Shoko Noda, UNDP's crisis bureau director, visited Suttan Village in Nangarhar, which was badly affected by the August earthquake. During her visit, she met families who lost their homes and livelihoods and saw UNDP’s recovery work on the ground. (UNDP)

UNDP’s Shoko Noda: As humanitarian operations shrink, development falters. With foreign aid drying up, UNDP’s crisis bureau director Shoko Noda calls for earlier development action and closer cooperation with Geneva’s humanitarian actors.

📉BUDGET CRISIS. This year’s downward donor spiral may have begun (link: This year’s downward donor spiral may have begun before, but when young Musk devotees began disassembling USAid and other technical organisations, Geneva organisations knew it wouldn’t be long before impacts would be felt.

Across the board – in Geneva and in the field – agencies and NGOs directly and indirectly funded by the US and other major donors were redefining their work. Even organisations that had prided themselves on their financial independence admitted struggling to deliver the desired impact.

Reform drive. Earlier reform plans within the UN and beyond were accelerated, including within the World Health Organization, where countries meeting at its annual gathering agreed to step up contributions to make its funding less reliant on major donors.

However, as the UN80’s reform task force got to work, some warned that member states were not taking the crisis with enough gravitas and that the liquidity crisis would continue for the foreseeable future.

No more business as usual. Staff at many of the organisations rummaged for clarity about the future of their jobs, or what it would mean to lose them. The Swiss government stepped in to try to curtail losses.

🌍TESTING 1-2-3. Just as the US retracted from multilateralism in Geneva, insiders hailed achievements without them. The pandemic treaty was adopted despite Washington’s absence, though a controversial annexe on pathogen access and benefit sharing remains unresolved.

Trump’s tariff diplomacy, meanwhile, not only challenged the UN’s own diplomatic peacemaking muscle but also tested the World Trade Organization’s ability to endure as it celebrated its 30 years of existence.

Host town. As a stage for international talks, Geneva did appear to maintain the US’s attention, arranging for meetings here with Chinese counterparts in June over tariffs, and two months later to advance discussions with warring parties in Sudan.

🇵🇸GAZA QUAGMIRE. From the Swiss government booting the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation from its Old Town office, to humanitarian organisations pressing for aid access in the strip and human rights experts – minus rights commissioner Volker Türk – calling Israel’s policy there a genocide, Geneva kept the region in focus.

– By Paula Dupraz-Dobias