Development Institutions Prepare for ‘a World Without the US.
The Trump administration’s suspension of large parts of the US aid budget and its exit from global climate and health pacts has thrown the world’s development finance institutions into disarray
The US government and its branches have been largely absent from the Finance in Common Summit, an annual gathering of public development banks with $23 trillion in assets known as FICS that this year took place alongside a meeting of the finance ministers of the Group of 20 large economies in Cape Town. That comes as the country’s secretaries of State and Treasury skipped the G-20 gatherings this month in South Africa amid a broader withdrawal of US global leadership.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has dismantled the United States Agency for International Development, which has a $40 billion annual budget. That, among other impacts, has disrupted life-saving HIV/Aids treatment programs in countries from Nigeria to South Africa and ended an energy access program in Africa that was set up by former US President Barack Obama.
His attack on renewable energy and climate programs, and appointment of a vaccine skeptic as health secretary, have sown uncertainty in the development finance world as to whether the US will honor funding commitments it’s already made or provide money for climate, health and humanitarian initiatives in the future.
Source: FINANCIALPOST
