We trawl through The Heritage Foundation’s policy proposals that could mean significant changes to U.S. foreign aid under a potential second Trump administration.
Also in today’s edition: We take a look at changes to Uganda’s anti-gay law, examine the Asian Development Bank’s climate numbers, provide an update on World Central Kitchen, and find out what the IMF is up to.
Aid to be Trumped again?
Get ready for some pendulum swings in U.S. foreign aid policy if Donald Trump wins office again. Just one chapter in a sweeping nearly 1,000-page blueprint from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation unveils ideas for a radical reshape of global engagement.
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Climate change mitigation policies? Rescinded. Humanitarian aid in the Middle East? Slashed to the bone. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives? Sacrificed on the altar of ideology. And at the forefront: a resolute elevation of pro-life, anti-abortion policies as non-negotiable "core objectives." USAID? Cuts, cuts, cuts!
“The next conservative Administration will have a unique opportunity to realign U.S. foreign assistance with American national interests,” states the report. “This will require that bold steps are taken on Day One to undo the gross misuse of foreign aid by the current Administration.”
The Heritage Foundation wields significant influence, with past policy recommendations finding eager reception in the Trump corridors of power. With 70 former Heritage affiliates embedded in Trump's administration by 2018, the foundation's proposals carry weight, writes my colleague Elissa Miolene.
While some aid experts question the feasibility of the proposals — part of the foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project — there's no denying their gravity.
“Could the Trump administration implement these ideas mentioned in Project 2025? Yes, many are possible but a lot more detail is needed,” Tom Hart, the president of InterAction, tells Elissa. “Should they? That is an entirely different question.”
Backed by deep-pocketed funders, The Heritage Foundation's report includes familiar, partisan broadsides against Biden’s policies, along with a string of proposals that read like campaign promises. But more on that when Elissa gets through the report’s remaining 976 pages.
Read: What MAGA has planned for USAID — and the world (Pro)
+Listen: In the latest episode of our weekly podcast series, Devex’s Raj Kumar and Adva Saldinger sit down with Nasra Ismail, U.S. enterprise executive director at Alight, to discuss USAID’s spending plan for the coming months and other top global development stories from this week.
Uganda’s anti-gay law gets nod
In a stark blow to human rights, Uganda's Constitutional Court upheld one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws, sowing fear in the LGBTQ+ communities and setting a dangerous precedent that could embolden other nations eyeing similar draconian measures.
The court's long-awaited ruling struck down only a fraction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, leaving the bulk intact and deemed constitutional. Activists lamented the tepid response from international donors, particularly calling out the European Union for its “lackluster” efforts.
Activists argued that except for the United States announcing a few measures and the World Bank freezing funding, there could have been much tougher responses.
The court's decision leaves LGBTQ+ people criminalized and facing extreme consequences — sentences ranging from 10 years in jail to the death penalty. Despite activists’ pleas, the court refused to fully nullify the law, though it did scrap a handful of aspects.
It removed criminalization of renting premises for homosexual purposes, failure to report homosexual acts, and homosexuality that leads to others contracting a terminal illness.
“This partial nullification is merely window dressing designed to try to persuade donors to restart funding,” Richard Lusimbo from the Uganda Key Populations Consortium said in a statement.
The atmosphere in the Kampala courtroom was calm, according to activist Herman Shasha, but the repercussions are anything but. “We [are] now totally criminalized. It’s a sad day for us. And scary,” he says.
The bill, labeled as “among the worst of its kind in the world” by the United Nations, will likely devastate Uganda’s response to HIV and AIDS, and global activists now await the fallout. Ghana passed a similarly harsh bill in February — still to be signed into law — and there are reports of comparable legislation in the works in Kenya and Tanzania.
Read: Uganda tweaked its anti-gay law just to get donor cash, activists say
ICYMI: World Bank, USAID aid billions for Uganda jeopardized by anti-gay law
ADB by the numbers
The Asian Development Bank's numbers on 2023 climate finance show a sizable leap forward, marking a commitment of $9.8 billion versus $6.7 billion recorded in 2022.
Notably, the portion dedicated to climate adaptation — often trickier to finance than carbon dioxide emission mitigation projects — shot up to $4.3 billion from $2.7 billion.
My colleague Vince Chadwick delved deeper into the significance of these numbers with Warren Evans, ADB’s special senior adviser on climate change. Evans sheds light on what’s behind the figures, providing insight into the Just Energy Transition Partnerships with Indonesia and Vietnam, and what he sees as the major under-discussed challenge for climate finance.
“It didn't happen overnight,” says Evans. “There are three major shifts that ADB has made over about the last five years that resulted in this dramatic increase in climate finance this last year, and we expect it to continue along this trajectory.”
For the full interview, read: The strategy behind ADB's massive climate finance numbers (Pro)
Related reading: Donors misunderstand energy transitions, warns Asian Development Bank (Pro)
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WCK probe
World Central Kitchen — which lost seven of its aid workers to an Israeli strike in Gaza this week — called for an independent investigation into the attack, urging Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland, and the United Kingdom to determine whether it was intentional.
Celebrity chef José Andrés, who heads the food relief charity, told Reuters his staff were deliberately targeted — and rejected assertions from both Israel and the U.S. that it was a mistake.
“An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers,” wrote WCK’s Javier Garcia and Erin Gore in a statement.
+ Catch up on our coverage of the humanitarian fallout of the war in Gaza.
Kristal clear focus
While it hasn’t always, the International Monetary Fund will focus on low-income countries in the years ahead, its chief Kristalina Georgieva said at an event in Washington, D.C. this week, which Adva attended.
Average IMF lending to low-income countries was around $1 billion pre-COVID-19, when the institution quadrupled its lending to them. As those countries struggle to recover from the pandemic — their gross domestic product is on average 10% less than before the pandemic — they need support.
The next few years for the IMF will be a “time in our history when more of our attention and more of our programs will be focused on this group of countries,” Georgieva said. “This next cycle, our task would be low-income countries and vulnerable emerging-market economies and we are really gearing up.”
To that end, the IMF has grown its Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, which provides low- or no-cost loans to low-income countries. But what it needs now, and a key point of discussion at the upcoming World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings, is more money as a subsidy to make sure loan costs are low, she said.
And just in: Georgieva is the only nominee for the IMF’s next managing director. While the formal process will play out, it’s further confirmation that a second term is hers.
+ For weekly updates on globaldev job moves, read the Weekender, a weekly newsletter of insider tidbits exclusively for Pro members. Join Devex Pro to get it in your inbox every Sunday.
In other news
Senior finance and central bank officials from Southeast Asia and major economies convened in Laos Thursday to strategize on building resilience against COVID-19 and climate-driven disasters. [ABC News]
Despite decreases in forest loss in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon, the global destruction of pristine rainforests continued in 2023, with new figures indicating an average loss of 10 football pitches per minute. [The Guardian]
Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster Wednesday due to a severe drought in southern Africa, with its president requesting $2 billion in humanitarian aid. [AP News]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
