Trump policy changes would leave lives of millions in balance, agencies warn

The Guardian
Kate Hodal

Women queue to receive HIV and cervical cancer counselling and testing, and to learn about family planning services, at a clinic in Kanungu, Uganda, supported by the UNFPA. Photograph: Omar Gharzeddine/UNFPA

Executive orders that would hit funding of UN organisations and US refugee resettlement programme greeted with chorus of condemnation

Women, girls and people fleeing war and persecution will bear the brunt of far-reaching US policy changes likely to be ushered in under Donald Trump, potentially jeopardising the lives of millions of vulnerable people around the world, aid agencies have warned.

The UN Population Fund and Save the Children are among international organisations braced for Trump to sign leaked executive orders that would have a major impact on funding to the UN and support for US refugee resettlement programmes.

One of the leaked orders directly targets any UN agency involved in programmes that support or fund abortion as a method of family planning. The UNFPA does not directly support or fund abortion, but does take the view that it should be safe in states where it is legal. The organisation estimates that the loss of funding for even one year would prevent the delivery of sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services to 9 million people in humanitarian settings.

“If we do lose up to $76m [£61m], which is what America provides, it will certainly have great implications for the work that we do around the world,” said UNFPA executive director Babatunde Osotimehin.

Last year, US contributions to UNFPA core resources accounted for 7% of all core contributions to the organisation. The funding prevented an estimated 320,000 unintended pregnancies, 100,000 unsafe abortions and 10,000 maternal deaths or cases of long-term disability, said the UNFPA.

History does not augur well. Funding to the UNFPA was cut for all eight years under George W Bush, the entire span of his presidency. While other donor countries were able to fill in the gaps then, Osotimehin expressed concern that the needs of the world were now too great – and the resources too few – to satisfactorily meet demand in such circumstances.

“Of course we are worried: the world has changed,” he said. “When you look at the sustainable development goals, they’re far more than what we pushed for in those days.

“I worry that we might lose out if [the Trump administration] goes forward with this, and that the women and girls and young people who actually need our assistance around the world – I worry we may not be able to meet their needs. Even now, if you take the 2015 resources which we have, it’s not enough to do all the work that we do. So losing any part of it is going to be a challenge going forward.”

Osotimehin said he had already held preliminary talks with European, Latin American and Asian governments about filling the expected US funding gap.

Much of the UNFPA’s work takes place in refugee camps, providing much-needed family planning assistance and maternal healthcare. In Jordan’s Zaatari camp, the world’s biggest for Syrian refugees, the agency has helped deliver 7,000 babies without a single maternal death.

But those living in such camps could now suffer a double blow, with support for USAid-funded family planning clinics cut even as the chances of obtaining US refugee status severely decrease.

Having already signed off on a US-Mexico border wall earlier this week, Trump is now expected to sign additional executive orders banning refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, including Syria, Iraq and Iran.

In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Trump said the order targets “people [who] are going to come in and cause us tremendous problems”.

“Our country has enough problems without allowing people to come in who, in many cases or in some cases, are looking to do tremendous destruction,” he added.

Trump’s comments were rebutted by Carolyn Miles, president of Save the Children USA, who said the majority of those seeking shelter are children.

“Refugee children have been terrorised. They are not terrorists,” she said in a statement.

“The reality is that the US refugee resettlement programme saves lives – namely of women and children under 12, who make up 67% of the Syrian refugees in the US.

“More than half of all refugees are children, whose only chance for survival and a better future relies on access to safety. We all have a moral obligation to help.”