FCDO responds strongly to sudden-onset humanitarian crises despite a challenging global picture

• FCDO delivers timely responses to sudden-onset humanitarian crises, with its central humanitarian crisis team supporting 19 sudden-onset crises between late 2021 and 2025.
• Aid budgets have reduced globally, with the UK reducing its aid funding from 0.5% to 0.3% of Gross National Income by 2027. Meanwhile, the UN estimates the number of people requiring urgent humanitarian assistance and protection as a result of crises increased from 168 million in 2020 to 239 million by the end of 2025.
• FCDO must complete a strategic assessment of the resources it needs and address gaps in performance and cost data to maximise the long-term effectiveness and value for money of its responses.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has strong arrangements in place to respond to sudden-onset humanitarian crises and can deliver rapid and effective support. However, as funding is cut and global humanitarian need grows, FCDO must assess its future capability requirements to continue to provide timely humanitarian aid during these crises, a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has found.¹

FCDO is responsible for the UK government's response to humanitarian crises around the world, including conflicts, natural disasters and diseases. FCDO has a history of responding to sudden-onset crises, and its central Humanitarian Crises Response Department (HRCD) supported responses to 19 such crises between late 2021 and 2025.² Its network of 280 posts across 180 countries and territories can manage responses to relatively small-scale crises with limited need for HCRD involvement. FCDO also responds to humanitarian crises through contributions to international organisations and global funds.³

The NAO found that FCDO is currently able to respond to sudden-onset crises in a timely manner, which can be crucial in saving lives and reducing the risk of crises requiring a more costly and lengthy response.⁴ This is despite challenges to delivery, including infrastructure disruptions and and difficulty obtaining information in rapidly evolving contexts. FCDO took a leading role in some crises, such as Hurricane Melissa, and has positively influenced other humanitarian organisations and the wider multilateral system.

The Department aims to continue to prioritise humanitarian crises alongside global health and climate, and plans to spend £1.4 billion a year in places with the highest humanitarian need between 2026-27 and 2028-29.

However, the future success of FCDO's responses to humanitarian crises is made more challenging due to a worsening global context, with conflict and climate shocks causing more frequent and complex crises around the world. The UN estimated that the number of people requiring assistance increased from 168 million in 2020 to 239 million by the end of 2025, showing the humanitarian system is facing increased pressure to deliver.

The UK is reducing its aid budget from 0.5% of Gross National Income to 0.3% by 2027.⁵ Adding further difficulty is the fall in global humanitarian funding, which has dropped from $19.5 billion in 2020 to $16 billion in 2025. In 2025, only 35% of funding needs for United Nations response plans were met, leading to millions of people not receiving the aid they require.⁶

FCDO does not currently adequately capture its performance or costs in responding to sudden-onset humanitarian crises. Although it has recently begun to collect data on several performance indicators, including the number of beneficiaries reached, gaps in data limits its ability to evaluate its overall performance and outcomes for crisis responses. It does not centrally track the full costs of responding to these crises, meaning it cannot evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of its responses.

FCDO also lacks a strategic assessment of the humanitarian capabilities it will need across the organisation in future to deliver rapid, effective responses with reduced funding.⁷ Without addressing these issues, FCDO risks undermining the long-term effectiveness and value for money of its crisis response work.

"FCDO has shown that it can successfully respond to sudden-onset crises in a timely manner, providing much-needed help for those who need it most."

"However, in the context of more and worse disasters and conflicts, the reduction to humanitarian aid funding will provide challenges. To maximise its effectiveness and value for money, FCDO must strengthen its understanding of the capabilities it needs and how it will prioritise its responses in future."

Read the full report

Responding to sudden-onset humanitarian crises

Notes for editors

1. Read the full report on this link from 00:01 on Friday 12th June: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/responding-to-humanitarian-crises/
2. The 19 crises supported between December 2021 and October 2025 were: the Afghanistan crisis (2021), the Tonga volcanic eruption and tsunami (2022), the Ukraine conflict (2022), the Pakistan floods (2022), Cyclone Freddy in Malawi (2023) and in Mozambique (2023), the Turkey-Syria earthquake (2023), the Sudan conflict (2023), the Morocco earthquake (2023), the Libya floods (2023), the Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territories crisis (2023), Hurricane Beryl (affecting Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and the Cayman Islands) (2024), the Israel-Lebanon conflict (2024), the Marburg virus disease outbreak in Rwanda (2024), the Vanuatu earthquake (2024), conflict escalation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2025), the Myanmar earthquake (2025), India-Pakistan escalation (2025) and Hurricane Melissa (Haiti and Jamaica) (2025).
3. For larger crises, FCDO can enter crisis mode, enabling a coordinated response led by the responsible geographic or thematic area, supported by the Crisis Management Department, with HCRD working on the humanitarian part of the response. HCRD also supports posts with medium- to large-scale crises through a range of capabilities. This involves HCRD's own humanitarian expertise and capabilities, including search and rescue and emergency medical response services delivered by its partners, and the Humanitarian Crisis Fund (HCF) which is a fund of last resort for such crises.
4. Timeliness is often critical in responding to sudden-onset humanitarian crises. A timely response can save lives, reduce costs and improve operational performance. For example, procuring relief items before prices rise, and avoiding travel and logistical bottlenecks. Early response can also reduce the risk of emergencies becoming protracted, and reduces the scale, duration and cost of response efforts required later.
5. In 2024, the UK spent £1.5 billion on bilateral humanitarian assistance, an increase of £0.6 billion from 2023, reflecting rising global need. In 2024, FCDO also provided £2.8 billion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding to multilateral organisations, some of which covered humanitarian aid. However, the UK aid budget is due to reduce from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI by 2027, lowering the potential total aid budget to around £9.2 billion compared with £15.4 billion if ODA was retained at 0.5%.
6. The total humanitarian funding requirement is a needs-based estimate produced by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on behalf of the humanitarian community, including the requirements for collective response plans.
7. Whilst FCDO does review its capability requirements for major programme contracts before they are renewed, it has not yet carried out an overall assessment of the humanitarian capabilities required to meet its objectives.