Grenada has been impacted by the Donald Trump administration’s decision in Washington to put a three-month pause on almost all foreign development assistance pending a review to see what fits in with the President’s “America First” policy.
A well-placed source told THE NEW TODAY that a 3-day conference set for the Grand Beach resort on Grand Anse beach to be funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been cancelled due to the Executive Order of Trump.
He said that USAID forced the organisers to cancel the conference immediately due to Trump’s decision to halt funding to the aid agency.
He added that the Donald Trump action “has started to hit us in the pocket already.”
Aid groups and human rights watchdogs have warned that the freeze will put countless lives around the world at risk.
The U.S. is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance and a global leader on HIV prevention and treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, program.
In the 2023 fiscal year, the U.S. spent just short of $70 billion on development aid, most of it through USAID.
Within hours of taking office last week, President Trump put all but the most urgently needed food assistance on hold, part of his charge to realign the nation’s foreign stance with his America First policy.
His executive order pauses new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds for 90 days while they are reviewed.
The move prompted questions in the U.S. and international aid community, at the United Nations, and in the halls of the Capitol.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a memo Tuesday exemptions to the freeze. These include life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance.
“This waiver does not apply to activities that involve abortions, family planning conferences, administrative costs … gender or DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] ideology programs, transgender surgeries, or other non-life saving assistance,” the memo said.
The State Department on Tuesday issued a lengthy explainer on the order, which it said seeks to ensure that programs are “efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.”
“President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” read the statement from State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
“Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.”
Exceptions, Bruce continued, included foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance.
The memo also provided “examples of this egregious funding,” which included expenditures as large as $102 million to fund humanitarian aid nonprofit International Medical Corps’ work in war-battered Gaza and as relatively small as “$612,000 to fund technical assistance for family planning in Latin America.”
The White House also laid out its rationale for a similar move pausing domestic grants and loans starting on Tuesday, although press secretary Karoline Leavitt was unable to clarify which domestic programs are on pause.
Trump announced, on his first day in office, that he would pull out of the World Health Organisation, citing concerns that the U.S. is being “ripped off” as the organisation’s largest donor. He did the same during his first term.
The largest single USAID project last year provided $14 billion in macroeconomic assistance to Ukraine – critical, Ukraine has said, for supporting its population while fending off a Russian invasion.
Human rights watchdogs say they welcome robust accountability over U.S. taxpayer funds but not pausing assistance during the review.
“If you want to review all of the assistance, start your review,” said Nicole Widdersheim, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch.
“He wants to be the president that reinstates U.S. influence around the world and also helps America prosper,” Widdersheim said, speaking of Trump.
“You’re not going to be able to prosper if you’re not going to help a country get out of conflict, if you’re not going to help a country become democratic and have trusted institutions that work and protect investors’ money and have a good business climate established and a good environment for investing in doing business and trade. I mean, that is the bottom line for development assistance.”
