICEF and the World Food Programme, bypassing the UN's regular budget mechanisms. The State Department said the funds are intended to address global humanitarian needs while reforming what it called the UN's "bloated humanitarian bureaucracy." Israeli media reported the decision Wednesday morning.
The State Department announced the funding package on Wednesday morning, directing over $218 million to UNICEF and over $800 million to the World Food Programme (WFP). The money will support food, healthcare, and sanitation programs across approximately 40 countries, including Ethiopia, Burma, and Ukraine, according to the department's statement as reported by Ynet correspondent Daniel Edelson.
As The Zioneer reported at 07:24, the move comes despite unspecified threats against the UN budget and recent US threats to withdraw from the organization. The State Department described the funding as a tool to "incentivize the system to adopt efficiency, transparency, and accountability," bypassing what it characterized as the UN's "bloated humanitarian bureaucracy."
The announcement follows a broader pattern of US unilateral humanitarian funding: earlier this month, President Trump signed the Secure America Act allocating $64 billion to immigration enforcement, and the administration has been reshaping foreign aid channels to bypass traditional multilateral frameworks. The full list of recipient countries and the mechanism for bypassing UN budget protocols remain under review.
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Source and signal
- Internal intake