Esther Mbabazi/World Relief via AP
On Inside Geneva, we take a deep dive into the United States’ cuts in foreign aid.
“In Colombia, they’ve just had to lay off 200 staff who were doing the demining in the south of the country. So, all of a sudden, these families have no work. And the alternative in the area, you know what it is: coca plants. So how is that in the US interest?” asks Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
“The freezing is not democratic. Congress has voted for some of these programmes and it’s Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk, etc. who are cutting them out without the approval of Congress. So, legally, I don’t see how they can do this,” says political analyst Daniel Warner.
+ ‘Ukraine can be a tipping point’ for ridding the world of landmines
Why is Washington cutting something that is a lifesaver for vulnerable people worldwide, but costs just 0.2% of the US gross national product?
+ Geneva plans to pay NGO wages after US foreign aid freeze
“President Trump and Musk will say that these cuts to USAID are about shrinking a bloated bureaucracy and getting rid of waste and fraud. But I’d say that this whole thing has more to do with ideology and politics,” continues Dawn Clancy, a journalist based in New York.
What happens when ideology cuts humanitarian aid?
“It’s not just American isolationism. It’s not just America first. There seems to be a quite deliberate undermining of fundamental freedoms,” says Imogen Foulkes, host of the Inside Geneva podcast.
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“We don’t have four years. The international legal framework and universal human rights are at a critical juncture and are being eroded, threatened and instrumentalised in unprecedented ways. Now is the time to step up,” says Phil Lynch, Executive Director of the International Service for Human Rights.
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