The Weekly Pulse

News From Organizations and Coalitions in Advocacy for Children and Young People Globally
Volume 263

February 5, 2026
Quick Summary

​State Department spending bill becomes law: 
  • On February 3, President Trump signed a spending package (H.R. 7148) that includes the bipartisan version of the FY26 State Department and foreign assistance funding bill (H.R. 7006) that was released by appropriators on January 11 (Read more at BBC, The Hill, Politico, and the New York Times.). The bill represents a 16% cut in foreign assistance from what was approved by Congress last year, but provides $3.8 billion more than approved by the House Appropriations Committee in July and $19 billion above President Donald Trump’s budget request, which recommended a 47.7% cut. (See the Spotlight in Issue 260 for details on the legislation and its provisions affecting children and reactions from the sector.) ​
  • While significant questions remain about whether the Trump Administration will implement the law, the spending package represents a positive sign of bipartisan support for US foreign assistance for children. Leila Nimatallah of First Focus Campaign for Children breaks down the funding for children’s programs in the funding bill, noting that while it represents a “hopeful message,” but calls the loss of funding for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programs “devastating.” She said, “Advocates … had pressed appropriators to include bill and report language to reestablish the OVC program at the State Department. Negotiators clearly did yeoman’s work, which resulted in funding far above what the Administration had wanted, but the lack of supportive OVC language, which had for years been included in U.S. foreign aid reports, is nevertheless a huge loss for children. 
  • “The importance of PEPFAR’s OVC work and its protective qualities for children who would otherwise end up orphaned and living on the streets, sick, or dying due to causes associated with HIV, or trafficked into dangerous or dehumanizing situations, cannot be overstated. The Administration’s abrupt termination of these programs left 6.6 million OVC and their caregivers to fend for themselves and caused documented preventable death and suffering. Advocates including First Focus Campaign for Children will continue pushing congressional authorizers to make a different decision and to include OVC the next time they reauthorize PEPFAR, but it is entirely possible that children will once again be left on the cutting room floor.” (See also the First Focus message to Senators urging passage of the funding package.)

UN Children’s Rights Committee Chair says funding cuts undermining mission: Devdiscourse reports that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child opened its 100th session on February 3rd with a warning that the deepening UN liquidity crisis (more below) is undermining its ability to carry out its mandate. 

Ten government ministers announce new global collective on violence against children: On February 3, ten government ministers announced the World Health Organization (WHO) Council of Champions to End Violence Against Children in an op-ed in Al Jazeera. The ministers said that they will demonstrate – and generate – political leadership and “committed to using our political capital to position violence prevention where it belongs: at the centre of national and global health, social development, justice, protection and economic agendas.” They noted the upcoming Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, scheduled for November 2026, which they said “must celebrate success, lock-in progress, elevate expectation and generate concrete commitments, commensurate with the scale of the violence prevention challenge.”

Social media bans for children accelerate: On February 2nd and 3rd, Egypt, Portugal, and Spain joined several other countries (Denmark, France, and the UK) in proposing bans on social media use for children. Austria, Greece, and several Indian states are also reportedly considering social media bans. Australia was the first country to impose such restrictions in late 2025. See also this Atlantic article noting that while the effects of Australia’s ban may take years to assess, “The long experience of governments trying to restrict young people’s access to temptation goods of other kinds—drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, pornography—justifies cautious optimism.”

European organisations call for measures against online sexual abuse of children: Also on February 2, over 100 organizations and individuals issued an open letter urging Members of the European Parliament and Members of the European Council to ‘put children's online safety first and adopt effective, robust legislation to effectively combat sexualised violence against children and sexual exploitation across Europe.’

New Lancet article projects excess deaths from aid cuts: On February 2, The Lancet Global Health published a new study estimating the impact of recent cuts in foreign assistance by the US and other countries on mortality rates. According to the authors, “The forecasting models projected that current funding cuts, followed by severe reductions of ODA to minimal levels, could lead to 22.6 million additional deaths by 2030, including 5.4 million deaths in children younger than 5 years. Even under mild defunding scenarios that simply extend current downward trends, these excess deaths would amount to 9.4 million across all ages and 2.5 million in children younger than 5 years by 2030.” According to Devex, “Even so, the study represents a slightly better picture than the researchers’ initial findings published in July, which found that more than 14 million people could die as a result of cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development alone by 2030.” Rajiv Shah, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation (which helped fund the study) and USAID Administrator for five years under President Barack Obama, told the Washington Post, “It is the dismantling of an architecture that took 80 years to build… The scale of the cuts and the scale of the reduction far outstrips the scale of philanthropy to step in and solve the problem.” Jeremy Konyndyk, President of Refugees International, highlighted the difficulties of understanding the full impact of the cuts because of their impact on data collection, telling CNN, “What we can say with confidence is these cuts are already killing people. The scale of that is still hard to fully compile, in part because the aid cuts themselves have made it harder to do so… Places are not collecting data. We’re flying blind.” Read more from The Independent and the Rockefeller Foundation. See also the February 4 article from the New York Times, “In Afghanistan, a Trail of Hunger and Death Behind U.S. Aid Cuts,” noting levels of child hunger unseen in 25 years and the closure of almost 450 health centers, and the upcoming Women’s Refugee Commission webinar exploring their new report, “A Year of Harms: The Global Impact of Humanitarian Funding Cuts on Women and Girls.” February 10.

UN warns of financial collapse because of unpaid dues: The United Nations Secretary General warned on January 30 that the UN was facing “imminent financial collapse” and would run out of money by July if countries did not pay their annual dues. The United States accounts for about 95 percent of the nearly $2.2 billion owed to the United Nations. Read more at Devex and The New York Times. Better World Campaign analyses the news, noting that while warnings of financial crisis at the UN are not new, “What is different now is the timeline…This is as close as the UN comes to issuing a final warning. Unlike past budget crunches when the UN dipped into savings, there are no remaining reserves to bridge the gap. A shutdown would ripple across diplomacy, peacekeeping, treaty implementation, and humanitarian coordination. Even UN agencies with separate, voluntary budgets (including UN humanitarian agencies like the World Food Programme, UNICEF and UN Refugee Agency) depend on a functioning Secretariat to operate effectively.”

State Department strategic plan: On January 16, the US State Department released its strategic plan for 2026-2030, outlining the agency’s plans for the next five years. As noted by Devex in an article published on January 29, the strategy represents a significant shift in foreign assistance goals and regional focus, channeling “40% of U.S. aid to the Western Hemisphere and East Asia, and ties foreign assistance to security, trade, and loyalty.” The strategy codifies a significant shift away from using assistance to meet humanitarian and economic development goals to promoting American interests first in foreign assistance decision-making. It contains no mention of children. See also a superb analysis of this shift in The Atlantic article, “The Logical End Point of ‘America First’ Foreign Aid.”

Spotlight
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Expansion of Mexico City Policy (“The Global Gag Rule”), Cont.

In last week’s newsletter, we spotlighted the Trump Administration’s January 23rd expansion of the Mexico City Policy (also known as the “Global Gag Rule”) to include a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and “radical gender ideologies,” as well as a dramatic expansion to cover the vast majority of U.S. bilateral global health assistance. In the past week, several news agencies and organizations have published analyses of the serious impacts that the new policy could have on foreign assistance, including for children:
  • Vox reports on the impact of the new policy on women and children, noting, “In low-income countries, many women’s health organizations end up taking on the brunt of not only local family planning, but also reproductive and maternity care, cervical cancer screenings, HIV treatment, children’s health services, and resources for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. When the Mexico City policy disqualifies these groups from receiving funds, it affects all of those services too, leading to spikes in intimate partner violence, nutritional deficits in children, and HIV infections.”
  • KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation and now an independent health policy organization) published an in-depth funding analysis of the new policy, saying, “Whether or not the full extent of the expansion will be instituted (there are likely to be legal challenges to some aspects of the policy, which could limit its reach, and some additional rule-making has yet to occur), it represents a significant expansion in terms of funding, number of organizations, and content and services restricted, well beyond the reach of what was in place during the first Trump administration.”
  • Think Global Health warns that the move “undermines global health,” noting that “In scope, scale, and ambiguity, it represents the most expansive—and potentially disruptive—version of ideological restrictions on foreign aid to date.” They say that the DEI ban, which specifically calls out activities that favor groups based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, raises serious questions about whether programs tailored for specific populations will be permitted: “Decisions about which activities violate this policy would be subjective at best. In practice, it is difficult to envision how public health programs could comply without abandoning core principles of effectiveness. For example, is it permissible for maternal health programs to target pregnant women, given that this involves sex-based targeting? Can refugee programs tailor services by language or nationality? Are faith-based organizations allowed to conduct outreach through religious institutions? Most consequentially, U.S. global health programs—including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—routinely focus outreach on ‘key populations’ at elevated risk, such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, adolescent girls, and young women. These strategies are not ideological; they are driven by epidemiological evidence and cost-effectiveness. Under PHFFA, it is unclear whether such targeted outreach remains allowable.”
  • Doctors Without Borders condemned the expansion, which they said would “cause serious harm to communities in crisis and cut off the most marginalized people from essential and lifesaving health care.” The statement continued,  “These restrictions entrench an approach deployed by the administration last year: using intentionally vague, mischaracterized, and overbroad notions of gender and equity to justify the elimination of funding for vital programming including HIV prevention, gender-affirming care, contraception, community health programs, maternal and child health services, and care for survivors of sexual violence. The policy now attempts to make permanent and enforceable what was carried out through ad hoc program cancellations last year. Organizations worldwide will be put into the impossible position of choosing between accepting ideological restrictions to secure increasingly scare [SIC] funding and providing evidence-based care that meets international medical standards.”
  • Devex unpacks the expansion and its potential effects, noting that “Experts said this rule is the most vague and could be especially difficult to operationalize. It may also conflict with congressional priorities and local laws. Programs such as women, peace, and security initiatives or women’s economic empowerment efforts — which explicitly target women — could arguably run afoul of the rule.” 
  • Reuters reports that the State Department sent a cable on January 29 “to U.S. missions worldwide to review all aid programs to ensure they meet stringent new rules that prohibit funding of groups working on family planning, diversity or what the Trump administration calls ‘gender ideology’... Department bureaus and posts should begin assessing the aid projects they oversee and consider identifying a focal point or forming a ‘tiger team’ to work on the new rules.” Reuters reports that International Crisis Group's Cristal Downing said, "This is an attempt at global social engineering, part of a slash and burn strategy targeting gender equality programming that started with last year’s aid cuts,” she said. “It will affect access to safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence, efforts to increase women’s representation in peacebuilding initiatives, and a host of other work.”
LEARN MORE

EVENTS
  • Women’s Refugee Commission report launch webinar, “A Year of Harms: The Global Impact of Humanitarian Funding Cuts on Women and Girls.” February 10.
  • Children's Rights European Academic Network and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology webinar, “Decolonising Children’s Rights: An Afrocentric Perspective.” February 10.
  • Center for Global Development in-person conference, “Research Workshop on School-Related Violence Prevention and Response.” February 10-11. Washington, DC.
  • Center for Global Development in-person event and webinar, “What Can We Do to Prevent Violence In and Around Schools?” February 10.
  • Brookings webinar, “City solutions for young children and families.” February 10.
  • Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children's Issues virtual side event to ILO Child Labour Conference, “Investing in Decent Work: Financing the Fight Against Child Labor and Forced Labor.” February 10.
  • Kingdom of Morocco and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference, “Sixth Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour.” February 11 to 13. Marrakesh, Morocco. 
  • Center for Global Development webinar, “Aid Cuts: How  Should Major Countries Prioritise? ” February 11.
  • WeProtect Global Alliance webinar, “Global Threat Assessment 2025 webinar series: the prevention framework.” February 12.
  • Van Leer Foundation webinar, “Early Childhood Matters 2026 Launch: Parenthood in a rapidly changing world.” February 12, 19, & 26.
  • Karen Women’s Organization webinar, “Strengthening Futures for Karen Children Amid Conflict: A Funder Briefing with the Karen Women’s Organisation.” February 18.
  • Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children's Issues in-person workshop, "Politics of Youth Workshop." February 20-21. Washington, DC, USA.
  • ODI Global online and in-person event, “Financing in Protracted Crises: Lessons from Education, Health, and Social Protection.” February 25.
  • International Women’s Day 2026. March 8. Theme: Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.
  • UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting. March 9-19. United Nations Headquarters in New York. 
  • Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children's Issues in-person workshop, “Intergenerational Perspectives on Moral Leadership Workshop.” March 13-14. Washington, DC, USA.
  • PMNCH conference, “International Maternal Newborn Health Conference 2026.” March 23-26. Nairobi, Kenya. 
  • United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum. April 14-16. New York, USA.
  • Ariadne European Funders for Social Change and Human Rights annual reconnect conference, April 14-16. Bologna, Italy.
  • Women Deliver 2026 conference, April 27-30. Melbourne, Australia.
  • RightsCon annual conference, May 5-8. Zambia and online.
  • Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), together with the Government of Rwanda, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and the Africa Early Childhood Network conference, “Investing in the Early Years: A Global Technical Financing Forum.” May 6-8. Kigali, Rwanda
  • The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action 2026 Annual Meeting for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action: Child Protection in a Resource-Constrained World. June 8-11. Online. Abstract submission closes 13 February.
  • Eurochild 2026 Conference on Social Protection Systems. June 16–17. Paphos, Cyprus.
  • ISPCAN conference, “Transforming Approaches to Safety and Healing.” August 24-27. Abstract submission open through 31 January. Melbourne, Australia.
  • Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum 2026. October 5-9. Bangkok, Thailand. Abstracts due January 30.
  • Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, November 2026. Manila, Philippines.

​​​Blogs, articles, and statements
  • Global Campaign for Education-US event roundup, “Education at a Crossroads: Renewing U.S. Commitment on the International Day of Education.”
  • Devex opinion article, “Aid cuts for women and girls lead to instability that reaches us all.”
  • Child Rights Information Network blog, “COP30's aftermath: Failure, confusion and hope.”
  • First Focus on Children blog, “RFK Jr.’s Dangerous Decisions Endanger Millions of Young Children Around the World.”
  • The Imprint article, “Children Charged as Adults in Justice System Have Overwhelming Histories of Trauma, Researchers Find.”
  • Just Security article, “‘America Alone’ Runs Counter to U.S. Public’s Preferences for Robust Global Engagement.”
  • Devex article, “USDA takes over Food for Peace with $452M World Food Programme deal.”
  • Bond article, “One year on from Trump’s USAID freeze, the sector faces a changed global aid landscape.”
  • Center for Global Development blog post, “Congress: Please Help Restore Lifesaving Data Systems.”
  • The Conversation article, “US exit from the World Health Organization marks a new era in global health policy – here’s what the US, and world, will lose.”
  • Devex article, “Gates doubles down on goals in a world weighed down by crisis, CEO says.”
  • Fortune article, “Gates Foundation doubles down on foreign aid as U.S. government largely withdraws.”
  • Fortune commentary, “How to fight child hunger in a time of foreign aid cuts.” 
  • Internet Watch Foundation article, “Strong public support for EU child sexual abuse legislation as abuse imagery rockets.”
  • Equimundo blog, “This is What MAGA Manhood Looks Like….. And Young Men Are Watching.”

Papers, reports, and resources
  • Women’s Refugee Commission report, “A Year of Harms: The Global Impact of Humanitarian Funding Cuts on Women and Girls.” 
  • Equimundo report, “Equimundo’s State of the World’s Men 2026: Understanding Masculinity in a Changing World.”
  • Moving Minds Alliance triannual bulletin, “Alliance Post: Reimagining Early Years Crisis Response.” Focus on nutrition and early childhood development.
  • UNICEF report, “Research on the impact of climate change on child marriage, teenage pregnancy and female genital mutilation in Kenya.”
  • Rise Up policy brief, “Investment with impact: Multisectoral actions and coordination in Barnahus,” demonstrates that integrated, multidisciplinary services for children reduce duplication, improve evidence quality, and support children’s wellbeing.
  • International Rescue Committee Airbel Impact Lab report, “Innovation Report: Five Ideas to Rebuild Humanitarian Aid After Historic Funding Cuts.” 
  • Current Opinion in Psychology journal article, “Physical punishment: The only legal form of family violence.”
  • SVRI and Oak Foundation report, “Advancing the Science of Outcome Measurement in Child Sexual Violence Prevention: Results of a Rapid Review.”
  • Institutionalized Children Explorations and Beyond journal article, “Is Alternative Care on the Violence Against Children Agenda? A Review of Pledges Made at the 1st Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children.”

Opportunities
  • Youth Climate Justice Fund call for applications for grants of up to $40,000 for youth-led, grassroots groups advancing climate and environmental justice at local and national levels. Deadline March 1, 2026.

​Watch & Listen​
  • SVRI, MOORE - Preventing Child Sexual Abuse, UNICEF – Office of Strategy and Evidence Innocenti, and The Safe Futures Hub webinar recording, “Evidence Gaps to Action: Exploring How to Prevent CSV by Expanding our Understanding of Perpetration.” Focused on LMICs.
  • NPR’s All Things Considered article, “Spending package restores some foreign aid.”
  • Building Safe Futures webinar recording, “The Role of the Education Sector in Ending Childhood Sexual Violence.” 
  • CBS News segment, “Save the Children U.S. CEO says Gaza food situation is ‘relatively better,’ but ‘not nearly enough’.” 
  • Georgetown Collaborative on Global Children's Issues event recording, “Technical Research Briefing: Global Child Labor Trends and Policy Frameworks.”
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The Initiative's weekly newsletter is a collection of updates on coalitions, networks, and organizations that advocate for the U.S. government to support children and young people globally.
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