New York, NY, September 22, 2025 — As world leaders convene in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) urges bold action to ensure reforms to the multilateral system deliver effective, transformative solutions for those facing conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crisis. As the United Nations turns 80, the gap between its founding mission and today’s realities is growing wider. The multilateral system is faltering under the weight of political gridlock and funding shortfalls, as the world faces record levels of conflict —undermining the UN’s capacity to respond to the very crises it was created to prevent. Meanwhile, humanitarian appeals faced a $25 billion funding gap in 2024, and with major donors slashing budgets, that gap is only set to widen.
David Miliband, President and CEO of the IRC, said: “The General Assembly meets at a time when famine has been confirmed in Gaza and Sudan. The attacks around the world on principled humanitarian aid delivery are severely undermining the ability to meet needs, conflict resolution efforts under the auspices of the UN have been sidelined and the UN Security Council remains paralyzed.
While political solutions to conflict are urgently needed to see long-lasting outcomes for communities in crisis, civil society organizations like the IRC, have shown there are interventions that can be leveraged at scale now to deliver support to those in need, even as conflict rages. A new era for aid is urgently needed—defined not just by how much funding is raised, but by where it is spent, what it is spent on, how it is delivered, and how it is financed. This will require political will to deliver real outcomes for affected communities, and commitment to transformational change.”
- Aid must be directed to countries facing the highest risks from conflict, climate shocks, and debt distress, guided by clear and data-driven vulnerability assessments. NGOs and Civil Society have continued to deliver and to provide innovative and cost-efficient solutions in the most difficult contexts, even while multilateral systems remain gridlocked. While the current system for treating acute malnutrition is bifurcated between two separate UN agencies, in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, the IRC is treating acute malnutrition at the community level using a simplified, integrated protocol that cuts treatment costs by up to 30%- meaning thousands, if not millions, more children could be reached with the same resources.
- Foreign aid funding must prioritize proven, cost-effective, transformative interventions, where the UN can play a key convening and galvanizing role from the public to the private sector. The IRC’s REACH project, in partnership with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has delivered over 19 million vaccine doses to zero and under-immunized children in the hardest-to-reach areas in East Africa through a localized approach that works with, not around, conflict dynamics. The Pfizer Foundation, for example, has helped this partnership expand immunization programs to some of the hardest-to-reach areas of Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The GAVI model is a prime example of how civil society, anchored by the UN’s convening power, can deliver life-saving interventions at scale in communities mired in worsening humanitarian crisis.
- Direct aid to the frontline. Supporting local response should be at the center of efforts to drive efficiency and cost effectiveness. Locally delivered response is more targeted and tailored to the needs of affected communities, and often cheaper. To fully harness the contribution of local responders, donors and the wider humanitarian sector must catalyse progress toward an aid system centered on locally-led systems change that achieves durable outcomes for people impacted by crises and lays the basis for sustainable development.
As the international community gathers for UNGA, the IRC urges leaders to chart a path forward that meets the moment—not with symbolic reform, but with real change grounded in evidence, equity, and ambition.