The United Nations is asking member states for $33 billion to help people in need of humanitarian assistance around the globe, the organization’s most modest ask in the past half-decade amid member state budget constraints and a lack of US funding.

In its annual assessment of global humanitarian needs released Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found it would take more than $30 billion to provide for millions in need of aid. The last time they asked for less than $33 billion was in 2019.

The money OCHA needs would come from voluntary contributions beyond what each member state has to pay the UN every year. But of the $45 billion that requested in last year’s report, the organization only got $12 billion — the lowest in a decade.

ALSO READ: UN food agency warns of deepening hunger crisis as funding falls short

“I’m trying to be realistic here about what would be a stretch goal for us to get in the current funding conditions,” UN Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher told reporters said, responding to a reporter’s question on why this year’s goal is so much lower than the previous one.

“Do I want to shame the world into responding? Absolutely. But I also want to channel this sense of determination and anger that we have as humanitarians, that we will carry on delivering with what we get.”

The organization is now prioritizing $23 billion for “the most urgent, prioritized, life-saving work,” Fletcher said, adding that “it is a heartbreaking report to share.”

He listed crises worldwide his organization is tackling, including famines in Gaza and Sudan, disease outbreaks and funding cuts to a number of essential programs.

READ MORE: WFP: Funding shortages may halt global child malnutrition programs

Some 240 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection, the UN assessment found, with conflict and climate change driving the biggest threats to communities. But as new crises emerge and the old ones get worse, funding is not only scarce but also stretched.

The lower limit of what OCHA is asking for is significantly lower than last year’s request, as the entire UN and its subsidiaries grapple with a financial crisis driven largely by a lack of US support.

The White House stopped paying the UN what it contractually owes when President Donald Trump began his second term, and so far the US has only paid about half of its $1.4 billion in dues to the peacekeeping department for 2025, according to the UN.