Six months ago, the Trump administration paused almost all foreign assistance. As more than US$60 billion of programs suddenly stopped, we predicted that people would die, the world would become less fair and US soft power would fizzle. In a spirit of holding ourselves accountable, we ask has this happened?
There is no doubt that people have died as a direct result of this decision. Individual cases were documented in the days following the decision, and this effect has continued to be tracked. A recent study published in leading medical journal The Lancet has put together the effect of the program cuts—the vaccinations and medication not delivered, the food and clean water not provided—and projects 14 million additional deaths because of this policy decision. Boston University estimates nearly 90,000 people have died in the past six months because of the funding freeze on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) alone, just one of many programs to get the chop.
Six months later, US soft power feels effects of USAID cuts | The Strategist
