UN relief organizations (the UN Children's Fund, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, FAO, and WFP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross put together a disaster relief program in 1979 to help the Cambodian people and refugees overcome famine and disease. The cost of the program amounted to US$633.9 million from October 1979 through December 1981. The United States contributed approximately one-third of this total emergency aid. Officials in charge of the program channeled about one-half of the total US$633.9 million (US$334.6 million) to areas under government control. They allocated the other half to relief efforts in border areas and to Cambodian refugees living outside the country. During the same period, private volunteer agencies provided emergency aid amounting to approximately US$100 million.

After the emergency period, the UN aid program to the Heng Samrin government declined drastically. In 1983 an estimated US$4 million was raised against a planned budget of US$16 million however, the UN Border Relief Operation (UNBRO) continued its aid programs for Cambodian refugees in camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. According to the United States Department of State, UNBRO spent nearly US$35 million on relief efforts in 1985, of which the United States contributed US$12 million. The same year, the United States gave US$800,000 in commodities to the WFP and another US$2 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross for their border relief activities.

Data as of December 1987