7 d. ago They fled war and sexual violence and found a safe space in Athens. Then the aid cuts hit

Thirty women and their children found themselves out on the streets when their shelter closed. It was a direct result of US and European governments slashing their aid budgetsThe night of 29 May was sombre at 15 Mitsaki Street, a women’s shelter in the centre of Athens. Shoes, winter coats, shampoo bottles and sheets lay strewn around: belongings the 30 refugee women and five children living there had worked hard to acquire, and would now have to abandon. The next day, the shelter would be shuttered for good.“I was so stressed I couldn’t sleep,” says Oksana Kutko, a Ukrainian. “I knew I had nowhere to go.” Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Unsafe abortions and no antenatal care: aid cuts hit women hardest in one of Africa’s poorest countries

Mobile clinics in rural Malawi that provided pregnancy checks as well as vaccinations and TB tests have been lostA blue, burgundy and white patterned wrapper hides the swell of Joanna Banda’s belly. Eight months pregnant, she has had just three of the five antenatal appointments she should have had. She is unlikely to attend her final three either, as she still has to save 3,000 kwacha (£1.28) for a bicycle to take her six miles on rutted dirt tracks to the nearest health centre when she goes into labour.In remote villages in Malawi, pregnant women such as 22-year-old Banda, who has one child after losing her first soon after giving birth, are struggling to get the medical care they need. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Voices: In our new global order we must focus on aid, not just development

As humanitarian need hits record levels, aid budgets are being cut and redirected, says David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee. A clear strategy is needed to ensure the poorest and most fragile communities are not abandoned

Politics

1 week ago Death by aid cuts: how a decision in the US led to the loss of a mother in Yemen

While the Trump administration claims no one will die over the axing of its overseas development budgets, aid agencies say the action will cost at least 3 million lives. Fatima and her baby were among the firstWhen she woke on that Sunday morning, Fatima was part of a family preparing to celebrate – she was due to give birth to her third child any day and her brother was on his way home from Saudi Arabia to get married.But by mid-afternoon, the family were instead preparing for a funeral – both Fatima and her baby were dead. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Voices: In our new world order, it is aid, not development, that matters most

As humanitarian need hits record levels, aid budgets are being cut and redirected, says David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee. A clear strategy is needed to ensure the poorest and most fragile communities are not abandoned

Politics

2 w. ago On the road with the minister tasked with defending Britain’s painful aid cuts to Ghana

Jenny Chapman is shown the impact of her government’s ever-diminishing assistance on her first trip since taking charge of developmentIt is mid-afternoon on an overcast day in a suburb of Accra, Ghana’s capital. A crowd, including two government ministers, a World Bank director, diplomats, NGO workers and camera-wielding media, has descended upon a classroom where pupils sit around tables playing with plastic bottle tops.This is a catch-up class for out-of-school children, aged between eight and 16, run by Ghana Education Outcomes Project that is almost entirely (85%) funded by the UK government. The resulting circus is because Jenny Chapman, the UK’s development minister, has come to see the impact of her government’s diminishing aid budget. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Higher defence spending is pointless without climate aid, says UN chief

Achim Steiner says cuts to development budget are shortsighted in an interconnected global economySpending more on defence will be pointless unless western governments also tackle the climate crisis in poor countries, the UN’s departing chief of international development has warned.“The more you restrict your ability to act by simply focusing on what’s happening inside your country, the more vulnerable you become,” said Achim Steiner, who recently completed his second term as administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which works on overseas aid and lifting people out of poverty. “Vulnerability can then very quickly translate into a very real crisis scenario.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago ‘All I have left is this cloth’: Afghan earthquake survivors still waiting for help

Villagers near epicentre of devastation in Kunar province say they have been left without adequate food, tents or medical help as harsh terrain and loss of foreign aid hamper Taliban’s relief effortsIn the shattered houses of Wadeer village in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake that has killed more than 2,200 people say they are still waiting for the most basic help: food and shelter.The 6.0-magnitude quake, which struck eastern Afghanistan – and has been followed by two further earthquakes including one overnight – also injured more than 3,600, according to Taliban officials. The district of Nurgal, in the west of Kunar province, where the village of Wadeer lies, was the epicentre of the devastation, with 1,000 people confirmed dead and 2,500 injured. More than 5,700 homes were destroyed. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago Afghan earthquake survivors still waiting for help as aid cuts hit Taliban relief efforts

Villagers near epicentre of devastation in Kunar province say they have been left without adequate food, tents or medical help as harsh terrain and loss of foreign aid hamper responseIn the shattered houses of Wadeer village in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake that has killed more than 2,200 people say they are still waiting for the most basic help: food and shelter.The 6.0-magnitude quake, which struck eastern Afghanistan – and has been followed by two further earthquakes including one overnight – also injured more than 3,600, according to Taliban officials. The district of Nurgal, in the west of Kunar province, where the village of Wadeer lies, was the epicentre of the devastation, with 1,000 people confirmed dead and 2,500 injured. More than 5,700 homes were destroyed. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago ‘All I have left is this cloth’: Afghan quake survivors still waiting for help as aid cuts hit Taliban relief efforts

Villagers near epicentre of devastation in Kunar province say they have been left without adequate food, tents or medical help as harsh terrain and loss of foreign aid hamper responseIn the shattered houses of Wadeer village in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake that has killed more than 2,200 people say they are still waiting for the most basic help: food and shelter.The 6.0-magnitude quake, which struck eastern Afghanistan – and has been followed by two further earthquakes including one overnight – also injured more than 3,600, according to Taliban officials. The district of Nurgal, in the west of Kunar province, where the village of Wadeer lies, was the epicentre of the devastation, with 1,000 people confirmed dead and 2,500 injured. More than 5,700 homes were destroyed. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago US approves $32.5 million in assistance to Nigeria to help address hunger

The United States has approved $32.5 million in assistance to Nigeria to help address hunger, in a rare shift in U.S. foreign policy since former President Donald Trump abruptly suspended most aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development

Economics

last month Trump’s aid cuts in east Africa led to unwanted abortion and babies being born with HIV – report

Doctors, nurses, patients and other experts describe the loss of decades of progress in beating the virus in 100 days after Pepfar was disruptedAid cuts in east Africa have led to cases of babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and at least one woman having an unwanted abortion, according to interviews with medical staff, patients and experts.A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sets out dozens of examples of the impact of disruption to Pepfar – the president’s emergency plan for aids relief – in Tanzania and Uganda. Continue reading...

Politics