OCHA to slash staff by 20% amid funding crisis

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 12th Apr, 2025) , 12th , 2025 (WAM) – The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will cut 20% of its staff as it faces a shortfall of $60 , U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has told staff after OCHA's largest donor - the - cut funding.

"OCHA currently has a workforce of around 2,600 staff in over 60 countries. The funding shortfall means we are looking to regroup to an organisation of around 2,100 staff in fewer locations," Fletcher wrote in a note to staff on Friday. In the letter to staff, he didn't say which country was responsible for the cuts that led to the funding crisis at OCHA, but he indicated it was the .



OCHA works to mobilise aid, information, support aid efforts, and advocate for those in need during a crisis. It relies heavily on voluntary contributions. “The humanitarian community was already underfunded, overstretched and literally, under .

Now, we face a wave of brutal cuts,” Fletcher wrote, emphasising that the reductions stem financial constraints rather than diminished needs. "The U.S.

alone has been the largest humanitarian donor for decades, and the biggest contributor to OCHA's programme ," Fletcher said, noting that its annual contribution of $63 would have accounted for 20% of OCHA's extrabudgetary resources in 2025..