Which multilaterals are hit most by USAID terminations?

As Devex digs deeper into the list of terminated USAID awards, we now take a deep dive into its effect on the multilateral system. In total, we identified 17 multilateral agencies affected by the award terminations. Among them are 14 named U.N. agencies. But three awards — two to the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is part of the U.N. Secretariat, and one to the United Nations Mine Action Service, which is under the Department of Peace Operations — were simply tagged as “United Nations.” The two remaining organizations are Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or IBRD. In order to calculate the impact, we looked at total allocated funding, which includes both “obligated” and “unobligated” tranches. Obligated funding has been legally committed already, but it remains important to track because, in many cases, all of the funding may not yet have been spent. Unobligated funding represents all the money that might still be committed over the future of an award — it’s not an annual figure, and it’s also not guaranteed that all that money will in fact be spent. The 17 multilateral organizations’ cumulative loss — calculated as the sum of all unobligated amounts across terminated contracts — amounted to nearly $4.1 billion. That’s on top of any money that might have been obligated but not yet spent. This figure is likely to represent multiyear funding, most of which extends beyond 2025. And while many of the multilaterals lost their entire remaining funding for all their existing awards from USAID, others, such as IBRD, retained several. Devex will investigate this further in the coming days. Unlike their for-profit and nonprofit counterparts, some funding to multilaterals is legally mandated. Many U.N. agencies get their funding both through assessed contributions — a mandatory contribution to the U.N.’s core operating expenses and peacekeeping operations determined by the donor country’s capacity to pay — and voluntary contributions. However, it appears that these contributions are not addressed in the document shared with Congress. Meanwhile, several multilateral agencies rely largely or wholly on awards for the delivery of specific programs or services. Some of these included in the list are the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for Project Services, or UNOPS — also on the list — earns all its revenue from service provisions. The World Bank concessional loans branch, IBRD, is mostly spared. Most of the terminated awards to IBRD are either allocations to trust funds or grants to certain programs. However, there is still uncertainty around the revenue streams from other U.S. government agencies to the World Bank and other multilaterals. Absent from the list is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The U.S. had committed $13.4 billion to fund the organization from 2017 to 2027 through USAID. All of that funding has already been obligated, although not all has been paid. The U.S. government makes this funding in yearly disbursements, and around $2 billion is understood to still be pending to be paid by the U.S. government. Lastly, our analysis excluded some multilaterals that are listed as having received awards, but where all of those awards had been fully obligated before termination. Examples of this include the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and UN-Habitat. Only three multilateral organizations have remaining unobligated amounts: the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. 1. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Number of terminated awards: Two Total terminated funding (unobligated): $1.75 billion Percent obligated before termination: 73.6% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A Gavi took the biggest hit among multilaterals in cash terms, with nearly $1.8 billion of unobligated funding now terminated. This came from USAID’s $2.6 billion initial total award for 2021 to 2030. Another $4 billion for COVAX was included in the terminated contracts. Its entire value already obligated, which again doesn’t necessarily mean it has all been disbursed or paid, although COVAX was shut down in 2023. Unlike other multilaterals, the list of active awards did not include Gavi. 2. World Health Organization Number of terminated awards: 24 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $995.7 million Percent obligated before termination: 42.7% Remaining active awards: One Remaining active (unobligated): Zero Remaining active (obligated): $13,600,000 The U.N.’s lead global public health organization lost nearly $1 billion from 24 terminated awards. This includes around $781.4 million unobligated funding for WHO’s polio immunization program. WHO keeps just one award, which has already been fully obligated and is worth $13.6 million, for its health emergencies program. 3. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Number of terminated awards: 15 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $436.8 million Percent obligated before termination: 72.5% Remaining active awards: Two Remaining active (unobligated): Zero Remaining active (obligated): $28.4 billion As previously mentioned, IBRD’s terminated awards were mostly contributions to trust funds. This includes $372.5 million of unobligated funding to the Global Partnership for Education, which is supposed to receive financing until 2026. The U.S. government retained two IBRD awards, with the entire funding already obligated: $27.5 billion to Ukraine and $868.5 million to the CGIAR trust fund, which provides grants to agricultural research. 4. UNAIDS Number of terminated awards: One Total terminated funding (unobligated): $237.5 million Percent obligated before termination: 52.5% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A USAID already obligated more than half of the award’s total estimated cost to UNAIDS, but the remaining $237.5 million has now been canceled. The document only mentioned “UNAIDS IV” but likely refers to voluntary contribution for nonspecific purposes. 5. International Organization for Migration Number of terminated awards: 53 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $155 million Percent obligated before termination: 78.8% Remaining active awards: 18 Remaining active (unobligated): $40.5 million Remaining active (obligated): $206.2 million Seeing the highest number of terminated awards, IOM loses $155 million in award cancellations. Among IOM’s terminated awards is a $41.5 million unobligated funding that would have supported conflict prevention in Colombia, $20.2 million unobligated funding for the West Africa Coastal States Stability Mechanism, and $20.2 million to support Haitian migrants. About 18 awards that will provide shelters and settlements in several conflict-affected countries, such as Sudan, were spared. 6. United Nations Development Programme Number of terminated awards: 38 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $120.7 million Percent obligated before termination: 84.0% Remaining active awards: 4 Remaining active (unobligated): Zero Remaining active (obligated): $29.5 million While UNDP is the multilateral with the second-most awards being terminated, it has one of the lowest unobligated funding rates, next to WFP and the United Nations Population Fund. More than a third of UNDP’s remaining unobligated funding, worth $43.8 million, would have supported a stabilization project in Iraq. All of UNDP’s remaining active awards were already obligated. This includes $11.5 million to provide security coordination service in the Gaza Strip and $11 million to support women’s organizations in Ukraine. 7. Food and Agriculture Organization Number of terminated awards: 27 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $114.5 million Percent obligated before termination: 76.4% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A FAO’s funding from USAID has been slashed, including $84.1 million in unobligated funding of the $250 million grant to support FAO’s work on global health security and agrifood systems. 8. United Nations Office for Project Services Number of terminated awards: Seven Total terminated funding (unobligated): $89.7 million Percent obligated before termination: 43.8% Remaining active awards: One Remaining active (unobligated): Zero Remaining active (obligated): $275,000 Although the document listed that UNOPS has seven terminated contracts, a closer look revealed that only three have potential remaining unobligated funding, which still represents over half of the total estimated value of those awards: $55 million support to several social services projects of the government of Jordan, $17.7 million for the development of Global Partnership Assistive Technologies, and $17 million contribution to improve assistive technology such as wheelchairs and hearing aids. 9. United Nations Children’s Fund Number of terminated awards: 36 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $65.8 million Percent obligated before termination: 85.4% Remaining active awards: 41 Remaining active (unobligated): $108.5 million Remaining active (obligated): $830.1 million Less than 15% of UNICEF’s terminated contracts have some unobligated funding remaining. The largest is a $41.7 million unobligated award to Education Cannot Wait, a global fund supporting education initiatives in emergency settings. Although 41 awards were saved from the termination, only two can draw from remaining unobligated funding: $57.9 million for UNICEF’s maternal and newborn health umbrella initiative and $50.5 million for polio immunization. 10. Pan American Health Organization Number of terminated awards: Two Total terminated funding (unobligated): $48 million Percent obligated before termination: 49.9% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A PAHO is the U.N.’s specialized health agency for the Americas. One of its terminated contracts, which supports health resilience, is almost done, with just 3% left to be obligated. The other terminated award with $47.8 million unobligated money would have supported PAHO’s health initiatives in the region, including tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases. 11. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Number of terminated awards: One Total terminated funding (unobligated): $16.9 million Percent obligated before termination: 43.7% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A The terminated award, with $16.9 million unobligated funding, is meant to address conservation crimes as part of UNODC’s Amazon Regional Environment Program. 12. World Food Programme Number of terminated awards: Seven Total terminated funding (unobligated): $15.6 million Percent obligated before termination: 90% Remaining active awards: 142 Remaining active (unobligated): $58.2 million Remaining active (obligated): $5.8 billion Of the seven terminated awards, only three have remaining unobligated funding — two awards with over 70% of the total estimated cost already obligated and one with around 48.9%. All three awards are related to climate. WFP ranks among the organizations that secured a considerable number of large, active awards. 13. United Nations Population Fund Number of terminated awards: 21 Total terminated funding (unobligated): $8.9 million Percent obligated before termination: 94.4% Remaining active awards: Six Remaining active (unobligated): $0 Remaining active (obligated): $77.7 million Only two of UNFPA’s 21 terminated awards have unobligated funding: $5.9 million to support ending violence against women and girls in Egypt and $3 million to support women’s and girls’ health in Somalia. 14. UN Women Number of terminated awards: One Total terminated funding (unobligated): $8.7 million Percent obligated before termination: 71% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A UN Women’s terminated award is meant to provide essential services for women and girls in Afghanistan. 15. International Labour Organization Number of terminated awards: One Total terminated funding (unobligated): $6.3 million Percent obligated before termination: 47.6% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A Almost half of the planned funding for ILO’s “Expanding Workers' Safety in Bangladesh” activity in Bangladesh has been obligated before termination. 16. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Number of terminated awards: Two Total terminated funding (unobligated): $4.5 million Percent obligated before termination: 46.1% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A Only one of OHCHR’s terminated awards has unobligated funding, worth $4.5 million. The description did not specify the purpose, which again suggests that it’s likely a voluntary contribution to the agency’s general budget. 17. United Nations Industrial Development Organization Number of terminated awards: One Total terminated funding (unobligated): $1 million Percent obligated before termination: 87.5% Remaining active awards: Zero Remaining active (unobligated): N/A Remaining active (obligated): N/A UNIDO’s Private Sector Energy Activity program in Pakistan was just 12.5% away from completion before it was terminated. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.