U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved a waiver for emergency humanitarian aid, exempting “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs from the 90-day foreign aid funding freeze and stop-work order that the Trump administration instituted last week, according to the text of a memo seen by Devex.
The waiver defines lifesaving humanitarian assistance as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs necessary to deliver such assistance,” according to the memo.
The waiver will not apply to activities that involve abortion; family planning conferences; diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; transgender surgeries; or other nonlifesaving assistance.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
