UN chief: US cuts make the world less healthy, safe, and prosperous

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “severe cuts” in U.S. foreign aid are undermining international support for millions of vulnerable people, from Afghanistan to Sudan and Ukraine, impoverishing the world’s neediest and threatening to erode U.S. influence around the world. In an extraordinary public rebuke, the U.N. leader said that the deadly impact of the cuts in foreign assistance is spreading mayhem around the globe, ending lifesaving aid for victims of war and natural disasters, hindering social development, and setting back efforts to fight terrorism and illicit drug trafficking. He appealed to the Trump administration to reverse course. “I want to start by expressing my deep concern about information received in the last 48 hours by UN agencies — as well as many humanitarian and development NGOs — regarding severe cuts in funding by the United States,” he told reporters outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday morning. “Now going through with these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous. The reduction of America’s humanitarian role and influence will run counter to American interests globally.” The U.N. chief's remarks underscored the extent of the world’s dependence on the U.S. for maintaining a sprawling global safety net that can make the difference between life and death for millions in the most dangerous places on the earth. It also highlighted how quickly the Trump administration — which has been in power for less than six weeks — has been able to topple the pillars of an international system the U.S. built after World War II to maintain global stability. Guterres said that funding for many programs combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera have come to a halt. Over 9 million Afghans will lose access to health services following the closure of hundreds of mobile health teams dependent on U.S. funds. The U.S. cuts, he said, are leaving some 2.5 million needy civilians in northeast Syria — where U.S. troops are deployed to contain the reemergence of the ISIS terror group — vulnerable to a loss of aid support. A humanitarian program that served 1 million people in Ukraine last year has also been suspended. “In South Sudan, funding has run out for programs to support people who have fled the conflict in neighboring Sudan, leaving border areas dangerously overcrowded," Guterres said. “Meanwhile, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will be forced to stop many of its counter-narcotics programs, including the one fighting the fentanyl crisis, and dramatically reduce activities against human trafficking.” The Trump administration has also cut funding to a critical Demographic and Health Surveys, or DHS, program, which conducts surveys and analyzes data on health, HIV, population, and nutrition in more than 90 countries. The outfit is considered the gold standard for household surveys, collecting granular information on fertility, contraceptive use, child survival, and maternal mortality in lower- and middle-income countries that lack the resources. Its findings are used throughout the United Nations to determine how to marshal international assistance to meet its Sustainable Development Goals, a set of targets aimed at ending poverty, redressing inequality, and promoting global health, among other vital objectives. “We probably need to declare a data emergency,” Priscilla Idele, the chief of the data and analytics branch of the U.N. Population Fund, or UNFPA, told Devex. Idele said the end of U.S. funding for the program is sending shockwaves through the statistical world at a time when the sector is emerging from a crisis in data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global conflicts. She noted that vital statistics for some 30% of the global population are not covered by current surveys. For instance, the births of some 500 million children have not been registered, making it impossible to make decisions on their needs. “With that funding gone, it just means the situation is going to get worse,” she said. “The concern now is that with shrinking fiscal space for data and statistics, it means we are not able to make smart investments in our human capital, in our environment, in our health, and our social services.” The U.N. has been “extremely grateful for the leading role the United States has provided over the decades,” Guterres said. “American funding directly supports people living through wars, famines and disasters, providing essential health care, shelter, water, food and education — the list goes on.” “The generosity and compassion of the American people have not only saved lives, built peace and improved the state of the world. They have contributed to the stability and prosperity that Americans depend on.” Guterres said he hopes the U.S. funding freeze “can be reversed based on more careful reviews.” He also called on other donor nations to reconsider their own plans for cuts in development and humanitarian assistance. Several large donors, including Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom, have approved large cuts in their foreign aid budgets. Meanwhile, Guterres said the U.N. would seek to expand its pool of donors while striving to deliver lifesaving aid where it is most needed. “We will do everything we can to provide life-saving aid to those in urgent need,” he said. “We remain committed to making the global humanitarian effort as efficient, accountable and innovative as possible while continuing to save lives.”