What does the US general election mean for aid?

With less than seven months until the U.S. general election in November, foreign aid issues are unusually prominent in the national political conversation. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have brought issues of humanitarian law and access to the fore — with this month’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees by the Israeli Defense Forces sparking global pressure to protect aid workers and civilians. While it can be risky for humanitarian and development advocates to wade into murky political waters, the heightened attention also creates an “opportunity to educate the American public about what foreign aid is and what it isn’t,” said Tom Hart, president and CEO of international NGO InterAction, in a Devex Pro Live event last week. “These are the firefighters running into burning buildings to help people,” Hart said. As U.S. voters prepare to go to the polls, the U.S. aid community also prepares starkly different alternatives for the two potential second-term presidential candidates. Some of these differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are well established. Biden framed his foreign policy as “a return to multilateralism,” said Erin Collinson, director of policy outreach at the Center for Global Development. Trump, on the other hand, has shown “preferences for more bilateral or unilateral actions,” she said. If Trump returned to office, that would likely translate into a quick withdrawal — again — from the World Health Organization, said Hart. “Any sort of international multilateral agreement around pandemic preparedness and response, I think, would face real uphill battles,” he said — Biden restored the United States ties with WHO in one of his first acts upon taking office in 2021. Some of the policy ideas floating around Trump’s candidacy remain harder to pin down, such as his suggestion that aid be given in the form of loans, rather than grants. “I don’t think that’s a proposal yet that’s been stress tested, and I think it really deserves greater scrutiny,” Collinson said.