{"id":10485,"date":"2025-05-09T10:42:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T10:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/?p=10485"},"modified":"2025-05-12T13:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:24:47","slug":"the-humanitarian-funding-crisis-a-looming-health-catastrophe-for-refugees-and-their-host-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/the-humanitarian-funding-crisis-a-looming-health-catastrophe-for-refugees-and-their-host-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"The humanitarian funding crisis: a looming health catastrophe for refugees and their host communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Allen Gidraf Kahindo Maina, Chief of Public Health Section, Division of Resilience and Solutions, UNHCR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1430558_DSC03418-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1430558_DSC03418-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1430558_DSC03418-1-980x551.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1430558_DSC03418-1-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1200px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>A health volunteer assists newly arrived Congolese refugees at Kabazana Reception Centre, Uganda, where a spike in new arrivals fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo is straining services amid global funding cuts, as the country \u2013 Africa\u2019s largest refugee host \u2013 also supports over 70,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing war.<\/em> \u00a9 UNHCR\/Yonna Tukundane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A silent emergency is brewing. Without immediate and sustained investment, <strong>an estimated 12.8 million refugees\u2014among them 6.3 million children\u2014face the terrifying prospect of being stripped of life-saving health services in 2025<\/strong>. This unfolding crisis stems from a precipitous decline in humanitarian aid, compounded by diminishing health expenditures in host countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reverberations are profound. It is not only the refugees whose lives hang in the balance, but also the host communities\u2014many of whom are living on the margins of survival themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/campaigns\/world-health-day\/2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">World Health Day (2025)<\/a>, the urgency of this crisis was underscored through the launch of a global campaign to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths. The risks are especially high in contexts of forced displacement, where women and girls face barriers to even the most basic healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-dd82332f46e4d079b84de3a3310f4d13\" style=\"color:#0072bc\"><strong>UNHCR&#8217;s response:  progress amid precarity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite relentless challenges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/media\/annual-public-health-global-review-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">UNHCR\u2019s 2024 Annual Public Health Global Review<\/a> &nbsp;highlights resilience and progress. Crude mortality rates declined, and <strong>over 15 million health consultations were facilitated across 63 countries<\/strong>, with nearly 8.7 million tracked through the integrated Refugee Health Information System (iRHIS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, beneath these encouraging figures lie deeply concerning realities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Acute malnutrition continues to afflict 1 in 10 refugee children.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Children under five accounted for nearly a third of all reported deaths<\/strong>, many of which could have been averted through low-cost interventions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mental, neurological, and substance use conditions now account for 3% of all consultations<\/strong>\u2014a sharp rise, underscoring the psychological toll of displacement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Maternal health remains a concern. While skilled birth attendance held steady at 93%, there was also a <strong>relative increase in maternal mortality reported<\/strong>, a stark reminder that progress is fragile and uneven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report also underscores the resilience shown in addressing the needs of Sudanese refugees, such as the provision of multi-layered mental health support\u2014including initiatives led by refugee-led organizations\u2014in a situation where only 30% of the required funding for the Sudanese refugee response in Chad was secured in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Importantly, UNHCR has worked in lockstep with governments, development actors, private sector and partners to uphold universal health coverage principles by supporting<strong> refugee inclusion in national health systems<\/strong>, guided by its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/media\/unhcr-global-public-health-strategy-2021-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Public Health Strategy (2021-2025)<\/a>. Key achievements highlighted in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/media\/annual-public-health-global-review-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2024 overview<\/a> include the handover of camp-based health services to national authorities in Iraq, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/ke\/23197-refugee-inclusion-is-key-to-new-danish-partnership-in-turkana-county.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">integration of refugee health professionals into Kenya\u2019s national nursing training programme<\/a>, and the enrolment of over 93,000 refugees into Cameroon\u2019s national health insurance scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-11\/UNHCR-WB-global-cost-of-refugee-inclusion-in-host-country-health-systems.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">joint report by World Bank and UNHCR<\/a> demonstrated <strong>the low financial cost of refugee inclusion in national health systems, particularly in low-income countries. <\/strong>Investments to build national health system capacity would benefit host communities as well, enhancing healthcare access and supporting better care for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this vision is under threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-78a05935a110fd60daa4b37568c3adc5\" style=\"color:#0072bc\"><strong>2025: the year of uncertainty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current funding crisis is severely affecting public health and nutrition programs for refugees and host communities. Vital services are being disrupted or dismantled entirely. The fallout is swift and unforgiving:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Disease outbreaks are rising.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Maternal and newborn care is deteriorating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mental health support is eroding.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Treatment for chronic illnesses will be interrupted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This systemic unraveling burdens already overstretched local health systems, <strong>pushing clinics and hospitals to the brink<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-f4db628551e7da93a9613dc9d7bd1dfc\" style=\"color:#0072bc\"><strong>Country snapshots: health on the brink<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Bangladesh: <\/strong>Home to nearly a million Rohingya refugees, the stakes are critical. More than 40,000 pregnant women are at risk of losing antenatal care, while 19,000 acutely malnourished children may be denied life-saving treatment. Up to 200,000 people may lose access to mental health services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Democratic Republic of the Congo: <\/strong>A staggering 87% cut to the 2025 health budget has pushed the healthcare system toward collapse. Clinics are overwhelmed, medicine stocks are depleting, and referrals for urgent care are no longer guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Egypt: <\/strong>All non-emergency medical services for refugees have been suspended. Treatment for chronic diseases, planned surgeries, and essential medications\u2014now out of reach for at least 20,000 patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jordan: <\/strong>43,000 refugees risk losing access to primary health care and health-related financial support in urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mozambique: <\/strong>Last year, a UNHCR-supported clinic delivered over 80,000 consultations. This year, with a 50% funding cut, that support is evaporating\u2014threatening both refugee and host populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>South Sudan:<\/strong>&nbsp;A major funding cut has crippled refugee health services in South Sudan, closing&nbsp;health facilities, reducing&nbsp;the remaining health workforce by 50%, and leaving 40,000 people with limited&nbsp;health&nbsp;care even as more refugees arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1426993_0L3A8817-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1426993_0L3A8817-3.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1426993_0L3A8817-3-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1426993_0L3A8817-3-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1200px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Funding cuts threaten lives and health of refugees who fled Sudan. Mohamed, 2, who suffers from anaemia, is seen by a doctor at a Refuge Egypt clinic, a UNHCR Egypt partner, in March 2025. \u00a9 UNHCR\/Pedro Costa Gomes<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1438259_Bangladesh_Nijman-05-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1438259_Bangladesh_Nijman-05-5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1438259_Bangladesh_Nijman-05-5-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1438259_Bangladesh_Nijman-05-5-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1200px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>In Bangladesh, UNHCR supported a cholera vaccination campaign in early 2025 in response to the rising number of positive cases. Community health volunteers went from shelter to shelter in the Rohingya refugee camps to administer the vaccine. \u00a9 UNHCR\/Shari Nijman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-52de31317d73ec5f71eb2a19f31e0025\" style=\"color:#0072bc\"><strong>A crisis beyond numbers, and a call to action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The funding crisis is not just a financial issue; it is a <strong>matter of life and death<\/strong> for millions of displaced individuals and their host communities. Every day that this financial uncertainty persists, the health and well-being of countless men, women, and children are increasingly jeopardized. The ripple effects of inadequate funding go beyond individual suffering, <strong>threatening the stability and resilience of entire communities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Immediate financial support is crucial to prevent the collapse of health-care systems in refugee settings and to ensure that displaced people and host communities receive the life-saving health interventions they desperately need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-37ff63fe687c559928ee418eda9212e7\" style=\"color:#0072bc\"><strong>What\u2019s needed now is diversified, sustained, and coordinated funding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are needed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Restore essential health and nutrition services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support the transition to national-led health service provision.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reinforce host country health systems to support inclusive care.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prevent a full-scale health catastrophe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lives are not numbers. They are our shared responsibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1345471_P4191580-2-edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1345471_P4191580-2-edited-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1345471_P4191580-2-edited-2-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2025\/05\/RF1345471_P4191580-2-edited-2-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1200px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This mother is among more than 6,000 Sudanese refugees who fled escalating violence in Darfur and crossed into Chad in April 2024, where\u00a0the Chadian government,\u00a0UNHCR\u00a0and\u00a0partners are providing lifesaving support and protection. \u00a9 UNHCR\/Ying Hu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The current funding crisis is hitting public health and nutrition programmes hard, disrupting or dismantling vital services for refugees and host communities. The impact extends beyond individual hardship, undermining the stability and resilience of entire communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":385,"featured_media":10575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"[]","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[507,31],"tags":[641,639],"class_list":["post-10485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-and-evidence","category-health","tag-health","tag-refugee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10485"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10817,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10485\/revisions\/10817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}