Cutting U.S. foreign aid funding will hurt world's poorest, London researchers say

Cutting off money for programs that help get medicine, food, and other necessities to the world's most vulnerable people could lead to thousands of deaths and allow destabilizing forces to gain control in volatile parts of the world, London-based researchers say. 

Over the last three weeks, The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars of contracts funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which deliver humanitarian aid to people across the world, including in the global south.

"American international politics is not kind to a lot of people, so providing medical assistance and different kinds of aid relieves some of the pain," said Kris Eale, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo and studied public health in South Africa and working in the Americas and Haiti on USAID-funded projects. 

"They don't understand the impact that their projects have on a bigger scale. The drama they are causing to people on the margins is immense, and it builds the potential of epidemics and pandemics." 

Eale, who is now working toward a PhD at Western University, specializes in data science. Most recently, he finished working on a USAID-funded Red Cross project that looked at epidemic and pandemic preparedness in seven countries. It was supposed to be expanded but is now on hold. 

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"The United States is not just investing in other countries, they're also investing in themselves," when they fund USAID projects, Eale said. "The reality is that we are all connected and a disease that starts in Congo will be dealt with in America." 

Wale Fadare trained as a doctor in Nigeria and is also studying at Western University, focusing on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

"There's a lot of anxiety right now because people are not sure what will be implemented and what won't be," he said. "Imagine being in the middle of training physicians and you have to pause that because you can't spend any more money. Or you're in a rural community, and you've spent the last four to eight weeks mobilizing people for a medical outreach event, and suddenly, the funding is no longer available. These are the real-life experiences that are happening."

Colleagues working on immunization and infectious disease programs are no longer able to work. "There's an Ebola outbreak right now in Uganda, and those numbers are rising. If USAID resources were available, the intervention would have happened by now," Fadare said.

Health systems 'upended'

"These outbreaks happen because of the pathogens; it's their nature to infect, but as preventative medicine specialists, we use resources from organizations like USAID to intervene and prevent them from getting to epidemic levels, but now those are being taken away." 

In many countries, the non-profit jobs that get funding from USAID are well-paid and sustain families and communities, Fadare added. With those jobs lost, more people will suffer, he added. 

The poorest countries will see their health systems completely upended because of the cuts, said Allyson Larkin, a King's University professor who does research in East Africa, Guatemala and Tanzania and teaches development studies.

"There's a real shock and anxiety about the impact that these cuts will have," she said. It's absolutely devastating. Coupled with the American withdrawal from the World Health Organization, it's inhumane." 

All three researchers admit that USAID money is not apolitical and it is not without controversy. However imperfect, they say, the funding saves lives.

"Catholic relief agencies in rural Latin American and rural Africa are some of the biggest recipients of money from USAID and the biggest contributors to social service networks in those spaces," Larkin said. "They have a tremendous role to play in rural public health. These cuts are not efficiencies. These are people's lives. Clinics are closing and medicines are already not available, so the impact is there already."