Additional Context: The damage to the humanitarian sector’s ability to track and monitor global food crises has been an underreported aspect of the U.S. aid cuts. Each year, bodies like the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWSNET, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, track emerging food crises around the world, helping direct resources to those who need them most. These systems are underpinned by data collected by the WFP based on interviews with over a million survey respondents across the world. But WFP’s data collection efforts have been severely impacted by the cuts.

Fewer surveys, smaller samples, and entire geographies going unmonitored mean that the warning signs of hunger may go unseen.

Devex Researcher Note: Though the blog post references aid cuts broadly, in 2025, the U.S. cut about $3 billion from its WFP contributions. That represented roughly 31% of WFP's prior-year operating budget and 93% of the WFP's funding shortfalls. The remaining nearly 7% of the overall decline came from other donors like the United Kingdom and European Union scaling back support.

Source: CGD