They take the money and go': why not everyone is mourning the end of USAID

"Earlier this year, Donald Trump appointed a 28-year-old Doge alumnus, Jeremy Lewin, to oversee his administration's approach to global aid. Lewin's primary task has been to gut the US's aid funding. In an interview with the New York Times, Lewin argued that the traditional approach, which he termed the global humanitarian complex, didn't help poor countries progress beyond aid, instead keeping them dependent. The system, he continued, has demonstrably failed."

"This isn't just the Trump administration's view. For decades, there has been a robust debate in academic and policy circles, discussed over drinks by development practitioners, written about by critical economists and postcolonial independence leaders, and percolating into the broader consciousness, that aid isn't working, or at least not as promised."

"When the news of Trump's USAID cuts broke this year, President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia told the Financial Times that cuts in aid were long overdue and would force countries such as his to take care of our own affairs. This spring, a few weeks after the Trump administration began dismantling USAID, I visited the small west African nation of Sierra Leone. I had worked there as a global health practitioner from 2015 to 2018, and in the years since I had returned often, this time as a journalist."

Donald Trump appointed Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old Doge alumnus, to lead US global aid policy and to reduce aid funding. Lewin labeled the existing system the "global humanitarian complex" and argued it keeps poor countries dependent rather than helping them progress. A long-running debate among academics, policymakers, economists, and postcolonial leaders questions aid effectiveness and impact. Some leaders, including Zambia's president, welcomed cuts as a push toward self-reliance. Observations from Sierra Leone and critiques of microfinance raised doubts about technocratic solutions. Rapid USAID reductions have correlated with reports of acute harms, including malnutrition and disrupted maternal care.

Read at www.theguardian.com