Why dismantling USAID could have deadly consequences

Insider

The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid and killed USAID programs that administer humanitarian assistance across the world. We break down what this means for global stability in a video collaboration between Politico and Business Insider.

Transcript

00:00The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid, disrupting programs around the world

00:05that dealt with everything from emergency food assistance to removing landmines.

00:10What does this mean for global stability and America's influence around the world?

00:14The U.S. Agency for International Development manages more than $40 billion a year in foreign

00:20assistance.

00:21It has programs in more than 120 countries around the world.

00:25The money goes toward everything from helping refugees to sending tents to places like Ukraine.

00:33It's a massive amount of work that also touches on promoting educational systems and good

00:38governance in various parts of the world.

00:40A huge amount of U.S. foreign assistance goes toward promoting global health.

00:45And that covers everything from nets, so to prevent malaria, to vaccinations against measles

00:52and polio, to also trying to stop the rise of AIDS in African countries.

00:59People who lose this funding are going to become more susceptible to starvation, to

01:05disease, and possibly to extremist ideology.

01:10This is the type of thing where if you lose educational services and you have young people

01:15without a school to go to, then they're going to turn to activities that could fuel crime.

01:20People are already literally dying because the U.S. has frozen its assistance.

01:26Now, it is important to remember that the State Department has issued waivers for what

01:31they're calling core life-saving material.

01:34This includes medicine and food and things like that, but they haven't really defined

01:38this very well.

01:39And so there's a lot of organizations that don't know what qualifies for these waivers.

01:44How does a weekend U.S. aid affect the United States?

01:47Much of the money that the United States spends on foreign assistance actually is spent

01:51inside the United States.

01:53For instance, the government purchases a tremendous amount of grains and other types of foods

02:00from farmers, and it uses that food and ships it over to feed hungry and starving people

02:07overseas.

02:08Because of this foreign aid freeze, those food stocks are just sitting there, not being

02:13used.

02:14And many farmers are not getting the money that they were promised for this.

02:17We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even billions over time.

02:21Many healthcare companies, such as Pfizer and Abbott, receive money from U.S. aid to

02:26provide medicines and other materials that can go help people around the world.

02:31So when their contracts are not fulfilled, this hurts them and it could hurt the U.S.

02:36economy.

02:37How could job cuts affect the aid network?

02:39Many of the people who work directly for U.S. aid carry out core functions.

02:44They're the connectors.

02:46They're the ones who can push the buttons to get the funding out the door.

02:49They're the ones who are the managers, who know how to write the contracts, who know

02:54how to check to see if the money is being spent properly.

02:57And now most of these people have been put on leave or have been fired.

03:01And so it's sort of like ripping out the heart of much of the aid network around the world.

03:09And the U.S. aid cuts affect other sectors as well.

03:13U.S. aid works a great deal with private contractors.

03:16And so many organizations that work with U.S. aid have had to lay off their people as well.

03:21There's a reverberation.

03:23And ultimately, at the end of the day, tens of thousands of jobs could get lost because

03:27of what's happened.

03:29How does U.S. aid's contributions compare to that of other countries?

03:33Without U.S. assistance, other countries, international organizations, NGOs, they're

03:38going to have to find other sources of money, or they're going to have to find ways to network

03:44and coordinate without the U.S. there.

03:46And this is really hard, because in a lot of ways, it's like you have a body without

03:50a spine.

03:51Some of those countries might be in Europe.

03:53Places like Norway are big aid funders as well.

03:57Many also believe that China could fill these gaps.

04:01And that is a concern for many U.S. foreign policy observers, because they think that

04:07this would make China a more powerful force in the future.

04:10Where are you, Congress?

04:12Speak up!

04:13Do your job!

04:14But overall, the challenge here is that if the U.S. leaves a vacuum and then tries to

04:22go back to fill it, it's going to have to do even more work than it did before.

04:28It's very easy to destroy these networks.

04:31It takes a long time to rebuild them.

04:34And in that amount of time, lives are at stake.

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