Struggling to manage hunger crises sweeping the developing world even before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the international famine monitoring and relief system has suffered multiple blows from a sudden cessation of U.S. foreign aid, Reuters reported.
The spending freeze, which Trump ordered upon taking office Jan. 20, is supposed to last 90 days while his administration reviews all foreign-aid programs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said an exception allows emergency food assistance to continue.
But much of that emergency aid is at least temporarily halted as humanitarian organizations seek clarity about what relief programs are allowed to continue. Compounding the problem is Trump’s move this week to shut the U.S. government’s top relief provider, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
About 500,000 metric tons of food worth $340 million is in limbo, in transit or storage, as humanitarian organizations wait for U.S. State Department approval to distribute it, said Marcia Wong, a former senior USAID official who has been briefed on the situation.
As part of its fight against air pollution, only vehicles for disabled people, emergency vehicles, public transport and a few others were allowed to stay on the road.
Humanitarian organizations have hit roadblocks in getting paid for emergency food operations.
And the U.S. government issued stop-work orders to two major manufacturers of nutritional supplements, diminishing the supply of life-saving food for severely malnourished children around the world.
“We are the one thing that nearly everyone agrees on – that little children who are starving and need emergency aid need help,” said Mark Moore, chief executive officer of Mana Nutrition of Georgia, one of the two suppliers ordered to stop producing supplements. “It is not hype or conjecture or hand wringing or even contested use of stats to say that hundreds of thousands of malnourished children could die without USAID."
The U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
STOCKPILES ON HOLD
Conflict is driving large numbers of people into desperate hunger, and the U.S. is the largest single donor of aid. It provided $64.6 billion in humanitarian aid over the last five years. That was at least 38% of the total such contributions recorded by the United Nations.
In 2023, almost 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced extreme food shortages that threatened their lives or livelihoods, according to the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises.
The halt in aid creates a two-pronged crisis for humanitarian organizations working to relieve severe hunger. It impairs the programs that aim to prevent mass starvation. More immediately, it hobbles programs meant to respond to crises and save lives.
A LOST STEERING WHEEL
Longer term, the shuttering of FEWS NET stands to cripple the world’s ability to predict, prevent and respond to food insecurity crises.
Created by the U.S. government in 1985 after devastating famines in East and West Africa, FEWS NET is funded by USAID and managed by Washington, D.C.-based Chemonics International.
Researchers who collect and analyze data on food insecurity and famine say FEWS NET is essential to world efforts to fight hunger. They say it can be more nimble and prolific than its U.N.-backed counterpart, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC), a global partnership that reports on food insecurity in dozens of lands.
