What OCHA’s 87 Million Lives Campaign Reveals About the Future of UN Leadership
How the lessons from OCHA’s ambitious fundraising campaign can make a more visible, dynamic, and effective United Nations
Contributed by Global Governance Innovation Network, Stimson Center
Posted 25 June 2026
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Editor's Note: Zoe Bibik is a young expert in the Global Governance Innovation Network. This commentary is part of the GGIN’s Next Generation Experts series, which aims to elevate youth research and writing. Zoe Bibik’s research interests center on peacebuilding and humanitarian action.
At the end of 2025, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) kicked off a campaign to raise enough funding to save 87 million lives in 87 days. Spearheaded by Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary General for OCHA and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, the campaign aimed to raise an ambitious $23 billion from Member States. While it didn’t meet the original funding target, over $10 billion was pledged and donated, a crucial step in getting aid to those impacted by violence, hunger, displacement, and disease. This relief is especially vital given the 23.1% cut in Official Development Assistance between 2024 and 2025.
This campaign demonstrated that active, public-facing leadership and advocacy from a UN department head can raise much-needed funds amid donor-country cutbacks, an approach that other departments and agencies should consider applying. This approach could also help reach new audiences to communicate the purpose, and more importantly, the impact, of the UN.
OCHA’s Global Role
OCHA was established by the General Assembly in 1991. Led by the “Emergency Relief Coordinator,” the department manages emergency relief and humanitarian aid to respond to complex emergencies and natural disasters, and partners with local and international organizations to disburse this aid. OCHA’s annual Global Humanitarian Overview report in 2025 found that 239 million people were faced with life-threatening needs.
Due to the massive humanitarian burden facing the world, combined with global aid reductions and mounting budgetary pressures, OCHA created a hyper-prioritized plan to focus on getting immediate assistance to the most vulnerable 87 million of these 135 million. This plan asks for $23 billion in funding, and thus, a campaign was born, aiming to achieve this target in 87 days, working “life-by-life.”
The Ins & Outs (and Results) of the Campaign
How are billions of dollars raised for the UN at a moment of widespread funding crises? Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher appealed to Member States to contribute directly, attempting to move beyond OCHA’s traditional, country-based funding model. In public communications, OCHA repeatedly returned to the narrative of contextualizing the funding goal against global military spending. By mid-March, U.S. spending on the war with Iran was nearly $1 billion daily, a benchmark OCHA used to re-contextualize the scale of the $23 billion asked by the campaign. OCHA created visibility and accountability around humanitarian needs, asking Member States if they truly value military spending at the expense of other priorities. This builds on the concern voiced by Member States in the Pact for the Future (Action 13) that led to the Secretary-General’s 2025 Report “Rebalancing Military Spending for Sustainable Peace and Development,” reinforcing the report’s findings that rising military expenditure undermines sustainable development and heightens global insecurity.
As of May 2026, $5 billion had been received and another $5.5 billion had been pledged, a total achieved after the U.S. committed an additional $1.8 billion to humanitarian action.While a significant addition toward the $23 billion goal (already impacting more than seven million people), the amount dwarfs in comparison to the nearly $40 billion in ODA cuts the U.S. made in 2025. Between January and April 2026, OCHA reached 14.4 million people with life-saving support across 18 global crises, including food assistance for 6 million people and clean water for 10 million, and the support of nearly 700 health facilities. This represents a significant achievement in a year defined by the shutdown of USAID, weakened foreign aid budgets across donor states, and the liquidity crisis afflicting the greater UN system.
Lessons for the UN System At Large
The key now is for the UN system to take lessons from this campaign and apply them broadly. The UN is often criticized for being slow-moving to the point of gridlock, but OCHA’s campaign shows that visible, politically active leadership from department heads can still mobilize Member States to achieve tangible results and broadly influence narratives, even in an era of donor fatigue and shrinking budgets.
Greater public-facing advocacy could also help broader audiences better understand the purpose and impact of UN institutions. This will require creative, dynamic communications strategies and a deep understanding of the current media environment. While this is certainly a hurdle, a more tangible, positive public identity can help the UN achieve its goals. For example, a poll surveying American opinion on the Sustainable Development Goals showed that once introduced to the SDGs, 76% of Americans resonated with the goals and supported U.S. leadership on achieving them. Increasing awareness of specific UN institutions can also support reform efforts for more transparent governance, outlined in the Pact for the Future, Chapter 38, Sub-Action (a).
OCHA’s campaign suggests that department heads can increase their political capital and financial strength when they actively advocate for their organization’s mission. Several programs with staggering gaps come to mind: the UN Development Programme and the $4 trillion needed for the financing for development agenda today; the UN Environment Programme and the expected $310 billion needed by 2035 for climate adaptation; or even the Department of Political Operations’ current $2 billion funding shortfall for peacekeeping operations.
Of course, this does not mean these agencies are inactive or disengaged. Much of the UN’s most consequential work necessarily happens behind closed doors, and quiet diplomacy remains the cornerstone of multilateral governance, but OCHA’s campaign suggests that public advocacy and behind-the-scenes coordination are not mutually exclusive. Although it would be unrealistic to expect all UN departments to put together a public campaign in the same structure as 87 Million Lives, the general framework of proactive, passionate, internal, and external communication offers a bold model.
Advocating for Multilateralism
OCHA’s 87 Million Lives campaign may not have fully achieved its ambitious funding target in the 87 days, but its significance extends beyond a number. At a moment of skepticism toward multilateralism and shrinking humanitarian budgets, the campaign demonstrated that visible leadership, moral framing, and sustained advocacy can still mobilize political attention and meaningful support. Just as importantly, it showed that the UN does not need to choose between quiet diplomacy and public engagement. In an increasingly interconnected and transparent world, institutions that fail to communicate their value risk becoming invisible to the very people and Member States they depend on. If other UN agencies can adapt even part of OCHA’s approach, they may not only strengthen funding outcomes but also rebuild broader confidence in the relevance of multilateral cooperation itself.
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