Shutting Down USAID Threatens to Endanger World’s Poorer Nations

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by Thalif Deen (united nations)Thursday, February 13, 2025Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 (IPS) - The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US government’s primary channel for humanitarian aid and disaster relief, is expected to have a devastating impact on the world’s developing nations.

The 2025 Budget Request, under the former Biden administration, amounted to a staggering $58.8 billion in US foreign aid for this year.

The proposed aid included funding to fully support the US priorities and commitments made at the U.S.-Africa Leader’s Summit in May last year.

The request also fulfills Biden’s pledge made at the U.S.-hosted Seventh Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to match $1 for every $2 contributed by other donors by providing $1.2 billion to the Global Fund.

And, according to the State Department, it was also expected to advance U.S. leadership by providing sustained funding for the Pandemic Fund to enhance global preparedness against infectious disease threats.

But all these commitments will have to be abandoned-- or drastically scaled back-- with the elimination of USAID and with over 10,000 of its staffers laid-off worldwide, leaving only about 290 positions—with US employees asked to return home.

Credit: J. Countess/Getty Images

According to a frontpage story in the New York Times February 11, critics of Trump’s executive orders say these orders “will cause a humanitarian catastrophe and undermine America’s influence, reliability and global standing.”

The Times said the US spent nearly $72 billion on foreign assistance in 2023, including spending by USAID and the State Department. As a percentage of its economic output, the US—which has the world’s largest economy—gives much less in foreign aid than other developed countries.

USAID spent about $38 billion on health services, disaster relief, anti-poverty efforts and other programs in 2023—about 0.7 percent of the federal budget.

Dr James E. Jennings, President, Conscience International, told IPS the Draconian cuts to USAID are already having global repercussions.

For two billionaires-- one of whom is allegedly the richest person in the world-- to take bread from the mouths of multitudes of children throughout the global south is not just uncaring--it is cruelty personified, he pointed out.

“International aid is more than numbers on a balance sheet. It impacts people in desperate need for their next meal, safe drinking water, a place to sleep, or emergency medical aid”.

Washington's USAID program costs only 1.2% of the federal budget, according to the Pew Research Center. Much of it benefits refugees and displaced persons worldwide.

“Today they number more than ever before in history, totaling almost 100 million people. Cutting support for health programs, especially Malaria eradication and AIDS/SIDA treatment and prevention is simply madness, because deadly diseases eventually reach everybody's neighborhood,” said Dr Jennings.

Not since President Franklin Roosevelt arrived in the White House in 1932, he said, has a chief executive issued so many directives. There is a huge difference, however.

“FDR's actions were to benefit people, lift them out of poverty, provide jobs and improve life.” Even if the massive federal government needs reform and border controls strengthened, something most Americans support, Trump's actions are intended to strengthen plutocrats like himself, cut services to the American people, including veterans, and eliminate programs to help struggling populations in the rest of the world.

Such has always been the behavior of autocrats, not to mention would-be tyrants, declared Dr Jennings.

In an oped piece this week, Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), wrote “witnessing the devastating impact of Trump’s executive order to freeze almost all foreign aid is heartbreaking”.

His decision has left millions of vulnerable children without access to lifesaving food across the globe. Over 1.2 million people in Sudan who were supported by US-funded programs are now left without access to food, essential medicine, and clean water, which they need to survive.

“The consequences are equally devastating in refugee camps in Ethiopia, where 3,000 malnourished children relied on US-supported efforts through Action Against Hunger. Trump’s inhumane decision is not just heartless; it shatters the very ideals of compassion and leadership that once defined the United States”.

A nation that once led the charge in fighting hunger and saving lives is now, under Trump’s savage assault, abandoning millions of innocent children to starvation and inevitable death. His wanton action demeans rather than preserves America’s greatness, said Dr Ben-Meir.

According to the Times, there are more than 30 “frozen studies”, including:

Malaria treatment in children under age 5 in MozambiqueTreatment for cholera in BangladeshA screen-and-treat method for cervical cancer in MalawiTuberculosis treatment for children in Peru and South AfricaNutritional support for children in EthiopiaEarly-childhood-development interventions in Cambodia

Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State and acting Administrator of USAID, was quoted as saying: “The United States is not walking away from foreign aid. It’s not.”

“But it has to be programs we can defend. It has to be programs we can explain and it has to be programs we can justify. Otherwise, we do endanger foreign aid.”

Meanwhile, justifying the decision to shut down USAID, the White house said in an official statement that for decades, USAID “has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight”.

The few examples of “waste and abuse” cited by the White House included the following:

$1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”$70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam$47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia$32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala$6 million to fund tourism in EgyptHundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigationMillions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab“Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countriesHundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban