Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization suspends projects after U.S. stops $300 million a year in funding.
ROME — Aid projects in crisis-hit countries from Afghanistan to the Horn of Africa have been suspended and staffing cut after President Donald Trump froze hundreds of millions in annual U.S. funding to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, according to internal FAO documents and employees who spoke to POLITICO.
The cuts are expected to deepen food insecurity in multiple regions already suffering from climate shocks, conflict and economic instability, aid experts warn. Halting the FAO’s agricultural support could have long-term consequences, making vulnerable communities even more dependent on emergency food aid.
“All project activities should be suspended with immediate effect,” reads a Jan. 31 internal FAO memo seen by POLITICO.
The guidance instructs staff to halt new financial commitments and suspend activities funded by the U.S. government. As a result, FAO field offices have already begun cutting contracts, freezing recruitment and delaying key agricultural and food security programs, according to people familiar with the situation.
The cuts — part of a broader freeze on aid administered through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department — mirror moves already hitting other U.N. agencies like the World Food Programme, which has seen office closures and drastic ration reductions worldwide.
“This isn’t just an FAO problem — every single humanitarian agency is affected in some way,” said one field worker. “It’s catastrophic. The U.S. is one of the biggest donors, contributing tens of billions annually. If that money disappears overnight, there’s not a single aid group that won’t feel it. In places like Afghanistan and Sudan, there’s simply no one else delivering aid at this scale. That means millions could fall back into crisis-level hunger.”
Silent crisis
The Rome-based agency, which oversees global food security and agriculture, received $307 million from the U.S. last year — around 14 percent of its budget, according to figures shared with POLITICO. Much of the funding supports emergency and resilience programs in places such as Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia, where millions face acute food insecurity due to war, climate disasters and economic instability.
While the cuts at the WFP, which could result in billions of dollars in lost funding, have made headlines — including the closure of its southern Africa office in Johannesburg and halving of rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh — the FAO’s challenges have played out more quietly.
The two agencies often act together — the FAO provides technical assistance, policy support and promotes agricultural practices to help farmers grow food, whereas the WFP distributes food in times of crisis. While the WFP’s high-profile emergency work draws public attention, the FAO’s behind-the-scenes role in policy and agricultural support tends to keep it out of the spotlight.
At the same time, insiders say the FAO leadership has actively discouraged staff from discussing the current crisis.
The internal FAO guidance instructs country offices to “cease all external communication” about U.S.-funded programs. Multiple FAO employees, both at headquarters in Rome and in field locations, declined to speak on the record, citing fears of reprisal.
Some FAO staff privately attribute the organization’s strict no-comment policy to “top-down pressure” from Director General Qu Dongyu, a Chinese national elected in 2019.
Western diplomats fault Qu for running the FAO in a way that mirrors Beijing’s centralized style of governance, reinforcing China’s influence in global food policy. He has drawn criticism for failing to take a strong stand on global food crises, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent shockwaves through international grain markets.
While the FAO’s financial crisis stems from the U.S. funding freeze, insiders say Qu’s tight leadership style has made it harder for staff to navigate the crisis.
“There’s a sense we can’t openly criticize or risk being blacklisted,” said one FAO staff member, who like others in this story spoke on condition of anonymity. “No one wants to set off alarm bells with HQ, and that’s only intensified during this crisis.”
In a statement to POLITICO, the FAO said it was still assessing the impact of the U.S. cuts but warned of consequences.
“We are conducting a careful, project-by-project analysis to evaluate any possible impacts and identify appropriate mitigation measures across our emergency and development efforts, while maintaining our commitment to supporting food security worldwide,” an FAO spokesperson said.
Domino effect
The FAO is just one casualty of the wider collapse in U.S. foreign aid. The Trump administration has already shut down 83 percent of USAID programs, canceling 5,200 contracts, laying off thousands of aid workers. The agency, which previously disbursed the bulk of the U.S.’s $60 billion foreign assistance budget, is now being folded into the State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the U.S. was shifting away from multilateral aid programs that “did not serve our core national interests.”
The day-to-day impact of the U.S. funding freeze is already being felt across FAO offices and other humanitarian agencies. Staff are scrambling to restructure budgets, pause fieldwork and reassess long-term projects as uncertainty spreads.
“There’s a huge volume of workload right now, and people are exhausted,” said a second FAO field worker based in one crisis-affected country. “We’re being told to ‘wait and see’ — but no one really knows if funding will return or if entire programs will be scrapped.”
In practical terms, that means essential projects — from seed distribution and agricultural training to rural infrastructure support — are either delayed or suspended outright.
“Basically every single USAID project globally has had their stop work orders, meaning that contracts are paused, deliveries are halted, staff are being terminated and sent home,” said another FAO field worker.
FAO employees say job losses could be in the hundreds, and potentially exceed 1,000, depending on how long the freeze lasts. While some layoffs have already begun, others fear deeper cuts in the coming months.
Bartosz Brzeziński reported from Brussels. Hannah Roberts reported from Rome.
