The dangers raised by the cuts for foreign aid of the United States

He has undoubtedly heard that Elon Musk has had the task of cutting the federal budget. His symbolic weapon of choice: a very large chainsaw. An early goal: the United States Agency for International Development (either USAID). When charging waste, fraud and abuse in the agency, the richest man in the world leads a campaign that reduced assistance to some of the poorest people in the world. “USAID is a criminal organization. It’s time to die,” Musk wrote in X.

That issue comes from the top. On February 11, President Trump said: “The USAID is really corrupt, I will tell you. It is corrupt. It is incompetent and is really corrupt.”

And the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, provides harmony, which tells journalists on February 3: “I don’t know about you, but as a US taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars to go to this garbage.”

Do not worry: the administration is effectively dissolving the agency, Cut thousands of staff and billions in helpand merge what is left with the State Department. The changes are still underway, but the message is clear: the United States has new priorities.

David Miliband was Secretary of British Foreign Affairs and member of Parliament. During the last 12 years he has been president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. IRC offers humanitarian aid to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Until now, says Miliband, the cuts have affected around 40% of their international programs. “We are listening to two very different things from the administration,” Miliband said. “One is that there are some areas of help that are definitely going to cut. Education, outside. Climate resilience, outside.

“The second thing we hear is that they want to review all the help that saves his life, and they will return to us with conclusions about the future of the International Aid Program,” he said.

Albert Einstein helped to found IRC in the 1930s to help refugees from Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, they were looking for ways to pierce the iron curtain. He distributed a million pounds of butter to the Eastern Germans. Humanitarian aid? Certainly. But with a giant propaganda spoon.

Seventy years ago, it was butter in Berlin. These days, it is a paste that saves lives for malnourished children provided in the five stabilization centers that IRC executes in Nigeria. The program subsidy was initially finished, then received an exemption. But the subsidy ends in May, without saying what follows.

Cutting funds for a children’s clinic like this, the program manager, Dr. Okechi Ogueji, told me that babies will die. “It will be catastrophic,” he said. “We need all the support from everywhere.”

The IRC treatments reserve in Nigeria is decreasing from an already discarded US supply chain.

Miliband said: “I think people are scratching their heads, because they wonder: where is the American heart? And they wonder: how are you going to show that in government policy?”

In the Afghan village of Bati Kot, outside Jalalabad, the United States government policy extends over the alternate waves of good news and bad news. Dr. Shafiq hashimi is the head of the clinic in Bati Kot, one of the 22 clinics administered by the IRC in Afghanistan, but significantly funded by USAID.

“Today alone, I recorded five measles cases, which is very contagious,” Hashimi said. “I see about 130 patients a day. I only stop for lunch and prayer.”

In recent weeks, the United States subsidies for clinics have been defined, restarted and disbursed again.

“The situation in Afghanistan from the stop orders of the United States government has created a sense of confusion among operational humanitarian organizations,” said Sherine Ibrahim, director of Afghanistan of IRC in Kabul. “He has also established panic within the communities that have been based on humanitarian support for many years. And he has committed our relations with the authorities that exist today in Afghanistan. He has committed our ability to guarantee acceptance within the communities that ask us:” Why is this happening? “

A woman told us: “If this support stops, the status of poor people like us will worsen, possibly even lead to death. His support has changed our lives.”

On January 27, in a speech to the Institute of Congress, President Trump said: “We get tired of giving mass amounts of money to the countries that hate us, right?”

The State Department made that official position, and told “News Sunday Morning”: “Afghanistan subsidies have ended based on credible concerns that the money from the United States was benefiting the Taliban.”

[See below for more of the State Department’s statement.]

I asked Ibrahim: “The question is to be reformulated by the US government: why help people who are our declared enemies? Why do that?”

“I think it is of interest to the global community to stabilize countries,” he replied, “to ensure that their populations live with dignity and that people do not look for a dignified life elsewhere.”

“I want to make sure that people completely understand what you just said: I know there are many people in the United States who say: ‘All these illegal foreigners, we have to find a way to stop the flood.’ And you are saying that part of the answer is to do habitable things in the countries of which they come?”

“Absolutely,” Ibrahim replied. “And not only habitable, but in places where people can prosper. And I think there is a benefit for the United States and for the global community, so that we continue that investment.”

That is No The Trump administration position.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, “we are not the world’s government. No, we will provide humanitarian assistance, as everyone else does, and we will do the best we can. But we also have other needs with which we have to balance that.”

I asked Miliband: “The idea that we have a lot of suffering in this country, a lot of poverty, a lot of illness, why not take care of us first?”

“I think the administration definitely believes that charity starts at home, and I don’t argue with that,” said Miliband. “My argument is: charity should not end at home. And international aid is 0.2% of the American economy, not 25% of federal expenditure. It is a strategic investment, it is a moral investment and it is a shocking investment. “

Because? “If you have people in need and you can help them and you don’t, it’s a sin,” Miliband said. “But also, when you do not help people who need it, instability follows. We know that, no matter how much the day continues. And the problems that begin in a distant part of the world do not remain in a distant part of the world. It has been true throughout history for the movement of people. Other people’s problems, we will have health problems.

For more information:

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID) [Archived website at Wayback Machine]
• International Rescue Committee

State Department Commentary

The following statement was provided to “News Sunday Morning” by a senior state department official:

According to President Trump and the Rubio Secretary, the foreign assistance of the United States will become a short -term, directed and transactional force that fiercely prioritizes the interests of the United States, offers undeniable benefits to our nation, empowers self -sufficiency and builds strategic associations to advance our national security and global influence.

The State and USAID department takes their role as taxpayers dollars very seriously. The implementation of President Trump’s executive order on the reevaluation and realignment of foreign aid of the United States and the secretary’s management promotes that mission. As the Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “every dollar we spend, every program we finance, and every policy we are looking for must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: does the United States make the United States safer? Does the United States make the United States stronger? Does the United States make the United States more prosperous?”

According to the statements of the Rubio Secretary, the continuous USAID programs advance the central national interests of the United States. For example, USAID continues to support the coordinated and coordinated inter -institutional response of the United States to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda; provide HIV care and treatment services that come out lives; to provide emergency assistance in conflict areas; and to support the American strategic partners.

Ensure that we have the correct combination of programs to support the national security of the United States and other central national interests of the United States requires an agile approach. We will continue making changes as necessary.

Humanitarian aid that save life continues

As the Rubio Secretary said, “we reorient our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens. We continue essential programs of salvation of life and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country.”

This transition focuses on improving responsibility and strategic coordination, not eliminating our commitment to vulnerable populations and allies. The critical programs that save life have continued uninterrupted while strengthening how, where and why we provide humanitarian aid to ensure that they serve those who need it most.

For example, USAID has multiple active contracts for the production of therapeutic foods ready to use (RUTF) and several shipments waiting for routine controls with intergence, including almost $ 300 million in active awards related to humanitarian assistance in Nigeria at this time. In addition, Usaid has previously bought RUTFS and is making determinations on where to send.

Pepfar continues

Pepfar’s treatment, treatment, treatment and PMTCT services are operational for 85% of the beneficiaries. We solved the critical bottleneck in our basic products program by completing payments to our Central Acquisition and Distribution Implementation Partner. For the remaining 15% of the beneficiaries, the State and the USAID are working to rebalance the awards, discontinuing non -priority activities to focus on the central services that save lives. We are improving the efficiency of the provision of services and the progress of Pepfar’s partners towards self -sufficiency, with remarkable progress in the last two months.

Support for the World Food Program continues, while funds benefits for final terrorist groups

USAID has finished less than 15% of the WFP Awards, maintaining more than 100 active programs with WFP, a key partner. The endings, including programs in Yemen and Afghanistan, were due to credible and long -standing concerns about funds that benefit terrorist groups such as Hutis and Taliban, or because they did not align with the first priorities of the United States.

Additional awards in Afghanistan, including prizes aimed at medical care, ended based on long -standing and credible concerns that the financing of foreign assistance from the United States benefited the Taliban, a foreign terrorist organization.

Communication and support for USAID staff continue

Like any restructuring, there will be interruptions inevitably. From the Secretary Rubio Down, we are committed to ensuring that USAID staff remains safe and that the agency’s continuous vital aid programs remain intact and operational.

The state leadership and Usaid focuses on providing the most soft possible transitions to minimize the interruption and guarantee the continuous security and well -being of our staff, and the orderly repatriation of colleagues published abroad.

All personnel abroad will receive a return PCs funded by USAID, with an output date that will be considered as the employee’s end date. No benefit for employees, including pension or retirement benefits, has been affected during this period, nor will they be affected to the separation point.

There is a process to request medical and reasonable adaptations, what employees have already been doing. This process has been explained in communications to employees, as well as notices and follow -up documents.

The Secretary of State has taken extraordinary measures to ensure that USAID staff and their relatives in the medical evacuation state (even for obstetric care) can complete that medical evacuation before separating. For future mothers, regulations allow 45 days before the expected delivery date and end 45 days after childbirth, or potentially longer when there is a documented neonatal or maternal complication (or other medical needs).

While abroad, USAID staff will remain under the head of the Mission Authority and will retain full access to the Medical Unit, DPO/Pouch and post -colored housing until its official departure date.

Reduction in the letters of the force (RIF) described a process to correct possible errors, recognizing the possibility of inaccuracies. Letters said the information reflects what is currently in the file and encouraged employees to inform any inaccuracy. The benefits will be based on official personnel records, not on the letter, once updates are made.

History produced by Dustin Stephens. Editor: Ed Givnish.

In:
• USAID
• Marco Rubio
• Donald Trump