IRC chief David Miliband said US aid cuts have ended America’s role as the global aid system’s “anchor,” but improving the lives of the most vulnerable remains solvable. He said the Trump administration’s $60bn USAID cut last year directly cost 700,000 lives.
Miliband made the remarks in a keynote at The Independent’s Climate 100 event, launched during New York Climate Week. He was among 100 leaders, scientists and activists honored for work addressing the climate crisis. He said the US had provided about a third of global aid; the UK, Germany and France had also cut foreign aid, while the European Union had not.
Miliband criticized an aid system that can wait until livestock die, children starve and societies collapse before responding. He cited Somalia, where about 250,000 people died in 2010 before famine was declared, and said a separate Rockefeller Foundation analysis projected millions more could die by 2030. He also said 24 hours’ warning before a storm or heatwave can reduce deaths and resource losses by around 30%.
