(Washington) After more than six decades, the American Agency for International Development Aid (USAID) officially ceases to exist on Tuesday, the Trump administration having judged that it did not serve the interests of the United States.
This is the same day that an international study reveals that the collapse of American funding dedicated to international aid could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030 among the most vulnerable, including a third of children.
What remains of the USAID will now be integrated into the American State Department, under the direction of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The 1er July, USAID will officially stop implementing aid abroad. Aid programs abroad that align with administration policies and which serve American interests will be administered by the State Department, where they will be implemented with more responsibility, strategy and efficiency, “wrote Marco Rubio in a message relayed by his services.
“Apart from the creation, at the expense of the taxpayer, of a global industrial complex of NGOs, the USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War,” he added.
The publication of the study in the prestigious medical journal Lancet Coincide with a conference on development of development bringing together leaders around the world in Spain, the United States appearing among the absent.
In a farewell message to staff on Monday, former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as singer Bono, praised the work of the USAID.
The abolition of the USAID is “inexplicable” and “will remain as a colossal error,” said Barack Obama in a video seen by AFP, while Mr. Bush defended the PEPFAR program to combat AIDS he had set up.
Since his return to power in January, Donald Trump has set out to dismantle the institution, massively cutting in international aid and removing 83 % of programs abroad by the American development agency, accused of waste and spreading values contrary to the interests of the United States.
The American president had signed a decree on January 20, from the first day, ordering a freeze on American foreign aid for 90 days, for a complete review in order to assess his compliance with the policy he intends to conduct, in particular against programs promoting abortion, family planning or even advocating diversity and inclusion.
The result was not long in coming and USAID, whose workforce exceeded the number of 10,000, has seen since its workforce melt.
Tormented
The freeze of aid by Donald Trump aroused shock and stir in the independent agency created under John F. Kennedy by a law of the US Congress in 1961, and which managed an annual budget of $ 42.8 billion, alone representing 42 % of humanitarian aid spent worldwide.
The whole global humanitarian sector was thrown into the turmoil by this decision.
The American funds sometimes represented a significant part of the budgets of the UN agencies or of various NGOs, and these losses are impossible to compensate quickly.
The United Nations announced in mid-June a drastic reduction in humanitarian aid to “the worst financial cuts” of donor countries and especially the United States.
Washington defends himself from wanting to stop any foreign help, ensuring focusing on essential humanitarian aid. Marco Rubio had dismissed last May before a parliamentary committee any notion that people were able to die because of the budget cuts in the USAID.
These studies “are based on false presumptions on what we do” and “assume that the disappearance of the USAID agency will lead to the lack of foreign assistance or vital assistance, which is simply not true,” said journalists a senior American official on condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration also highlights “innovative” help formulas as through the Humanitarian Foundation for Gaza (GHF), which is very criticized.
Nearly 170 NGOs called on Tuesday to end the Aid distribution system in Gaza, supported by Israel and the United States, after death according to a ministry of Hamas Hundreds of Palestinians trying to obtain food.
