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| Photo Credit: Kashim Shettima — Vise President |
As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, Nigeria is pushing for a shift away from recurrent humanitarian assistance toward stronger national systems for poverty reduction, protection, and resilience.
This comes against the backdrop of roughly $7.83 billion in humanitarian funding recorded for Nigeria over 13 years. Despite that support, millions of Nigerians still face hunger, poverty, displacement, and the effects of prolonged crises.
The Federal Government is expected to present its emerging humanitarian and poverty-reduction agenda at a high-level UNGA side event under the theme “Beyond Assistance: Reducing Poverty, Advancing Protection and Building Shared Prosperity.” The event will focus on linking humanitarian response with social protection, recovery, and economic inclusion.
One Humanitarian One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS)
At the heart of Nigeria’s new approach is the One Humanitarian One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS). This government reform aims to strengthen coordination between humanitarian response, social protection, poverty reduction, and economic inclusion.
The Federal Government says the system will address fragmentation and duplication by linking identification, needs assessment, targeted intervention, protection, empowerment, and poverty eradication within a unified national architecture.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Bernard Doro has stated that the goal is to move beyond interventions that only help vulnerable households survive individual shocks.
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The aim is systems that help people recover, build resilience, and become progressively self-reliant.
The transition occurs amid declining international financing, persistent food insecurity, displacement, and poverty.
Humanitarian Funding Falls 67% from 2017 Peak
An analysis of funding records from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Financial Tracking Service (FTS), together with Nigeria’s Humanitarian Response Plans for 2014 to 2026, shows about $7.83 billion recorded as humanitarian funding for the country during the period.
This figure represents financing reported through OCHA’s FTS. It does not mean $7.83 billion was paid directly into government coffers. FTS tracks contributions from governments, UN agencies, NGOs, pooled funds, and other actors, along with requirements and gaps linked to response plans.
Nigeria’s humanitarian response plans identified about $10.51 billion in requirements for the same period, leaving a difference of roughly $2.68 billion.
This gap should not be read as an audited national deficit: response plans are planning and resource-mobilisation tools. Funding can also flow outside individual plans, and needs change during implementation.
More significantly, the data show a sharp contraction in recent years. Funding rose from $70.6 million in 2014 to $158.4 million in 2015, $471.2 million in 2016, and a peak of $979.3 million in 2017.
It remained relatively high afterward: $936.3 million (2018), $777.1 million (2019), $806.7 million (2020), $815.7 million (2021), and $862.9 million (2022).
The trend reversed in 2023 ($642.1 million), 2024 ($619 million), and 2025 ($324.3 million). Recorded funding recovered slightly to about $367 million in 2026 but remains roughly 62% below the 2017 peak. From the 2017 high of $979.3 million to $324.3 million in 2025, funding declined by approximately 67%.
Nigeria’s aid response has relied heavily on international donors, including the United States, European Union, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Domestic humanitarian spending has also faced constraints. Doro told the Senate in February that only N2.265 billion of the N30 billion appropriated for the ministry’s 2025 capital projects had been released, covering 15 of 60 projects. The ministry recorded 19.39% overall budget performance in 2024.
Under a more government-led model, effectiveness will depend on domestic resource availability, timely releases, monitoring, and delivery to people affected by hunger, conflict, and displacement.
Funding Squeeze Leaves Millions Facing Hunger and Displacement
The funding pressure coincides with persistent needs. The Food and Agriculture Organisation projected that 34.7 million Nigerians would face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity by mid-2026, including more than 5.4 million acutely malnourished children.
In the conflict-affected North-East, the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan identified 5.9 million people in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states requiring assistance. The plan sought $516.4 million to prioritise 2.5 million people with the most acute needs. OCHA figures indicated a funding gap of about $157.5 million at the time of reporting.
Displacement remains a major driver. The International Organisation for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix recorded 2,333,190 internally displaced persons in the six North-East states in its Round 51 assessment in 2025. In the North-Central and North-West, another 1,311,026 IDPs were identified across 10 states as of February 2026, with most living in host communities rather than camps.
The World Food Programme sharply reduced emergency assistance in the North-East after funding was exhausted. In July it reported it could support fewer than half of the 1.3 million people assisted the previous year in the three North-East states, while 6.2 million people in the area faced food insecurity.
These pressures prompted the Federal Government to begin repositioning for greater responsibility. In July, the government and its UN and development partners launched a humanitarian transition process aimed at a nationally led, sustainable coordination system. Greater responsibility for planning, coordination, and financing is transferring to national institutions, with continued UN technical support.
Nigeria is taking this argument to UNGA, advocating a model in which humanitarian assistance serves as a bridge to recovery, resilience, and economic inclusion rather than an end in itself.
The government has also highlighted domestic efforts. Doro said in August that more than N600 billion in cash transfers had been disbursed to vulnerable Nigerians over three years, reaching slightly more than 10 million households. This followed the unveiling of the $1 billion Household Prosperity and Economic Social Protection Project (HOPE-SP), intended to strengthen social protection and move households from temporary assistance toward sustainable opportunities.
International support continues, though at reduced levels. The European Union committed an initial €33 million in humanitarian assistance for 2026.
Germany announced €10 million ($11.4 million) for the return and reintegration of people displaced by Boko Haram and Islamic State-linked militants. UK aid is projected to fall by about 50%, from £136.62 million in 2025–26 to £68 million by 2028–29. The United States has scaled back and restructured assistance, though it later approved $32.5 million through the World Food Programme for more than 764,000 people.
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Experts Urge Focus on Root Causes
Armsfree Ajanaku, Executive Director of the Grassroots Centre for Rights and Civic Orientation, told The Guardian that humanitarian assistance should not be expected to resolve the structural problems behind recurring emergencies.
“Humanitarian aid is not meant to solve your most fundamental problems. It is only a reaction to the symptoms,” he said. Aid can provide food, cash, or healthcare but does not by itself fix weaknesses in education, infrastructure, electricity, employment, or the business environment. He urged greater investment in underlying issues rather than waiting for international help in every crisis.
Auwal Rafsanjani, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), warned against treating foreign support as a substitute for Nigeria’s responsibility to protect vulnerable citizens. International assistance should complement domestic resources. Nigeria has the human and natural resources to finance more of its own programmes if public resources are managed properly. He pointed to corruption, weak leadership, and poor accountability as factors that amplify the apparent importance of relatively small external interventions.
Weak Coordination Blamed for Gaps
Former Director-General of the National Senior Citizens Centre Dr Emem Omokaro attributed rising needs partly to weak coordination between social-protection and humanitarian institutions. She questioned whether agencies with statutory responsibilities for social development are sufficiently involved and noted that data on older persons (about 4.2 million poor and vulnerable as of December 2024 according to NASSCO) had been shared for targeted interventions but received no response.
Questions Over Tinubu’s Absence from UNGA
The Obidient Movement has demanded an explanation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remaining in Europe instead of attending the 81st UNGA. Former UN Special Representative Prof Babafemi Badejo described repeated absences from the high-level segment as a minus for Nigeria’s international relations. The Presidency stated that Tinubu is on an extended working vacation and that Vice President Kashim Shettima is representing Nigeria. The President is expected to return at the weekend.
Calls for African Representation on the Security Council
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman renewed calls for greater African representation on the Security Council, arguing that the continent’s exclusion from permanent membership undermines the body’s credibility. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also called for a more representative multilateral system.
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