Column | A year after aid cuts, the image of American power shifts under Trump

Column | A year after aid cuts, the image of American power shifts under Trump

Briefly

"The impact of the ostentatious slashing of foreign aid by President Donald Trump can be measured in human lives. It's been about a year since the dismantling of USAID, the United States' key humanitarian agency. The move rocked the international humanitarian system and the supply chains of critical aid to some of the world's most benighted communities. Food kitchens closed in war-ravaged Sudan; lifesaving medicines failed to reach desperate patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of people probably died as a result."

"A study published this week by the British medical journal Lancet projects an extra 9.4 million deaths by 2030 if the current trends persist. "The study amounts to an early picture of how funding reductions from the United States and other Western countries could undo decades of health gains, leading to upsurges in HIV/AIDS, malaria and hunger across the developing world," explained my colleague Chico Harlan."

"The State Department said in a statement to Harlan that "some recent 'studies' are rooted in outdated thinking, insisting that the old and inefficient global development system is the only solution to human suffering. This is simply not true." "Rather than helping recipient countries help themselves," the statement said, "the old system created a global culture of dependency, compounded by significant inefficiency and waste. This has prompted development donors everywhere - not just the United States - to reconsider their approach to foreign aid.""