Latest news with #USAgencyForInternationalDevelopment
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
It's the Republicans, Not Musk, Who Are Serious About Cutting Spending
Elon Musk and House Republicans both promised to tackle federal spending. As leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, he was the public face of Trump's assault on government. Remember him feeding the U.S. Agency for International Development into the wood chipper?
Mail & Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
NGOs count the cost of lost United States funding
No service: The US government's funding cuts have put further strain on already overloaded clinics and forced some to close their doors. (Delwyn Verasamy) South Africa's non-profit organisations are still counting the costs of the cessation of US funding earlier this year, with financial shortfalls leading to healthcare job losses while critical HIV vaccine services and research have been heavily scaled back. US President Donald Trump announced in January that he was cutting US Agency for International Development ( According to official data, USAid disbursed $24.5 billion to organisations in the 2024 financial year. Accountability Lab, a global network for transparency and open government, ran a survey of 266 organisations affected by the freeze from 1 to 18 May, and a third reported being 'at imminent risk of closure', with African countries — Kenya, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ghana — the most affected. 'Nine of the top 10 most affected are African countries, with El Salvador rounding out the top 10. Others include South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal and the US,' said Accountability Lab's global communications director Sheena Adams. 'Worryingly, 21% have only one month of financial resources remaining, while 24% report a three-month financial runway. 'In terms of job losses, almost 55% of respondents reported having furloughed or laid off staff, with a further 14% confirming that layoffs were under consideration. According to the state department, the US government committed $330 million in aid to South Africa last year, with $318.2 million coming from USAid. The lion's share, $219.7 million, was for HIV/Aids, followed by $43.11 million for basic health, $31.8 million for operating expenses, $7.512 million to environmental protection, $7.006 million for trade policy and regulation, $3.677 million for agriculture, $3.512 million for government and civil society and $1.608 million to basic education. The aid suspension will roll back progress in the fight against HIV/Aids, says activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). 'The USAid and Pepfar [the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] funding freeze has had a chilling effect on the global fight against HIV/Aids, particularly in countries like South Africa that bear a high burden of disease,' TAC spokesperson Xabisa Qwabe said. 'Many community-led organisations — including treatment literacy programmes, support groups and outreach initiatives — have had to scale down or suspend operations. 'Pepfar funding [disbursed by TAC received substantial support from USAid/Pepfar through the Ritshidze Project, which enabled it to monitor service delivery, engage communities and hold the health system accountable. 'At its peak, up to 60% or more of TAC's operational budget was supported through this funding stream,' Qwabe said, adding that dozens of jobs had been lost. 'Staff retrenchments have occurred, particularly among community health educators and coordinators working in high-burden districts. The exact number may vary by province, but it has affected dozens of livelihoods. 'TAC's presence in many communities has been scaled back, meaning fewer workshops on treatment literacy, weaker monitoring of medicine stockouts and reduced mobilisation for treatment access and rights-based advocacy.' Pepfar funding didn't directly pay for medication in South Africa but funded crucial support systems. 'The funding freeze has disrupted these support structures, leading to reduced testing, longer turnaround times and greater strain on overburdened clinics. Patients are increasingly falling through the cracks, especially in under-resourced communities,' she said. TAC is actively seeking alternative funding, including local philanthropic partners, international donors, and development agencies, and has urged the government to step up support for civil society organisations. 'While some government departments have expressed willingness to explore support avenues, this is yet to materialise in substantial funding,' Qwabe added. The solution, she said, is the urgent resumption of Pepfar funding with clear transition plans. 'We also need a stronger financial commitment from the South African government to support community-led health programmes. There should be greater investment in building sustainable, locally owned health infrastructure that doesn't rely solely on foreign aid. Civil society must be recognised as a vital partner in achieving these goals. 'This funding crisis is not just a bureaucratic issue — it's a humanitarian emergency. 'Patients are losing access to services and dedicated community health workers are losing jobs they've held for years. These are the very people who ensured South Africa's HIV treatment scale-up succeeded.' 'We're beginning to hear reports that HIV testing is not being done as much as it was before, viral load testing and CD4 count testing is coming down, which obviously will have an impact on our ability to keep people virally suppressed. 'People will get sicker, and once they are no longer virally suppressed, they are also at risk of transmitting the virus,' Gray warned. 'We will probably see both an increase in morbidity and, if we're not careful, mortality in both children and adults who are not properly in care.' She noted that USAid and National Institute of Health (NIH) funding had supported scientific trials, adding: 'This has huge effects on HIV science and TB science, because we were involved in everything from vaccine research and development in both HIV and TB, as well as HIV cure, TB treatment trials and HIV treatment trials.' 'It also affects the NIH funding that supported clinical trial research infrastructure, laboratory research infrastructure and the whole ecosystem required to do innovation in HIV and TB — from discovery to pre-clinical testing to clinical trials to biomarker discovery. 'That whole ecosystem of innovation is severely hampered. The NIH funding was substantial — up to $250 million per annum.' There have been job losses affecting a range of people involved in the work, from scientists and master's students to nurses and drivers. 'It has a huge impact on the human resources for research. That has an effect both at a macro and micro level on the economy. Drivers, counsellors, recruiters — all of them get retrenched, which means their families are thrown into poverty. 'If you have a quarter of a million US dollars of revenue coming in, all of that gets taxed, so there's also an impact on revenue collection.' For example, the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg has retrenched 70 staff members after losing NIH funding, which comprised 66% of its income. 'A lot more people will be retrenched over the next couple of months as the money dries up. 'Unless the research unit is able to diversify its funding stream it faces even further closure,' Gray said. The loss of its USAid funding also forced the Brilliant Consortium to hal 'The vaccine manufacturing has been put on hold but we managed to find funding [from the Gates Foundation] to conduct a smaller study at a single site in South Africa,' Gray said. The 'Many of our partners have completely shut down programmes and had to retrench staff and we are already feeling that we have to fill some of those gaps. 'Even testing kids the other day, we were down to one … how can you turn someone away from knowing their status? In the community there are concerns about whether people will be able to get their medication for their children,' she said. 'As a community-based organisation that has been serving our local community for 35 years, it's just heartbreaking to see the ripple effects of what has progressed. 'It's those who don't have options who are going to suffer the most. 'It is tragic. HIV has always been a global initiative with global targets and countries working together as a global community — and that has been destroyed.'
The National
3 days ago
- Business
- The National
Elon Musk's departure proves no one lasts long in the spotlight beside Donald Trump
Last year, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, lavished hundreds of millions of dollars on the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump, in a transparent effort to translate his vast wealth into personal political power. After Mr Trump returned to the White House, with Mr Musk in tow, it seemed that was indeed happening. Mr Musk was such a regular fixture in the White House that there was even silly talk of a co-presidency. But now the billionaire is gone, unlikely ever to return to the Washington halls of power. In truth, Mr Musk's tenure at the " Department of Government Efficiency" could have been better at its purported tax-cutting mission. Its goal, Mr Musk boasted in the lead-up to the election, was to save the federal government $2 trillion, though he later revised that figure to $1tn. Yet despite pulling out chainsaws on stage and gloating over the mass sackings of eminent, respectable and dedicated public servants, not to mention the gutting of crucial public and human service programmes, he barely made a dent in the federal budget. The most charitable calculation of the actual 'savings' incurred to date is around $175 billion, though Doge has published evidence purported to substantiate less than half of this. Mr Musk seems especially proud of the de facto shuttering of the US Agency for International Development and the elimination of many of its key humanitarian programmes. Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent much of last week denying that anyone has died because of the elimination of these crucial programmes, some experts think that the only real question is only whether these deaths, in only a few weeks, must be counted in the thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands. Journalists and Democratic lawmakers have pointed out specific cases, such as individually named orphaned children in rural Africa who were depending for survival on HIV medicine that was suddenly yanked away by the world's richest man. They're now verifiably and needlessly dead. Despite pulling out chainsaws on stage and gloating over the mass sackings of public servants, Mr Musk barely made a dent in the federal budget There are many other examples. But, as one Republican Senator, Joni Ernst, told constituents worried about their own health care last week: "Well, we are all going to die." That's as true of an impoverished African orphan as anyone else, from the point of view of a millionaire US senator or billionaire venture capitalist. Apart from the decimation of programmes and mass dismissal of public servants, Mr Musk's tenure provided the public with a close look at his lifestyle. It is inspiring to those who think people ought to have more children. He has been energetically promoting large families, in both theory and in practice. He has denied reports from The New York Times that he regularly consumed illegal drugs and amphetamines like Adderall. It might be unfair to speculate that as he was reshaping US government, Mr Musk was frequently in an altered state of consciousness. But we do know that Mr Musk and his crew had, with minimal oversight, access to the most sensitive data on not just public employees and the government, but taxpayers and the general public. The fate of this data is unknown. An even more troubling reality is that his activities were unsupervised, unconfirmed and unvetted. He had no security clearance, or even a security clearance investigation. Mr Musk's Washington adventure illustrates exactly why the founders of the American republic insisted the Senate needed to confirm all senior appointees. This has become an increasingly marginalised procedure, but the wisdom of this check has been amply illustrated by the Musk-Trump transactional relationship. While the two still praise each other, the actual chasm between them grows ever wider. Mr Musk has been increasingly vocal in condemning the " big, beautiful budget bill" that the Republican-dominated Senate is trying to pass at Mr Trump's behest. The billionaire says it is the antithesis of everything he was trying to do, since it may greatly increase the federal budget. He could never say any such thing if he were still connected to the White House. Mr Trump increasingly had little time for his billionaire former buddy. You could see it coming from the very outset. The administration could not contain two alpha males, and Washington was never going to be big enough for both of them. The only surprise is that Mr Musk lasted as long as he did. No one lasts too long in the spotlight next to Mr Trump.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump admin sending three USAID staffers to Myanmar to help with earthquake relief
The US has sent a three-person team to Myanmar to help respond to the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, in a move criticised as 'weak and irrelevant' by a former aid official. Much larger Russian and Chinese teams have already been helping search-and-rescue efforts in the country for days. The scaled-back response comes as President Donald Trump is moving to officially end the US Agency For International Development (USAID) and has notified remaining employees their jobs will be eliminated. The Department of Government Efficiency is thought to have already cut billions of dollars from USAID, but the exact figure has not been verified. Any remaining functions are set to be transferred to the Department of State. 'It's not a case of worst-practice; it's really a case of no-practice,' former USAID disaster relief leader Jeremy Konyndyk told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 'It just makes the US look, frankly, kind of weak and irrelevant to most of the other countries that have shown up in force to support the people of Myanmar,' added Konyndyk, now the president of Refugees International. The US team's expected arrival on Wednesday comes five days after the earthquake devastated large swathes of Myanmar's biggest cities on Friday. The US embassy in Burma said in an online statement that the team would be deployed 'to identify the people's most pressing needs, including emergency shelter, food, medical needs, and access to water.' Konyndyk previously warned the first five days was the key period for finding people alive. 'The US has missed that window, and the cost of that is lost lives of people who could have been saved in Myanmar,' he said. The earthquake has killed at least 2,800 people, with thousands more injured. The death toll is predicted to surpass 10,000, according to US Geological Survey modeling. Residents are feared to be trapped under collapsed buildings across the country, including dozens under the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction. Myanmar's ruling military rejected a major rebel alliance's Tuesday proposal for a unilateral ceasefire to support the international response to the earthquake. The United Nations has urged the international community to step up aid before the upcoming monsoon season worsens the disaster. The US embassy in Burma pledged up to $2 million in aid through Myanmar-based humanitarian organizations. 'The United States stands with the people of Myanmar as they work to recover from the devastation. We offer our deepest condolences for the loss of life and infrastructure in this difficult time,' it said on a statement online. By comparison, a senior international studies lecturer told ABC that the United States contributed 225 USAID workers and $185 million to Turkey and Syria after the 2023 earthquake. 'The Trump administration's paltry efforts in this regard are an insult to the people of Myanmar,' Adam Simpson of the University of South Australia said. China sent about 200 people, including a team, the day after the earthquake and pledged $13.9 million to Myanmar. Two Russian aircraft carrying 60 rescue workers, four dogs, ambulances, and rescue vehicles arrived in the capital on Sunday. The Philippines said it was deploying 114 specialists, while Vietnam sent 100, Singapore 88, and Thailand 55. India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Taiwan have all also provided emergency support in the form of aid or rescue specialists.
The Independent
02-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump admin sending three USAID staffers to Myanmar to help with earthquake relief
The US has sent a three-person team to Mynamar to help respond to the a 7.7-magnitude earthquake, in a move criticised as 'weak and irrelevant' by a former aid official. Much larger Russian and Chinese teams have already been helping search-and-rescue efforts in the country for days. The scaled-back response comes as President Donald Trump is moving to officially end the US Agency For International Development (USAID) and has notified remaining employees their jobs will be eliminated. The Department of Government Efficiency is thought to have already cut billions of dollars from USAID, but the exact figure has not been verified. Any remaining functions are set to be transferred to the Department of State. 'It's not a case of worst-practice; it's really a case of no-practice,' former USAID disaster relief leader Jeremy Konyndyk told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 'It just makes the US look, frankly, kind of weak and irrelevant to most of the other countries that have shown up in force to support the people of Myanmar,' added Konyndyk, now the president of Refugees International. The US team's expected arrival on Wednesday comes five days after the earthquake devastated large swathes of Myanmar's biggest cities on Friday. The US embassy in Burma said in an online statement that the team would be deployed 'to identify the people's most pressing needs, including emergency shelter, food, medical needs, and access to water.' Konyndyk previously warned the first five days was the key period for finding people alive. 'The US has missed that window, and the cost of that is lost lives of people who could have been saved in Myanmar,' he said. The earthquake has killed at least 2,800 people, with thousands more injured. The death toll is predicted to surpass 10,000, according to US Geological Survey modeling. Residents are feared to be trapped under collapsed buildings across the country, including dozens under the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction. Myanmar's ruling military rejected a major rebel alliance's Tuesday proposal for a unilateral ceasefire to support the international response to the earthquake. The United Nations has urged the international community to step up aid before the upcoming monsoon season worsens the disaster. The US embassy in Burma pledged up to $2 million in aid through Myanmar-based humanitarian organizations. 'The United States stands with the people of Myanmar as they work to recover from the devastation. We offer our deepest condolences for the loss of life and infrastructure in this difficult time,' it said on a statement online. By comparison, a senior international studies lecturer told ABC that the United States contributed 225 USAID workers and $185 million to Turkey and Syria after the 2023 earthquake. 'The Trump administration's paltry efforts in this regard are an insult to the people of Myanmar,' Adam Simpson of the University of South Australia said. China sent about 200 people, including a team, the day after the earthquake and pledged $13.9 million to Myanmar. Two Russian aircraft carrying 60 rescue workers, four dogs, ambulances, and rescue vehicles arrived in the capital on Sunday. The Philippines said it was deploying 114 specialists, while Vietnam sent 100, Singapore 88, and Thailand 55. India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Taiwan have all also provided emergency support in the form of aid or rescue specialists.
