Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service. I'm Sarah Montague. The UN's Office for the Coordination

of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHR, received $33 billion in funding last year, helping almost 200 million

people in crisis around the world. Over 40% of that money came from the United States. OCHR had hoped to raise nearly $50 billion this year,

but President Trump has pulled almost all-American foreign aid.

My guest in an interview recorded on February the 12th

is Tom Fletcher, the new head of OCHR, which makes him one of the most powerful aid workers in the world.

What does the US

decision mean for his work? And what does it mean for the decades-old system of rich countries

helping poorer ones? Tom Fletcher, welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you for having you, Sarah.

What effect has the US aid funding decision had on what you do? Well, there's great anxiety across the whole

humanitarian system. Of course, this isn't just the United Nations and the humanitarian agencies

that I coordinate. It's NGOs, it's frontline workers, it's the communities. Most importantly,

it's the people we're here to serve, the people whose lives we're here to save. So there is anxiety. Clearly, we're waiting at the moment. We're in this review phase and we'll

see to what extent the cuts transpire. That's where we are in the process right now.

Okay, but the immediate thing was to freeze all funding. And then Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, I issued a blanket waiver that said,

if this is a life-saving program, if it's providing food or medicine,

or anything that is saving lives, you're not included in the freeze.

So what do you understand by that?

What would you understand by that?

Well, that's welcome clarification, because, of course, most of what we do, we would put in that category. You know, it's the food

that the World Food Program distribute. It's the life-saving work that UNICEF do to support the

world's children. It's the support that the World Health Organization do to keep people alive

...