London – In an unprecedented move U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on 24 January 2025 freezing foreign aid for USAID (US Agency for International Development).
USAID funds and supports health services, disaster relief, and anti-poverty efforts around the world.
Now the biggest aid donor faces a 90-day pause on its activities by President Trump.
Prior to the pause on aid, there were more than 10,000 working for USAID. Now many have been put on leave or have lost their jobs.
What is more, the agency’s counterterrorism staff has been told not to report to work, which in turn increases the risk of aid getting into the wrong hands.
The freezing of USAID funds to South Africa and other African countries could result in a humanitarian disaster as millions of people in HIV care go without life-saving drugs.
The suspension of USAID funding has also been a devastating blow to humanitarian efforts, including programs around the world, such as those assisting refugees in Myanmar to soup kitchens in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to even more programs that have now either paused their programs or shut their doors.
Humanitarian organisations and agencies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said they had to suspend ongoing work in around 20 countries.
Doctors of the World said it had closed more than half of its hospitals in Syria.
Billionaire Elon Musk, tasked with slimming down the federal government, has said he wants to shut down USAID, calling it “beyond repair”.
According to Friends of USAID, Elon Musk spent 40 million dollars on Super Bowl advertisements to tell the American people how wasteful USAID is.
With 40 million dollars, USAID can vaccinate 547,945 children overseas, prevent diseases like polio from returning to America, and crippling children.
It can also save 200,000 people dying from malaria in the next three years in sub-Saharan Africa.
It can buy enough food-aid products made in Georgia and Rhode Island to treat 880,000 severely malnourished children and much more.
Oxfam’s America President and CEO Abby Maxman explains, ‘There is not a single area of development and humanitarian assistance USAID has not been involved in.
The deputy spokesperson of OCHA, Jens Laerke, explained that “the US government funded around 47 percent of the global humanitarian appeal across the world last year.”
In the absence of USAID, the EU may have to fill in the massive gap, the spokesperson for the EU Commission emphasised: “Everyone in the international community must shoulder their responsibility.
“The funding gap is widening, leaving millions in need. The EU cannot fill this gap alone.”
The 90-day ban is beyond catastrophic for many vulnerable populations across the world that will be exposed to even more threats.
Nicholas Kristof, for the New York Times, writes for those who are concerned, “I tell them to call their members of Congress and the White House to urge them to reform USAID, not disembowel it.”
Unfortunately, the world’s poorest people are already bearing the brunt of this cutback due to such decisions taken by the world’s richest.
