Health

The US puts virtually all foreign aid on a 90-day hold

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The U.S. Foreign Assistance Stop-Work Order: It’s a Crime against the United States, and Human Rights are at Risk

On Friday, the State Department issued a cable putting into action the January 20th executive order from President Donald Trump that will halt virtually all U.S. foreign assistance for at least 90 days pending a review of all programs. The only exceptions are emergency humanitarian assistance and military financing for Israel and Egypt.

The new instructions mean these programs will likely have to furlough or lay off employees and cease operations until a review determines whether they align with President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda.

Within 85 days “the government-wide comprehensive review of all foreign assistance shall be completed, and a report shall be produced to the Secretary of State for his consideration and recommendation to the President,” according to the memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But many organizations that receive development funding from the U.S. are based in the country where they operate and employ both local and American staff. There is a chance that these employees will lose their jobs and their pay in the long term.

The Friday order had a grave concern for a senior official at the American Agency for International Development. The official sent a statement to NPR, but they are not authorized to speak for the agency.

Jeremy Konyndyk is the president of the aid group Refugees International and was a senior official with the US Agency for International Development during the Obama and Biden administrations. Jeremy Konyndyk said in an email that the stop-work order doesn’t exempt global health programs.

The leader of a humanitarian organization said they had thrown a grenade in the middle of foreign assistance. The lives of people around the world are at risk. This individual asked for anonymity fearing retribution against their organization for speaking out.

“We will probably have to pull our staff providing critical services in the field and lay off US staff,” the leader told NPR. “We can’t afford to keep funding our programs because we don’t know if we will be reimbursed per our contracts with U.S. agencies.”

The president of Oxfam America, a charity that doesn’t receive funding from the U.S. government, said that it was having “seismic, seismic” impacts on the global aid system. “And really, frankly, it’s a cruel decision that has life or death consequences for millions of people around the world.”

“What we really need and want is the stop order decision to be reversed. We need funding and programming to go forward, for our partners, for our network, for our community, and at the very least, we need clear communication so people can plan in this terrible new reality,” Maxman said.

The US-funded HIV/AIDS pandemic is going through a shock wave: The PEPFAR budget freeze will come into effect immediately

Nearly all global health funding from the U.S. has been halted immediately by the Trump administration — and that appears to include PEPFAR, the widely praised program created by President George W. Bush in 2003 to prevent HIV/AIDS.

Unless an exemption is declared in the days or weeks ahead, PEPFAR faces a pause in operations for at least three months — a development that sent shock waves through the global health community.

“This will endanger the lives of millions of people currently on US-funded antiretroviral treatment, as well as mean an abrupt halt to all other lifesaving programs,” Konyndyk said.

Hundreds of contractors who work at the global health bureau of USAID could be in danger of not getting their paychecks due to the freeze on spending.

The loss of workers with years of experience and knowledge would be more likely if there was a halt to work.

The order was surprising to a lot of people in the global health sector. “Many people assumed the 90-day freeze would apply to forward looking funding only,” Asia Russell, executive director of the HIV access organization Health GAP, told NPR.

She said that an immediate cessation is “catastrophic” and a lot cruel. “He is doing irreparable harm to the global AIDS response.”

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