PSOE defends national and European cooperation policy against Trump’s threats against USAID

Eduardo González The Socialist Parliamentary Group in Congress has asked the Government to continue "defending and reinforcing public cooperation policies" both in Spain and in the European Union in the face of the offensive launched by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and by the "most reactionary right" of this country against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In a non-legislative proposal presented on February 18 for debate in plenary session, the PSOE recalls that USAID, the independent federal agency responsible for planning and administering the United States' economic and humanitarian assistance in the world, currently manages a budget of more than 42 billion dollars, "which alone represent 42% of the humanitarian aid disbursed throughout the world," and is represented in 120 countries. “To date, USAID’s scope of work has been broad: war zone relief in Ukraine, peacebuilding in Somalia, disease surveillance in Cambodia, vaccination efforts in Nigeria, HIV prevention in Uganda, and maternal health assistance in Zambia, among a wide range of other programs,” he continues. In addition, the agency “has helped contain serious outbreaks of Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers in recent years” and, in some regions, “provides food, shelter, and access to clean water that can make the difference between life and death.” “The United States Agency for International Development is what many call the humanitarian face of the United States in the world,” he adds. Despite this, since Donald Trump became president, USAID faces a “threat of closure” that “translates into the jeopardy and paralysis of thousands of programs around the world, along with millions of beneficiaries.” According to the PSOE, Trump has even announced the closure of the agency, a decision justified by “concern about the agency’s effectiveness and the desire to reorient international aid towards the strategic interests of the United States, which shows that they have not understood the principles and functioning of USAID.” However, a few hours after this announcement, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reported “the integration of USAID into the State Department to align foreign aid with the national security priorities of the US.” “From the United States, the most reactionary right has long been questioning the value of foreign aid programs, trying to discredit and denounce that the agency functions as a global charity independent of national interest or taxpayers’ money,” laments the Socialist Group. “Its closure would make the world a more dangerous place, especially for the United States, and could be a gift to China and Russia, who would seek to increase their influence in abandoned areas and priorities,” it warns. For all these reasons, the PSOE urges the Government of Pedro Sánchez to “continue defending and strengthening public cooperation policies in Spain, which are also being cut back in a very worrying way in some autonomous communities, town councils and local entities, and where even the work that NGOs have been developing for decades with broad citizen support is being questioned and put at risk”. It also calls for work to be done “jointly with the international community, organisations and other international forums and their member states, to take a step forward and defend public cooperation policies, which work in favour of peace, human rights and fundamental freedoms and the well-being of citizens around the world”. The motion also calls on the Government to “promote within the European institutions and among the Member States” measures that strengthen and consolidate the European cooperation policy and to “promote awareness campaigns in Spain, in the European Union and among its Member States on the serious consequences of the dismantling of development cooperation policies, both in developing countries and in donor countries, which represents the collapse of public cooperation policies and of the international world order agreed upon after World War II.”

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