Canada's help sector is preparing for cataclysmic suffering worldwide, and asks Ottawa to help fill the gaps while Washington ends the United States agency for international development.
Numerous Canadian projects are in Limbo, since the world's largest financier freezes the funds for multilateral programs, and it is not clear what will happen with millions of dollars that Ottawa had sent to USAID to program.
The cooperation of the help coalition, Canada, says that millions of people are being abruptly cut from supplies to save lives.
“The impact of this is catastrophic, for thousands and probably millions of people worldwide,” said the group's head, Kate Higgins. “It forces Canada and Canadians to think about what type of country we want to be.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has commissioned the ally billonary Elon Musk to reduce the United States budget. The exercise has involved a freezing of 90 days in most American foreign aid, waiting for a review aimed at ensuring that alignments of expenses with US interests. Thousands of personnel have been placed on a paid license, although the courts are reviewing those orders.
Multiple news reports have contradicted the claims of the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that most programs that save lives of that agency abroad are still operating through exemptions.
Associated Press reported examples last Friday, such as $ 450 million of the USA in food cultivated by American farmers, sufficient to feed 36 million people, who had not been paid and, therefore, did not deliver. Some 1.6 million people displaced by the war in the Darfur region of Sudan are isolated from the necessary funds to execute water pumps in the desert.
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The cooperation of Canada represents dozens of non -profit organizations Canadians who work in international development and humanitarian assistance, many of which direct projects that are executed from the systems operated by USAID, or United Nations agencies that have significant financing of the United States.
“Many of them must close,” Higgins said about Canadian programs.
That includes emergency medicine, basic education and hunger relief. He is leaving organizations trying to redesign their programs and work with organizations from other countries to try to fill the gaps.
Higgins said that Global Affairs Canada has been in contact with the help sector to help handle the interruption, but things are already falling apart.
“The critical partners, who are part of the implementation of these projects, are closing their doors,” he said.
In addition, the data of Global Affairs Canada show a total of $ 40 million in development projects that are currently in operation that Ottawa had financed USAID to execute. The projects included the adaptation of climate change in Peruvian basins and a background that helps LGBTQ+ activists flee from violence.
Global Affairs Canada did not provide the status of each project, including the amount of Canadian funds assigned to USAID has not yet been spent.
“Global Affairs Canada is evaluating the situation after changes in foreign aid of the United States,” spokesman Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage wrote. “No more decisions have been made at this time, and we will have more to say as the situation evolves.”
USAID did not respond to a request for comments by email.
The Office of the Minister of International Development, Ahmed Hussen, wrote in a statement that Ottawa is “deeply worried” after decades to associate with Usaid.
“The loss of leadership and resources of USAID represents a dangerous retirement that runs the risk of decades of progress in the fight against inequality, hunger, pandemics and authoritarianism,” spokeswoman Olivia Batten wrote.
“Global challenges demand collective action, and we will continue doing our part forging new associations that support peace, security and prosperity for all.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, said last Friday that “definitely” plans to talk about Usaid this week with Rubio, who supervises the agency interim.
The two will meet at the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the G7 that Joly will preside in Germany, occurring together with the Munich Security Conference.
Higgins said it is “critical” that Canada uses that opportunity “to show leadership at this very destabilizing point in global history.”
Joly told Halifax's Chamber of Commerce that the withdrawal of the United States from foreign aid will only give adversaries more inflaming in the developing world.
“I have my own opinions about what the US administration is doing with American help, but I will remain these opinions, for obvious reasons,” he said last Friday.
“When we create a vacuum, only China and Russia can benefit from it.”
Higgins said that the Canadians will comply with their reputation as a compassionate country “that includes what happens in other countries has direct implications for our own security and prosperity.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press