USAID Africa Bureau
WHO withdrawal, Usaid’s closure. It is the end of international cooperation of some US -facing US. What’s left behind?
In the first week of Donald Trump’s term as president, the US US Health Organization (WHO), which compromised global health, as the country is and health and disease investigations.
This week, the US also announced the (Agency for International Development), an association that sends aid to humanitarian disasters or social needs all over the world.
It is the end of more than half of all the humanitarian help of the US. Food distribution is being interrupted. Health services are being closed. Funding for many programs has already been suspended.
“It is bleak for our beneficiaries, to whom this is a matter of life or death,” a USAID employee told. Another speaks of “absolute shock of our partners”.
“We have programs in Ukrainewe have programs in Burmano Sudanin some of the most complicated and dangerous places in the worldwhere humanitarian needs are huge, ”says the employee. “All this is still. All.”
“We do a job that we think is really important to the power and stability of the United States abroad. We don’t do this job because it’s pleasant. We do it because it allows us to earn a lot more and give us much more than we are giving, ”he adds. “It’s devastating to see this personal, and I think it’s very reckless at global level“.
In countries such as Jordan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, USAID has projects on water safety. It is estimated that 4 billion people worldwide do not have access to drinking water.
Without these programs, “animals die, people die, people are displaced,” he says Evan ThomasProfessor of Environmental Engineering who works in a project in Kenya who Helps more than 1 million people to have access to water drinkingthrough 200 groundwater pumps partially funded by USAID.
“The whole program is now at risk of crumbling,” and “when people have no water, when their cattle die, they are very stressed and there are militias that are willing to take advantage of this stress and recruit for their own goals ”He says, referring to local terrorist groups.
Harming people’s access worldwide to food, water and medicines will not make America safer, ”he says. “People are not sitting and die thirst. They move. They migrate. So, this will create greater migratory pressure around the world“.
“Many people displaced and many people who are caught by hunger and other crises can be severely impaired, if not killed by this withdrawal of help ”, confirms Jeremy Konyndyk, President of Refugees International and former USAID official.
“USAID has been a cornerstone of initiatives that save lives in hunger -hit regions, such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, but the freezing of financing leaves Millions of people without access to essential services such as health care, drinking water and shelter, ”he says Jamie Munn, Executive Director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies.
The world food program (PAM) for Afghanistan is also extremely dependent on the US, having received 45% of its funding from this country.
Like WHO, USAID also programs to combat public health problems, such as malaria.
“One of the reasons why we have no malaria in the US is because we finance and control malaria worldwide for global health security,” said another former employee. And malaria continues to kill about 600,000 people a year.
Another issue that USAID programs addressed was the Women’s security, especially in Afghanistanwhere the Taliban regime removes them various fundamental rights. About 145,000 Afghan women were protected by USAID, and will now be left on your own.
According to UN employees, the US about 47% of world humanitarian aidan extremely significant value, so, as USAID employees say, “the whole humanitarian system can collapse.”
The president of Oxfam America, Abby Maxmansummarizes: “End Usaid as we know it would nullifying harsh gains conquered in the fight against poverty and the humanitarian crisis, and cause long -term irreparable damage. ”
