World Tour: Global aid realignment

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

The Trump administration froze a wide variety of foreign aid when it took office in January. The U-S State Department said it needed 90 days to figure out where development money was going and what it was being spent on. Accounts of waste and profiteering bolstered the White House argument.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: But legitimate international aid groups also found themselves scrambling to fill the funding gap. Some programs had to be shut down. Others cut back.

The U-S has reinstated some of the funding, but other countries are also stepping in, bringing with them their own agendas and priorities.

WORLD Reporter Onize Oduah has this special report.

ONIZE ODUAH: In January, word of the paused U.S. aid brought some initial confusion to the World Relief team in Sudan.

BIRHANU: You know that within a very short time, they approve, then a little bit, after a few days, they disapprove. So it was interrupted several times.

Gemta Birhanu is the regional director of World Relief’s programs in Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad.

The U.S. funded agricultural service for displaced people and host communities program was eventually reinstated, but that wasn’t the case for others.

Birhanu says a different program that provided water, sanitation, and hygiene services to nearly 1 million people in South Sudan wrapped up, but was not renewed.

BIRHANU: We have submitted several projects for Sudan and South Sudan, which were about to be approved, and those projects which were at final negotiations were automatically canceled.

The ministry had to let go of more than 400 workers in South Sudan. It also closed down more than 25 health centers. The group has shifted its focus to finding new partners.

BIRHANU: The impact is really significant on us. However, World Relief is doing its best to mobilize resources from private donors.

Birhanu says the group is also trying to capitalize on its existing partnerships with other United Nations organizations active in the countries.

In countries like Nigeria, State Minister for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako admitted that the foreign aid pause provided a wake-up call for the country to reorganize its health sector. Authorities there launched a committee to draft a transition plan for USAID-funded health programs.

Meanwhile, other countries like Saudi Arabia are ramping up their global support. Back in February, the Saudi-based King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center partnered with the United Nations Development Program. Together, they assisted Yemeni communities dealing with the effects of armed conflict.

A month later, it donated more than $5 million to support Ukrainian refugees combating sex-based violence against women and girls.

China has also entered the mix. One week after the United States canceled funding for two projects in Cambodia supporting child literacy and nutrition efforts, China launched similar programs. U.S. officials say the country made a similar move after USAID ended a childhood development project in Rwanda.

LANGLEY: There’s a number of programs that we see that the Chinese communist party is trying to replicate. They can’t do what we do.

Gen. Michael Langley is the commander of U.S. Africa Command. He says China is trying to exploit the U-S exit, even though the U-S has proven to be a better strategic partner.

LANGLEY: Those capabilities are needed for the U.S. to maintain a strategic advantage over the Chinese Communist Party.

But not everyone believes China suddenly shifted strategy to capitalize on the United States’ absence.

Christian-Geraud Neema is the Africa editor of the nonprofit multimedia organization China-Global South Project. He says China was already working in countries like Rwanda ahead of the U.S. financial withdrawal. He also sees the U.S. strategy on the continent as very different from China’s.

NEEMA: China’s development … vision of development aid comes with financing investment and projects. That’s why what China calls development aid also comes with forms of like, for example, financing railways, financing projects ….

He says here that China’s approach to aid includes loans and financing for projects like railways.

That approach could change in the coming years. But for now, many donor-receiving countries are still trying to understand the impact of the funding gap and how to fill those gaps, whether internally or with new partners.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah.

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