On January 7, 2026, the White House announced its decision to withdraw the United States from more than 66 UN bodies and abandon a number of other international obligations.

Dramatic Withdrawal from International Organizations

In response, a flurry of bodies, including the UN Population Fund (UNPFA), the Intragovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) rose in protest, as reported in Kenya’s Star Newspaper article published on January 15, 2026. The aforementioned announcement from the White House shows that Washington no longer needs to peddle its unsolicited influence through these ‘intergovernmental’ bodies, which are disproportionately influenced by a few through funding.

Otherwise, suggesting that the US administration has suddenly forgotten the importance of the functions of UNPFA, UNFCCC, or IPCCC (controlling population or convening countries to address climate change) is incredible. Trump’s feeling the need to abandon and defund these bodies, which the US had voluntarily created or walked into, shows that they are no longer essential to Washington.

The Global South should investigate the real functions of these bodies and whether they have been helpful. It will be imprudent for African and Global South leaders to rush to take over these oversized bureaucracies or find alternative funding before investigating whether the existing system has meaningfully served their best interests.

Global South countries’ failure to manage their social, health, and economic needs while allowing foreign interference through international/intergovernmental bodies opens them up for continued neocolonialism. The central issue is their reliance on externally managed programs in critical sectors, which undermines national autonomy and perpetuates dependence. Trump’s withdrawal from over 66 international bodies should prompt Africans to reconsider why their governments yield control of key........

© New Eastern Outlook