Donald Trump had been targeting the funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a while now and while Elon Musk was heading the Department of Government Efficiency, the duo made several cuts to the USAID as they said that the agency was wasteful and fraudulent.
While this statement is far from the truth, Trump has now officially closed the USAID on July 1, after 83% of its programs were slashed earlier. This cut might result in millions of deaths as a recent study published in Lancet mentioned, “14 million people” might be at risk of dying because of the cuts.
As reported by The Mirror US, “The analysis, published in The Lancet medical journal on Monday, revealed that due to the USAID cuts, around 14 million people worldwide could die over the next five years, including about 4.5 million children under the age of 5.” This conclusion has been reached by experts after studying data on USAID services throughout the world. Between 2001 and 2021, USAID helped to prevent almost 92 million deaths globally.
As per Global Policy Journal, “through cuts to USAID the administration eliminated 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear contracts, which amounted to $54 billion, and also slashed nearly a third of State Department foreign aid grants, which totals a further $4.4 billion”, The Mirror US reported.
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It is important to note here that more than 90 per cent of USAID’s global aid contracts have been cancelled, which means there would be about $60 billion reductions to the U.S. development and humanitarian support.
According to the study done by the journal, “USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the abrupt funding cuts announced and implemented in the first half of 2025 are reversed, a staggering number of avoidable deaths could occur by 2030.”
This paints a grim picture and what is even more shocking is that before these cuts were made, USAID accounted for merely 0.3 percent of the total federal spending of America. Talking about the same, James Macinko of UCLA, co-author of the study said, “US citizens contribute about 17 cents per day to USAID, around $64 per year.” The amount surely does not seem to be amounting to something that would cause a huge dent to the economy.
Since its inception, USAID has been working towards saving lives and also reducing the frequency and severity of various kinds of humanitarian crises. As reported by The Mirror US, “USAID’s rapid response teams have been instrumental in curbing epidemics before they escalate, as seen during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa that claimed thousands of lives. The agency’s collaborations with global partners have strengthened health systems worldwide, resulting in a 69 percent decrease in mortality rates among children under five since 1990, as shown by the study.”
Elon Musk Says Trump Has ‘Agreed’ To Shut Down USAIDhttps://t.co/xkFms2x0oS pic.twitter.com/51YRw7SwDu
— Forbes (@Forbes) February 3, 2025
With Trump essentially putting an end to this system that worked on so many levels to help a massive number of people, it now remains to be seen what global crises these cuts bring and how the world leaders deal with the same.
