World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts

Foreign aid budgets have been slashed significantly by governments in the United States, Europe, and beyond, raising questions about what humanitarian assistance will look like in practice. Recent and abrupt funding cuts by major donors are already affecting refugee-hosting countries, where resources were strained even before these changes. In this episode of World of Migration, host Lawrence Huang speaks with Micheal Gumisiriza, a program lead based in southwest Uganda for COHERE, an international NGO that works with refugee-led organizations, about how funding cuts by international donors are being felt on the ground—from food assistance and access to essential medicines to education. They discuss what the immediate impacts reveal about the humanitarian system’s capacity under pressure, and what “localization” could realistically mean as humanitarian response efforts adjust to a period of shrinking resources.

You can listen to World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

World of Migration: Humanitarian Assistance in a Time of Deep Foreign Aid Cuts is an episode from Migration Policy Institute Podcasts by Migration Policy Institute.

This episode is 27:48 long.

This episode was published on Jan 9, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Migration Policy Institute Podcasts when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.