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2025-01-30 06:11
Trump’s executive order halting US foreign aid funding flows for 90 days for review has caused global confusion and chaos.
In south-east Asia, such funding provides humanitarian assistance to communities that are among the most vulnerable in the world to natural disasters, as well as support for pro-democracy activists who risk their lives to campaign against repressive regimes. It’s unclear how much of this will be affected, or what the long-term impacts will be. However, life-saving programmes in the region are already being cut back.
Healthcare centres serving tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar, which has been gripped by conflict since a military coup in 2021, have been ordered to close by Friday. Secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that lifesaving humanitarian assistance would be exempt from the freeze, however some patients were reportedly being discharged. The healthcare centres, along the Thai border, are funded by the International Rescue Committee with US support. The IRC did not comment on the matter.
Inside Myanmar, the junta-controlled health ministry’s HIV programmes, which rely on US funding, are also being cut back, reported BBC Burmese, with an officer saying that “expensive tasks such as blood screening” have been suspended.
The funding suspension is also affecting pro-democracy activists who are risking their lives to oppose the country’s repressive military leaders. A prominent activist speaking on the condition on anonymity said they had been ordered to stop work providing safe houses and hideouts within Myanmar for activists who are hiding from the military. Political prisoners face dire conditions inside Myanmar’s jails, including torture. The military has previously executed pro-democracy activists.
“We are asking other democratic countries to step in and help fill the gap. USAid and other US-related donor agencies must convene among themselves and coordinate with other allies to ensure these needs are addressed on ground especially for medical aid and emergency programmes such as supporting activists at risk,” said the activist, who said they had also been ordered to stop training programmes on non violent activism.
There are also concerns about the impact on Myanmar’s independent media, which has played a crucial role in documenting military atrocities. The Indian outlet Scroll reported that news outlet Mizzima will not be able to pay its journalists, and that it will have to suspend its broadcast services because of the funding freeze. Mizzima has not commented on the report.
The suspension of funding couldn’t come at a worst time for the country. It is one of the world’s most underfunded humanitarian crises, and late last year the UN warned that 2 million people in western Rakhine state were at imminent risk of famine.
The country was plunged into chaos after the 2021 military coup, which provoked an armed resistance, and a spiralling conflict that has spread across much of the country. Poverty rates have soared, agricultural production has been disrupted, and health and education services placed under severe pressure.
UN and World Food Programme representatives in Myanmar did not respond to a request for comment.
USAid released $180m in funds to projects in the Philippines in 2024. This included funding for humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of a series of devastating typhoons in the country, which is one of the most vulnerable to the natural disasters. It also included projects across areas such as governance and civil society, education and health, including multi drug-resistant tuberculosis and the country’s worsening HIV epidemic.
The Philippines is the US’ oldest ally in the Indo-Pacific, and has grown closer to Washington over recent years as it has taken a tougher stance against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. The government has played down the impact of the funding freeze, with department for foreign affairs undersecretary Eduardo De Vega saying the suspension was not permanent and would not “severely affect” the Philippines.
The US foreign aid review will also reportedly halt funding for demining programmes, which includes life-saving work in Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia. In Vietnam, American bombs continue to lie, unexploded, across a fifth of the country and have killed tens of thousands of people since the war ended in 1975.
USAid also funds projects aimed at supporting economic development, environmental security and health across Vietnam, and released $146.46m in aid to the country in 2024.
USAid released $153m to Indonesian projects in 2023 across areas including democratic governance, anti-corruption, climate and the environment, economic growth, education, and health. Over recent years it has supported the rollout of machines that quickly identify tuberculosis and life-saving medication to tens of thousands of new mothers, as well as partnerships with NGOs to train people in disaster preparedness.
USAid funding in Cambodia supports projects promoting sustainable economic growth, health, education, child protection, and democracy and human rights.
Projects have already been suspended, including work promoting citizen journalism in the face of a worsening government crackdown on independent media.
Chhan Sokunthea, executive director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) said that if funding is cut in the long term, it will have a big impact on the support available to journalists if they face human rights violations or harassment.
Ny Sokha, president of Cambodian rights group Adhoc, whose projects are also affected, told the independent outlet CamboJA News that the funding cuts would “greatly affect our efforts to support vulnerable communities and strengthen democracy in Cambodia”. Demining programmes have also been disrupted in Cambodia, experts say. “About 30% of the demining in Cambodia is funded by the American government and that has all come to a stop. As of Saturday, no American-funded programme can work. Nobody can go back into the field,” said Bill Morse, who founded the charity Landmine Relief Fund in Cambodia.
“There’s a very good chance that someone will wander into one of those minefields that is supposed to be cleared in the next 90 days – and he’ll lose an arm and a leg. He’ll bleed out. Can people die? Absolutely it can happen.”
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