Millions of children at risk of severe malnutrition due to the dismantling of USAID

The Trump administration announced on March 10 the cancellation of 83% of the programs of the USAID development agency. This independent agency, created by a law of the US Congress in 1961, represented 42% of the humanitarian aid spent in the world.

According to an assessment published on Wednesday, March 26 in the journal Nature, this measure risks depriving one million children of access to vital treatments against malnutrition, and causing 163,000 deaths per year.

Adding to the elimination of USAID, the recent decrease in public development aid in several European countries (a 40% reduction in the United Kingdom, 34% in France, etc.), the journal Nature estimates that 2.3 million children will no longer benefit from malnutrition treatments, resulting in 369,000 additional deaths each year.

Due to the cutoff of American aid, the organization Hellen Keller International (HKI) reports that across the countries in which it operates (Bangladesh, Nigeria, Nepal, etc), nearly 21 million people, including many children, are at risk of developing severe malnutrition.

In some cases, funding for ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF, the pastes based on peanut, milk protein and micronutrients, which serve to treat cases of severe acute malnutrition) has even been cut.

«It has been incredibly difficult to understand the decisions these last weeks. In each country where we are present, we received orders to stop operations, then resumes, letters of termination», explains Shawn Baker, head of operations of HKI and former nutritionist chief of USAID, to Le Monde.

«There have also been false accusations about what USAID was funding. It’s tragic, we feel like we’re betraying our long-time partners», he adds.

Michael Siegel, spokesperson for Action Against Hunger (ACF), describes the American cuts as ‘criminal decisions’. About 30% of his organization’s budget came from USAID.

«We have received termination letters for about fifty nutrition programs. This concerns 1.5 million people, of which 800,000 are in danger of death. In the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], for example, we do not disconnect the infusions of children already being treated, but we have to send home those who are knocking on the door, knowing they are condemned», says Mr. Siegel to Le Monde.

Major UN agencies, such as Unicef or the World Food Programme (WFP), nearly half of whose funding comes from the United States, are also affected. In recent weeks, the WFP has had to end food aid for one million people in Myanmar, close its office in South Africa, and suspend a school meal programme in Mali.

«The WFP is being forced to make tough choices, giving priority to treatment rather than prevention, which means we can only help children when they are already sick», its executive director, Cindy McCain, lamented in a statement.

The American decision to dismantle USAID also hinders the scientific community’s ability to assess the impacts and react. In February, senior USAID officials were immediately fired for internally reporting the repercussions of the dismantling.