In 2025 alone, WHH supported around 19.1 million people in 37 countries with 647 projects.
Welthungerhilfe Presents 2025 Annual Report
Further Cuts to International Cooperation Put Progress Against Hunger At Risk
Bonn/Berlin, July 16, 2026. Conflict, climate-related shocks, and economic instability continue to drive hunger around the world. At the same time, funding for humanitarian assistance and development cooperation is declining. The number of people facing hunger remains alarmingly high at 673 million.
Welthungerhilfe’s 2025 Annual Report documents how locally led initiatives, stronger local structures, and long-term investments in resilient food systems can contribute to lasting progress. Together with local partner organizations, WHH supported 19.1 million people in 37 countries. Against this backdrop, the organization warns that further reductions in Germany’s federal funding for humanitarian assistance and development cooperation could put this progress at risk.
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“As the global operating environment becomes increasingly challenging, the German government is sending the wrong signal by making further budget cuts. Critical investments in food security and crisis prevention continue to decline, even though the world needs more solidarity than ever. International cooperation is an investment in peace, stability, and our shared security. At a time of multiple global crises, we cannot afford to scale back approaches that are proven to work. Investing in ending hunger and poverty today helps prevent the crises of tomorrow,” says Marlehn Thieme, President of WHH.
The report highlights the importance of local knowledge, reliable partnerships, and sustained investment. “We see every day how much knowledge, creativity, and initiative exist within local communities,” said Mathias Mogge, Secretary General of WHH. “Our role is to support people in shaping their own future. This is where lasting solutions to hunger emerge. That also means embracing new approaches: We invest in innovations that strengthen sustainable food systems and expand international partnerships with academia, the private sector, and policymakers to scale up successful solutions more quickly.”
WHH also invests in innovative approaches to strengthening food systems. These include agricultural apps and digital marketplaces designed to help smallholder farmers improve productivity and gain better access to markets. Since 2017, the organization has also been working with social enterprises that improve food security in rural areas, create jobs, and develop financially viable services and business models. Programs are most effective when agriculture, nutrition, water, education, and economic development are closely integrated. Together with 327 local partner organizations, WHH develops solutions that create lasting opportunities for people and strengthen the resilience of communities.
In 2025, WHH allocated €348.3 million to projects addressing hunger and poverty. Individual donations totaled €101.5 million, while €293 million came from public funding. German federal funding once again accounted for a significant share of these public contributions. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was the organization's largest single institutional donor, providing €75 million, followed by the German Federal Foreign Office with €68.2 million and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with €60.6 million. The largest project grants went to South Sudan, Sudan, and Ukraine.
Facts and figures about WHH in 2025
Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest private aid organizations in Germany; it is politically independent and non-denominational. With courage and determination, it is striving for a world without hunger. Since it was founded on December 14, 1962, 13,424 overseas projects in about 72 countries and territories have been supported with 5.76 billion euros. Welthungerhilfe follows the principle of empowering people to help themselves to sustainably improve their living conditions, through approaches ranging from fast disaster relief to reconstruction and long-term development cooperation projects with national and international partner organizations.
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