The United Nations and its partners have launched the Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 (GHO), appealing for $23 billion to provide life-saving aid support to 87 million of the world’s most vulnerable.
The figure is a painful admission of the global aid crisis, being sharply downsized from the full need of $33 billion required to assist 135 million people across 50 countries.
The downsized appeal and critical needs:
The decision to focus the immediate appeal on $23 billion stems directly from historically low donor funding; the 2025 appeal received only $12 billion, the lowest total in a decade. This shortfall meant aid groups reached 25 million fewer people than intended, with immediate consequences including surging hunger, broken health systems, and the slashing of essential protection programs for women and girls.
UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher described the move as an “excruciating life-and-death choice,” necessary to ensure critical aid support is directed to those facing the most immediate threat from conflicts, climate disasters, and famines.
Key findings: where the $23 billion aid must go:
The GHO 2026 outlines 29 detailed plans, with the bulk of the immediate prioritized funding targeting specific, devastating crises:
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT): $4.1 billion is the largest single appeal, needed to reach some three million people, primarily in Gaza, where the population remains overwhelmingly dependent on aid amidst unparalleled death and destruction.
Sudan Crisis: $2.9 billion is required within the country to assist 20 million people caught in the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Refugee Response: $2.0 billion is needed for the seven million Sudanese refugees and migrants who have fled to neighboring nations.
Syria Region: $2.8 billion is the largest of the regional plans, targeting 8.6 million people affected by the ongoing, protracted crisis.
Afghanistan: $1.7 billion is requested following a year marked by historic drought, earthquakes, and deep structural vulnerability.
UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher did not mince words regarding the severity of the crisis:
“We are overstretched, underfunded, and under attack. And we drive the ambulance towards the fire… But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we’re being shot at.”
Consequences of inaction:
The United Nations and its partners launched the Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 (GHO), appealing for a prioritized $23 billion to provide life-saving support to 87 million of the world’s most vulnerable people, a figure sharply downsized from the full needs amid a severe funding crisis.
The GHO warns that the continued decline in funding not only cuts essential services but also leads to increased violence against aid workers. The previous year saw a record number of aid workers killed, a chilling reflection of humanitarian systems being “overstretched, underfunded, and under attack,” according to UN officials.
The UN report highlights a moral and economic failure, noting that the $23 billion appeal is only a fraction—around one percent—of the global military expenditure from the previous year. The document urges the global community to recognize that the cost of inaction, in terms of human lives lost and regional instability, far outweighs the cost of the requested aid.
At a glance:
| Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 GHO 2026 |
| Primary document: The Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 (GHO 2026). |
| The downsized figure: $23 billion, highly prioritized to save 87 million |
| The Full Need: $33 billion needed to help 135 million |
| The funding crisis: Funding for the 2025 appeal reached a decade-low of $12 billion, causing aid groups to reach 25 million fewer people than in 2024. |
