U.S. aid freeze 'decimates' life-saving work globally, survey finds

By Poppy McPherson, Steve Stecklow and Giulia Paravicini

Aid groups across the world have closed operations, laid off staff and halted life-saving work, including with malnourished children, because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign assistance, according to a survey of 246 humanitarian organisations.

The U.S. is by far the biggest contributor to global humanitarian aid, giving about $14 billion last year.

Yet Trump, as part of his "America first" policies, last month halted most government-funded aid for 90 days and began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development which he said was run by "radical lunatics."

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), a network of groups in about 160 countries, found that the U.S. cuts had taken a devastating toll on crisis-hit populations.

Two thirds of the groups surveyed reported a negative impact ranging from downsizing to ending aid programmes.

"Humanitarian architecture is being decimated," the ICVA said on Tuesday in a report on the survey. "Therapeutic feeding centers have ceased operations, posing life threatening risks to malnourished children and pregnant women."

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ICVA report did not name respondents to the January 27-February 7 survey, but its members include some of the biggest relief groups such as Save the Children, World Vision and Care.

Washington is issuing some waivers for life-saving aid, but groups say funding is held up. That is because USAID employees cannot access the payment system, five current and former agency officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.

"Waivers are a farce," said one of the sources.

One Africa-based group said in the survey that more than 1,500 people with HIV could no longer access life-saving treatment, while another said 3,250 orphans and others suffering HIV/AIDS could not receive school support or malnutrition treatment.

Stop work orders by Washington forced the closure of sanitation facilities for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Brazil and an end to life-saving support for more than three million internally displaced people in one unnamed Asian nation, the survey report said

'THIS IS DESPERATE'

"We have had to lay off hundreds of staff ... this is desperate," one international aid group reported.

Reuters could not independently verify those accounts but has reported on the widespread impacts of the aid freeze, from a halt to anti-narcotics programmes in Mexico to disruption of a push to hold Russia responsible for suspected war crimes in Ukraine. In South Africa, scientists have stopped testing a promising vaccine for HIV, while hundreds of millions of dollars worth of medical supplies have been stranded around the world.

In one case, a Burmese refugee with lung problems who was dependent on oxygen from a U.S-funded hospital on the Myanmar-Thai border died after it was ordered to close.

Local aid groups have been hardest hit, ICVA executive director Jamie Munn told Reuters, with 11 forced to cease operations in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and parts of Asia.

"National NGOs (non-governmental organisations), generally, do not have the infrastructure and reserves to get them through these 90 days, let alone what comes next," he said.

Though many groups are wary of going public for fear of angering the U.S. and further jeopardizing their work, some have spoken about the impact of the cuts.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said it has been forced to suspend some work in nearly 20 countries, including Ukraine, where it has halted emergency support to 57,000 people.

Catholic Relief Services, which has about 5,000 employees, has forecast layoffs.