Save the Children aid for 1.5 million in need wiped out by Iran war oil shock

Charity Save the Children has revealed that the surge in oil prices due to Donald Trump's war on Iran is costing them $13m, which could have reached an additional 1.5 million children. The NGO has attributed the extra delivery costs to transport, fuel, food, and medical supplies. Willem Zuidema, Save the Children's global supply chain director, emphasized that the conflict in the Middle East is endangering children not just locally, but globally.

Developing countries are being hit the hardest by the oil shock, which the International Energy Agency has labeled as the largest disruption in history. Save the Children operates in 110 countries, with a focus on safeguarding children's rights. Their health and nutrition programmes have benefited over 30 million children last year, including in challenging environments like Afghanistan.

The charity calculated the additional costs of delivering aid as equivalent to 47 health clinics operating for six months in Afghanistan or five 30-bed hospitals in Somalia for a year. Prior to the war, the oil price was projected at $60 per barrel in 2026, but it has since soared above $100 per barrel due to the US-Iran conflict and has rebounded to over $90 in recent days.

Save the Children has been actively seeking alternative supplies and transport routes to manage the rising costs. Despite the challenges, the organization's teams are working tirelessly to ensure children receive the aid they need. The charity is also concerned about the decline in global aid budgets, with the Trump administration reducing USAID funding and other countries cutting their aid spending.

Global aid spending has dropped by 23% in real terms, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Save the Children has previously criticized the UK government's reduction in the overseas aid budget, calling it a "tragedy." The charity, established in 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton, was motivated by the impact of an export blockade on children in Berlin and Vienna.