The United States’ withdrawal from multilateral institutions marks more than a tactical foreign policy shift; it signals a fundamental rethinking of how global power, aid and influence will be exercised in the coming years. By stepping away from multilateralism and favouring bilateral treaties, Washington is rewriting the rules of international engagement – with consequences that will be felt sharply across the Global South, including India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and small island states. At the heart of this transition lies a simple but unsettling reality: multilateralism spreads responsibility and accountability, while bilateralism concentrates power.

For aid donors, bilateral treaties offer greater control, visibility, and leverage. For aid recipients, however, they often mean conditionality, political pressure, and reduced autonomy. In this emerging order, humanitarian principles risk being subordinated to strategic calculations. Multilateral institutions such as UN agencies were designed precisely to avoid such imbalances. Bodies like the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Health ecosystem, and climate-focused alliances ensured that assistance reached vulnerable populations based on need rather than geopolitical loyalty. With the U.S. stepping b a c k , the semechanismsare weakened, and the burden of sustaining them shifts to a smaller group of committed states. Nowhere is this impact more evident than in population and health programmes. UNFPA support has been crucial for countries like Afghanistan and Bangladesh, where maternal health, reproductive rights, refugee welfare, and demographic stability are pressing concerns.

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In conflict-hit Afghanistan, UNFPA assistance has often filled the vacuum left by collapsing state structures, supporting women’s health and basic services. The U.S. withdrawal threatens not only funding flows but also the moral legitimacy of these programmes. When a major donor disengages, it emboldens other sceptical actors to question the value of multilateral humanitarian commitments. The result is a........

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