The head of the UN Refugee Agency warned staff on Thursday that he is preparing to implement a “significant reduction in the size of our workforce,” noting that there is “important work that we simply cannot afford to continue.” The 75-year-old UNHCR is contemplating cuts of as many as 5,000 to 6,000 workers, according to a separate United Nations official.
“Let me be frank,” Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, wrote in an email to staff, which was seen by Devex. “There is no doubt that the next few months will be very difficult. We have no choice but to take decisive action which will leave no part of our organization or our work untouched. Refugees will be impacted. Our operations will be impacted. Many colleagues will be impacted.”
Grandi did not specify the number of job losses, but he made it clear that dramatic cuts are primarily the result of “financial uncertainty” wrought by the U.S. foreign aid freeze. The thinning of staff, he insisted, was neither an exercise in “strategic reform” nor part of a “carefully managed transformation and modernization process.” The cost-cutting measures are necessary to address a “financial reality that has been imposed on us, and the humanitarian sector more broadly,” he wrote.
About the author
Colum Lynch
Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post. Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.
