This Advocacy Resource Pack has been developed by the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action to support members in advocating for child protection amid funding cuts, shifting priorities, and humanitarian reform. It is a live document and regularly updated to reflect the evolving context. The information provided is based upon ongoing analysis of the situation and critical information shared by our members and partners. For more information contact: advocacywg@alliancecpha.org and elspeth.chapman@alliancecpha.org.
We’ll keep updating this Advocacy Resource Pack, so check for the 🆕 label to stay up to date.
Contents
- 🆕 Updates
- Impact of Funding Cuts on Child Protection
- Advocacy Recommendations
- 🆕 Guidance on Advocacy and Next Steps
- 🆕 Useful Resources
Updates
Humanitarian Sector Reform
ICVA has set up a webpage dedicated to the Humanitarian Reset: The IASC Humanitarian Reset examined - ICVA. This webpage aims to support NGOs - particularly practitioners, coordination leads, and policy staff - in understanding and engaging with the Reset, and to encourage informed, strategic participation in shaping a more accountable, efficient, and inclusive humanitarian system.
🆕 Cluster Simplification Process
The final proposal on the Cluster Simplification from the co-chairs of the IASC Operational Policy and Advocacy Group (OPAG) is due imminently after Position Summaries from each of the four workstreams were submitted mid-April and a first draft circulated.
The first draft can be found here. Once final it will be shared with IASC Principals for input.
Information from previous versions of the resource pack, including the focus of each of the four workstreams, can be found here.
Colleagues from NGOs and the AoRs joined the workstreams to feed in suggestions on the new process and fed back on the initial draft proposal along various channels.
🆕 The Global Call to Action Field Implementation (CAFI) Network - a coalition of over 200 women-led organizations working on the frontlines of crisis response – shared an open letter addressed to the ERC Tom Fletcher, outlining concerns and proposals in response to the structural changes being considered regarding the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) and the PSEA group within the humanitarian coordination architecture. The letter expressed deep concern that the merger of the GBV AoR into the Protection Cluster, and the absorption of the PSEA group into other components of the architecture across countries, would seriously undermine vital structures that have saved lives on the ground.
Working Group 1, focused on Localisation and a People-centred Approach, conducted a survey to LNA cluster members globally. The survey was filled out by 1,046 LNA representatives in 41 countries. The report sets out points on:
- Community Engagement: Establish Community-Led Humanitarian Hubs. These decentralised, locally-led coordination hubs will include representatives from affected communities, marginalised groups, and civil society that lead on needs assessments, response, and feedback.
- Local Leadership: Humanitarian response that is led by LNAs as decision-makers and direct implementers, with enforced targets and tracking. A minimum of 50% of seats on the HCT (and other decision-making bodies) should be held by LNAs.
- Data Driven: Create and fund multi-sectoral data collection platforms that inform the response and enable two-way accountability to the affected communities. Multi-sectoral community-led Needs assessments and feedback mechanisms should be multi-sectoral and community-led.
- Ring-Fenced Funding: More direct funding should be ring-fenced for LNAs with increased flexibility. All (100%) of Regional and Country-based Pooled Funding (CBPF) should go exclusively and directly to LNAs, including the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) fund, which should be made accessible to the LNAs.
🆕 Broader Funding Impacts
🆕 SCHR Briefing Note on the Humanitarian Aid Reset, it summarises key themes from extensive reading and over 100 conversations with humanitarian experts and leaders between January and May 2025 (including local actors, the UN, INGOs, and donors, as well as feedback from affected people). The note highlights 6 key themes:
- The Reset must be more than the ERC Fletcher’s 10-point plan – Real change will be driven mostly by other processes, so policy must consider actions by INGOs, UN Agencies, donors, the Grand Bargain, refugee compacts, and the UN80 process if it is to meaningfully address steep funding cuts.
- Build Political Support – To rebuild meaningful scale, humanitarians must show the real human cost of recent donor policies and promote existing, affordable solutions to prevent mass suffering and death.
- Shift Power and Resources – Operational decision-making should be locally-led, while still valuing the role of large cross border resource transfers, major INGOs, the Red Cross, and UN agencies to meet large-scale needs.
- Open Data – Make much more humanitarian data public and usable for all stakeholders.
- Cost Effective Shared Services – Avoid monopolies to encourage innovation and transparency in how shared services are sourced and used.
- Plan for Exit – Incentivise earlier exit strategies whenever possible.
ICVA has released a report (Lives on the Line: The human impact of US Foreign Aid Shifts) providing a snapshot of the immediate consequences and emerging trends resulting from the shifts in US foreign aid policy.
The OCHA HQ Strategic Communications Branch released key messages for all HCs, emphasising life-saving aid to those in urgent need as a priority. On the Humanitarian Reset, the letter underscores prioritising ‘ruthlessly’, remaining independent, neutral, and impartial, leading a radical drive to deliver more effectively and efficiently and finding new partners, including genuine partnership with the private sector.
OCHA, in collaboration with IOM, UNHCR and ICVA, carried out a second survey on the impact of US grants’ terminations to which the results were released on 28 April 2025. Explore the results of the survey here:
Key Findings:
- The second round of the global survey highlights major consequences for humanitarian action around the world due to US terminations of awards. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents who previously received US funding reported having received a termination. Only 33% of these terminations had been rescinded by 21 March.
- The US cuts are part of a broader shrinking of humanitarian funding. Over 29% of survey respondents reported cuts/reductions from other donors.
- These cuts are having devastating consequences for people in crisis, including women and girls—at least 79 million people will no longer be targeted for assistance by respondents to the survey. Almost 76% of respondents that had received US termination notices reported that this resulted in a reduction of delivery of life-saving assistance for women and girls.
- The funding cuts have caused a major contraction of humanitarian operations. Respondents reported the termination of at least 12,000 staff contracts and at least 22 responding organizations indicated that they had to completely close or shut down in the relevant country. NNGO respondents reported the highest proportion of terminations received, with higher rates for Women-Led and Refugee Led Organizations, as compared to INGOs and UN entities.
Some helpful additional analysis of the results of survey is available on LinkedIn.
🆕 Upcoming Events
UNHCR will be holding a briefing and Q&A session on Sustainable Responses dedicated to representatives of NGOs and Civil Society Organizations working in response to forced displacement. The session will be held on 12 June, register here.
On 12 June, the Education in Emergencies Hub will launch its 2025 flagship report: “Acting Ahead to Protect Education Investments – Why the need for proactive approaches to crises is more urgent than ever”. Register here for the launch event (held in person in Geneva and online).
A global webinar will be held on June 13, 2025 to introduce the Measurement Framework for Implementing the Centrality of Protection, which supports the IASC CoP benchmarks (developed by the IASC Centrality of Protection Task Force) and is already being used in some contexts (though not yet formally endorsed). The webinar will explain the framework’s content, target audience, and relevance to measuring interagency benchmarks and protection outcomes. Register here. The framework itself is available here. An in-person workshop will also be held in Geneva on June 23–24, aimed at global-level technical advisors. For more information, contact jlenz@interaction.org.
This Advocacy Resource Pack includes the latest updates. All past updates can be found here.
Impact of Funding Cuts on Child Protection
In March and April 2025, the Alliance conducted a data gathering exercise to understand the impact of global humanitarian funding cuts on children and their protection in humanitarian crises. Over 250 child protection practitioners from across 55 countries responded to a survey, with additional insights gathered through interviews and data shared by five leading child protection agencies. The findings are stark: funding cuts are having devastating and far-reaching consequences for children across humanitarian contexts.
Children are directly impacted by the funding cuts
Funding cuts have resulted in the suspension of critical child protection interventions for children. The five agencies that participated in the interviews report 1.1 million children across more than 23 countries are directly impacted by cuts - with evidence of the true extent of the compounding impacts on children likely to take time to emerge. In the most severe cases, children are being left without care, in detention without protection and legal support, subjected to child marriage or sexual exploitation, and even face the risk of death—such as children experiencing suicidal ideation or those threatened by so-called honour killings.
“The frequency of field visits has been reduced, meaning some children in need of case management were not assisted in a timely manner, especially in cases of rape, which sometimes exceeded 72 or even 120 hours. As a result, these children were immediately exposed to STIs and at risk of early and unintended pregnancies.” INGO
Child protection interventions have been hit hard across the globe at all levels of humanitarian response
Eighty percent of survey respondents report that funding cuts have significantly or very significantly affected children’s protection, with the most serious consequences felt at the sub-national and national level. Local and national NGOs are being hit the hardest—over half of respondents from these organisations report losing more than 40% of their child protection budgets. International actors are also seeing major reductions: one INGO reported losing 36% of its direct and pipeline child protection portfolio across 20 humanitarian responses, while another cited a 25% loss in its global child protection portfolio.
“The lack of funding in the child protection component has had a negative impact on the lives and rights of children. Due to the recurring armed conflicts in the East of the DRC, several children have been forced to join armed groups. Handling legal cases involving children in conflict with the law is difficult without financial support, and reintegration and rehabilitation processes are also difficult to envisage due to this precariousness.” National NGO, Democratic Republic of Congo
Child protection staffing and capacity are rapidly shrinking, with severe impacts on agencies’ ability to meet the Child Protection Minimum Standards
Seventy percent of organisations have reduced frontline staff; 62% have cut capacity-strengthening; and 52% have lost technical advisors. One INGO terminated 233 staff globally, while another cut its team by 79% in one context. This is leading to the collapse of case management services, interruptions in support for survivors of abuse, and halted outreach to vulnerable communities. In Ukraine, caseworkers can no longer visit families. In Ethiopia, entire districts have lost child protection coverage. In Colombia, cuts come amid surging child recruitment and armed violence. These staffing reductions also severely weaken the monitoring of grave violations of children in armed conflict and accountability mechanisms.
“Staff cuts have resulted in fewer trainings on child protection and psychosocial support. In addition, technical advisors who previously helped develop and expand these programs are no longer available. These changes have significantly limited the support and protection we can provide to vulnerable children”. INGO, Ukraine
“We have separated children who are survivors of human rights violations registered under case management, case plans made, but case workers have been sent home as a result of the funding freeze.” INGO, Cameroon
Budget cuts across sectors are compounding risks to children’s protection and well-being
Cuts across all sectors are reducing access to basic needs and essential services, and compounding children’s exposure to protection risks. The most significant knock-on effects are reported in protection, education, GBV and health. Cuts across multiple sectoral programmes, many of which previously included specific child protection elements, are no longer operating, leaving children vulnerable to harm such as exploitation, trafficking, and child recruitment. The loss of these services and support across sectors compounds the challenges families face in crisis settings, further diminishing their capacity to cope.
"Funding cuts […] to support education in emergency, child protection in schools and community, as well as MHPSS for refugee and returnee children, and host community among children and adolescents fleeing conflict in Sudan into South Sudan have left many out of school; [exposed them] to sexual harassment; GBV; early marriages; child labour etc.” INGO, South Sudan
“Youth Empowerment Program activities were stopped preventing adolescents and young adults to have access to sustainable income generating businesses that could improve their protective environment”. INGO, Mali
The full report, advocacy key messages, and communications tools are available to support your ongoing work and engagement with donors, governments, and humanitarian leadership.
📝 Briefing Note in English. The Spanish version will be available in due course.
📢 Communications Pack. Please get in touch with advocacywg@alliancecpha.org should you wish to access the design files to change the language of the content.
We strongly encourage you to circulate this briefing widely within your networks to raise the profile and spotlight of the impact of the cuts on child protection.
Additional Quotes from the Survey
“The contract of community service workers (CSW) deployed at conflict affected woredas (districts) with high number of child protection concerns at IDP sites for (Child Protection) case management is discontinued and case management totally interrupted at 48 districts in Amhara regional state Ethiopia.” UN Agency, Ethiopia
“With reduced funding, shelters and outreach programs that provide food, education, and reintegration support for street children may be forced to shut down or limit their services. A 12-year-old boy, previously rescued from the streets and placed in a transitional shelter, is now back on the streets because the shelter was forced to close due to lack of funds. Without food or protection, he is vulnerable to trafficking and forced labor.” Ethiopia
“Because of the USAID funding freeze, my case management and PSS team cannot go to the field. They offered the clients (including parents and children) to work online/via phone call, but many of them refused due to privacy concerns… Many children do not have access to a phone or internet to continue the work with our staff—which is very concerning because in our context, stress inflicted on children is on the rise.” INGO, Ukraine
“Disruption of food aid has led to girls being more susceptible to gender-based violence and sexual exploitation.” Research Institution, Kenya
"Women (are) being impacted by not receiving the require response to GBV and ultimately children get impacted" UN Agency
“Several children now have to take part in partial employment to support their caregivers and parents to meet the family's needs. They have been forced to work in farms in the host community, as domestic servants in homes, and this implies that many are at risk of dropping out of school and experiencing other protection risks, such as sexual violence.” UN agency, Uganda
Advocacy Recommendations
Prioritise Child Protection in Humanitarian Response
- Advocate for child protection as a core component of humanitarian action.
- Secure funding for critical child protection services; where funding is unavailable, ensure ethical programme closures, especially for case management and alternative care.
- Strengthen collaboration between child protection and education to sustain protective environments for children. Access to safe and quality education for children in all their diversity remains one of the most effective, protective interventions for children in crises.
Uphold Humanitarian Standards and Principles
- Ensure adherence to the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) to prevent harm from inadequate services.
- Maintain safe access to hard-to-reach populations at high risk.
Ensure Child Protection Remains Central in Humanitarian Reform
- Safeguard child protection expertise in cluster system reforms.
- Retain dedicated coordination capacity for specialised protection areas like Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence.
- Reinforce protection as the core objective of humanitarian response, particularly amid funding cuts.
- Strengthen child protection mainstreaming across sectors and preserve funding for standalone child protection programmes.
Strategic Advocacy Actions
- Engage with Country Offices, Child Protection Coordinators, and Humanitarian Country Teams to elevate child protection in response prioritisation.
- Strengthen collaboration between advocacy, programming, and operations—especially in Education and GBV—to assess risks, share impacts, and coordinate responses.
- Align messaging and efforts across sectors, AoRs, and clusters for unified advocacy.
- Coordinate with partner INGOs and local actors to sustain interventions, their visibility, and uphold Child Protection Minimum Standards.
- Prioritise creating a stronger evidence base for CPHA interventions through prioritising quality programming and use of existing tools.
- Use evidence-based messaging when engaging with governments and donors to highlight the life-saving nature of child protection.
Further Key Messages on the essential and life-saving nature of child protection to support engagement with donors and with senior humanitarian leadership including HCs and HCTs can be found here.
Guidance on Advocacy and Next Steps
Advocacy Plan
The Alliance has drafted an initial advocacy plan outlining priority objectives, strategic approach and potential priority actions to take to implement them. The document can be accessed here with topline objectives set out below.
Objectives:
- Child protection is prioritised by key agencies, Alliance members and humanitarian leadership.
- Organisations stand firm against potential roll back of humanitarian principles and standards.
- The centrality of children and their protection is central to efforts to reform the humanitarian architecture.
Useful Resources
Alliance Advocacy Messages
External Resources
🆕 SCHR Briefing Note on the Humanitarian Aid Reset: It summarises key themes from extensive reading and over 100 conversations with humanitarian experts and leaders between January and May 2025 (including local actors, the UN, INGOs, and donors, as well as feedback from affected people). It aims to help SCHR members navigate a complex and fast-moving sector dialogue. While not an official SCHR position, it highlights strategic areas for policy, advocacy, and humanitarian diplomacy.
🆕 ICVA published a report on Understanding and influencing the IASC system at country level, providing an overview of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) coordination system at the country level, focusing on how NGOs can engage effectively. The report offers several recommendations:
- Organisations should strengthen their commitment to coordination and ensure staff are trained and knowledgeable.
- Coordination structures should reflect shared leadership and apply the Principles of Partnership.
- The in-country coordination architecture should be transparent, updated, and regularly reviewed.
- NGOs should actively participate in NGO fora and coordination platforms to enhance their influence at national and subnational levels.
🆕 What is the Humanitarian Reset?
🆕 UN launches reform initiative as it nears its 80th anniversary and faces funding cuts | AP News
NRC - Recommendations for interagency coordination (4 March)
A more comprehensive list of publications and resources can be found in this compilation here.
Credits:
© The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action