WASHINGTON – The State Department’s top aid official said on May 14 that US$1.8 billion (S$2.3 billion) in new humanitarian aid to be provided by the US through the United Nations would be used in line with the Trump administration’s foreign policy interests.
The new funding pledge came on top of US$2 billion in funding the US announced in December under a new mechanism designed to make aid funding and delivery more efficient and increase accountability as the US and other developed nations have slashed aid spending.
Mr Jeremy Lewin, a former staffer of Mr Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who has been performing the duties of undersecretary for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, said that 92 per cent of the US assistance provided through the mechanism had been “hyper-prioritised” on life-saving aid and this would continue.
“Hyper-prioritised, focused, and focused on the places where we have a foreign policy interest, where it aligns with the president’s interest,” he said, referring to US President Donald Trump.
This meant that funding from Washington, the largest single donor to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), would not go to certain countries where US interests do not align with the priorities of OCHA, Mr Lewin said, adding that the funding through OCHA was not all of the money the US gives to humanitarian causes overseas.
“By avoiding those countries, we’re not doing a disservice to the humanitarian sector,” Mr Lewin said. “We’re allowing us to focus on the areas where we overlap, and we don’t think that there needs to be some compromise in their principles… while also allowing us the sovereign right to invest in places where it aligns with our national interest.”
OCHA chief Tom Fletcher, speaking alongside Mr Lewin, said the UN was retaining its principles of neutrality and impartiality while reforming its humanitarian system for a time when funding is declining and 300 million people around the world need support.
Before the latest US announcement, OCHA had raised US$7.38 billion from 65 member states towards its goal of raising US$23 billion for this year, he said.
Separate to its humanitarian commitment, Washington owes around US$4 billion to the UN, including US$2.4 billion for current and past peacekeeping missions, US$43.6 million for UN tribunals and the rest to the organisation’s regular budget.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said on May 14 that in January the US had paid US$159 million of the amount it owes to the regular budget, “and we will have an additional substantial charge towards our regular budget coming soon.” REUTERS
