Additional Context: This information was collected by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, from a survey conducted with 17 humanitarian actors at the regional and field level. Funding reductions have particularly affected core data systems and staff capacity in the region, which OCHA deems to be "collapsing or operating at minimal levels" due to these cuts. As a result, many agencies have adapted by reducing frequency and depth of primary data collection efforts, as well as scaling back human resource capacities. Reliance on secondary data collection, such as via media monitoring, and data from partners on the ground outside established systems has thus increased.

An example noted in the source is the case of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, which was forced to analyze secondary media sources remotely to monitor human rights violations during the 2025 and 2026 election periods in Central and West Africa instead of deploying on-the-ground data collection teams.

Devex Researcher Note: Although not listed in the source document, the U.S. enacted major cuts to the agencies supporting the data systems mentioned — including the International Organization for Migration's, or IOM, Displacement Tracking Matrix, the World Food Programme's, or WFP, Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping, among others. In the case of IOM, U.S. operational contributions declined by $795 million between 2024 and 2025, accounting for about 86.3% of its total reported funding decrease. U.S. contributions to the WFP more than halved, from $4.45 billion in 2024 to $2.06 billion in 2025, making up 74% of its total funding decrease over this period, which forced WFP offices to "cut down on costly surveys." The U.S. had also been the largest donor to the OHCHR in 2024 at $36 million before retreating from donorship entirely in 2025 onwards.

Source: OCHA