Is concern for others declining across the world?

In his 1981–1982 lectures at the Collège de France, published under the title The Hermeneutics of the Subject, Michel Foucault devotes extensive discussion to epimeleia heautou, the care of the self. For Foucault, this care does not mean withdrawing into oneself, but rather a form of work through which the subject transforms their way of being, thinking and acting.

This relationship to oneself does not develop outside one’s relationship with others. Once what one recognises as essential for oneself — protection, dignity, the very possibility of living — is also recognised as having value for others, care of the self necessarily encounters care for others.

It is precisely at this point of connection that humanitarian data now give the issue concrete significance. Needs remain considerable even as some international funding is declining. In other words, at a time when the vulnerability of others remains both widespread and visible, the resources made available to address it are, in a number of cases, diminishing.

Food aid confronted with falling funding

The Global Report on Food Crises 2026 estimates that in 2025 around 266 million people in 47 countries and territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity. The number of people facing acute hunger has doubled in ten years, and ten countries account for roughly two-thirds of those affected.

In Sudan, around 19.5 million people face acute food insecurity and about 135,000 face catastrophic conditions. More than 825,000 children under five could suffer severe acute malnutrition in 2026. The World Food Programme indicated that it needed $579 million for its operations through October.

More and more people away from home

UNHCR data show a spectacular long-term rise in forced displacement: 38.54 million people in 2011, 51.23 million in 2013, 65.03 million in 2015, 78.38 million in 2019, 107.22 million in 2022 and 123.25 million in 2024. The total fell to 117.83 million in 2025, still far above the level at the beginning of the previous decade.

At the same time, UNHCR resources fell by $1.246 billion in 2025. The organisation covered only 37 per cent of its financial needs, compared with 48 per cent in 2024.

Official aid is falling

In 2025, official development assistance from OECD Development Assistance Committee members and associates amounted to $174.3 billion, a fall of 23.1 per cent in real terms. Twenty-six of the thirty-four providers concerned reduced their aid. Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and France accounted for 95.7 per cent of the total decrease.

Humanitarian aid from DAC members fell by 35.8 per cent. For 2026, the OECD projects a further 6.9 per cent fall in ODA and an 11.6 per cent reduction in bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa. Food aid may have fallen by 44.5 per cent between 2024 and 2026, while core contributions to the United Nations fell by 27 per cent in 2025. These figures cover different periods and should not be added together.

Changing priorities

The expression ‘aid fatigue’ can make the phenomenon sound almost psychological. States, however, do not tire as individuals do. Governments prepare budgets, parliaments vote on expenditure and priorities are shifted.

The OECD notes that if donor countries had simply maintained their 2025 ODA-to-GNI ratio in 2026, aid would have risen by 1.4 per cent. Known budgets instead point to a projected fall of 6.9 per cent. The decline therefore also reflects public decisions.

The other has not disappeared

The decline in public aid does not mean that every flow of resources towards low- and middle-income countries is collapsing. Migrant remittances to these countries rose from around $465 billion in 2017 to $685 billion in 2024. In that year they exceeded foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined.

Twelve public providers outside the DAC also reported $13.3 billion in aid in 2025, and eight of the thirty-four DAC providers maintained or increased their effort. Multilateral banks also proved more resilient.

Not all suffering reaches us in the same way

A crisis lasting several years does not necessarily retain the same visibility. Journalists’ access, available images, a country’s place in international relations and the existence of other crises influence the attention it receives. Humanitarian funding, meanwhile, relies heavily on voluntary contributions.

There can therefore be a gap between the intensity of suffering and its presence in the international public sphere.

The figures and their limits

No statistical series directly measures concern for others. The figures measure budgets, displacement, transfers, food needs or funding. They nevertheless show that, at a time when needs remain very high, a significant share of the international public resources devoted to them is declining.

Recognising another person as a fellow human being does not, however, settle the question of relations between states. After the Second World War, part of the answer took the form of what we came to call aid. But does concern for others necessarily require us to make the other person someone whom we help?

Should we help ‘poor’ countries?