US Aid Cuts Could Endanger 14 Mln Lives by 2030

Over 14 million of the world’s most vulnerable people, including millions of young children, are at risk of dying by 2030 due to a sharp reduction in US foreign aid, according to a new study published in The Lancet medical journal.

The research links the looming threat to the dismantling of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

Until recently, USAID accounted for more than 40% of all global humanitarian funding. However, the rollback in foreign assistance since Trump’s return to the White House in January has raised alarm among global health experts.

Co-author David Rehse, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, warned that the funding cuts could stall, or even reverse, more than two decades of progress in global health outcomes among at-risk populations.

For many low- and middle-income countries, the sudden withdrawal of aid would be comparable to facing a major global pandemic or a large-scale armed conflict, Rehse said in a statement accompanying the study.