The Trump presidency has hit a blow to international aid work by cutting funding for life-saving plans from Sudan to South Africa. The selection, part of a broad overview aligning US international aid with Trump’s” America First” plan, has left the global humanitarian group scrambling.
A February 25 court report revealed that over 90 % of programs have now been discontinued, despite assurances from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that exemptions were in place for essential service. The aftermath is huge, with UNAIDS, Stop TB Partnership, and many refugee support programs receiving cancellation notices.
” We are hit, but we will continue to be it”, said Lucica Ditiu, senior director of Stop TB, who now faces the terrible process of ending deals with 140 global colleagues.
The reductions are specially devastating in South Africa, home to the country’s largest HIV-positive people. Experts in the field of medicine warn that decades of progress may get lost in the experts say.
” We will see life lost”, said Linda-Gail Bekker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. ” This illness is going to walk back in the wake of this.”
While support groups buckle for impact, Washington remains motionless. The US State Department has not yet responded to requests for comment. However, the termination letters keep coming, citing a sarcastic logic: the programs “are not in the federal attention”.
For some companies, USAID was their economic core. Then, as money dries away, the world’s most vulnerable communities are left wondering—who will move in to save them?
