NEW YORK, United States — The United States has announced sweeping changes to how it will finance United Nations humanitarian operations worldwide.
The policy shift is expected to significantly affect countries hosting large UN aid programmes, including Kenya.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, December 30, by the US Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mike Waltz.
This was after the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Geneva between the US Department of State and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“Today, the State Department and the United Nations signed a groundbreaking agreement to overhaul how the US funds and oversees UN humanitarian programs,” Waltz said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Washington will abandon the long-standing model of funding hundreds of individual, project-based grants administered separately by UN agencies.
Instead, US humanitarian assistance will be channelled through consolidated, flexible pooled funds managed by OCHA at the country or crisis level.
US officials said the shift follows concerns over efficiency and oversight as American voluntary contributions to UN humanitarian agencies have risen sharply in recent years, reaching an estimated USD 8 billion annually, equivalent to about Sh1 trillion.
“While annual US contributions to the UN have skyrocketed in recent years, many UN bodies have abandoned their mission,” the State Department said, citing what it termed “bureaucratic inefficiencies, duplication, and ideological creep” within the UN system.
Under the new framework, pooled funds will operate under comprehensive country-level policy agreements designed to align humanitarian spending with US priorities.
Washington said it would place particular emphasis on what it called “hyper-prioritised life-saving activities,” including food assistance, emergency healthcare, and the protection of vulnerable populations.
Kenya is among the countries expected to be directly impacted by the changes, given its role as a regional hub for UN humanitarian operations linked to drought response, refugee assistance, and instability in neighbouring countries such as Somalia and South Sudan.
Before the MoU, US humanitarian assistance in Kenya was largely delivered through a project-by-project grant system.
Funding for drought response or refugee support, for example, would be negotiated separately with agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN refugee agency UNHCR, and UNICEF.
Aid analysts have long argued that this approach often resulted in multiple UN agencies operating in the same areas with overlapping mandates, raising costs and complicating coordination on the ground.
The new MoU replaces that structure with country-level pooled funding administered by OCHA, allowing resources allocated to Kenya to be distributed more flexibly across agencies and sectors depending on evolving needs.
According to the State Department, the revamped funding model is intended to “nearly double the life-saving impact of each US dollar spent” on UN-administered humanitarian aid while significantly cutting indirect and administrative costs.
US officials estimate that the increased efficiency and tighter prioritisation could save American taxpayers up to USD 1.9 billion, or about Sh245 billion, compared with previous funding mechanisms.
As part of the agreement, Washington has pledged an initial USD 2 billion (about Sh258 billion) to support life-saving humanitarian assistance in dozens of countries in 2026 under the new model.
UN officials welcomed the agreement, saying it offers a more predictable and accountable funding framework at a time of mounting global humanitarian needs.
“At a moment of immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is a humanitarian superpower,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.
