The U.S. Halt In Foreign Aid ‘Could Mean Life Or Death For Millions’

The U.S. Halt In Foreign Aid ‘Could Mean Life Or Death For Millions’The new US administration is only a week old, yet it’s taken a sledgehammer to some cherished institutions. One of the latest targets is lifesaving overseas aid.Subscribe

 kits donated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Orlando Sierra 

The new US administration is only a week old, yet it’s taken a sledgehammer to some cherished institutions. One of the latest targets is lifesaving overseas aid.

As reported by the humanitarian news site Devex on January  Peter Marocco, the new head of the Office of Foreign Assistance, sent a memo ordering a pause on all new spending, effective immediately. The memo also demanded that stop-work orders be issued for existing grants, until they were reviewed for adherence to President Trump’s agenda.

This latest document went even further than the executive order for a 90-day pause on aid spending, which Trump signed on his first day back in office. It means that many organizations have

The new US administration is only a week old, yet it’s taken a sledgehammer to some cherished institutions. One of the latest targets is lifesaving overseas aid.And international development support is far from wholly altruistic. As the long history of infectious diseases shows, even the wealthiest and most powerful countries can’t insulate themselves from the effects of poverty and illness elsewhere. And investment in development overseas helps to reduce insecurity and conflict that spill over borders.antiretroviral drugs to millions of HIV-positive individuals in low-income countries, represents the kind of cost-effective, life-saving aid that US funding should prioritize,” Guzman says. “Crucially, the memo appears to allow ongoing activities, such as distributing HIV medications, to continue in the short term. However, the way this provision is interpreted will be critical in determining the scope of these programs’ survival amidst the uncertainty.”development assistance, the Trump administration is putting the lives and futures of those in crisis on the line. It has become clear that much of US humanitarian aid is included in this funding pause. That means people who are experiencing some of the most urgent humanitarian crises, who rely on aid to access food, clean water, health care and more,covid 19