The End of Development Aid

I’m probably not the only one who finds following the current news emotionally draining. The saddest part is that, once again, it’s the world’s poorest who will suffer the most from these developments.

Specifically, it is about international development aid, which is currently being cut at record speed - especially in the USA. Elon Musk and the company he heads Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Development Cooperation Agency USAID and immediately labeled them a “criminal organization” that it was time to eliminate.

That’s hard to swallow. Not least because I, too, worked in government development cooperation after college. As much as it may be in need of reform—in Germany as well as in the U.S.—the agencies behind it are not criminal organizations: Instead of destroying lives, government development cooperation—and above all USAID saved millions of lives in recent decades! The program launched by former President George W. Bush alone The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has generated more than 25 million people saved from death!

Musk’s words have now been followed by action. For example, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that 83% all USAID-programs can be set.

3 million dead!

The consequences are dramatic. For example, Nikolas Kristof, a journalist who has won the Pulitzer Prize multiple times, estimates that as a result of these cuts, next year alone more than 3 million people could die. 3 million!

One person for whom it’s already too late is Evan Anzoo. He was a five-year-old boy who was infected with HIV at birth. Through USAID he was given medication that kept him alive. It cost only 12 cents a day. Too much for Elon Musk. After he, as he wrote on X, USAID put into the wood chipper As a result, Evan lost access to the medication he needed to survive. He died shortly thereafter.

Although the cuts in the U.S. are the most drastic, other countries are also slashing their development aid budgets significantly. After the then-Conservative government in the United Kingdom had already reduced the development cooperation budget from 0.71% of GDP to 0.51% in 2021, the new government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer is going even further and plans to cut the annual contribution intended to help the world’s poorest, to 0.3% by 2027. By contrast, the cuts in Germany are comparatively moderate. For example, the development budget was recently cut by 936.97 million euros. While this amounts to “only” 8%, no other single budget line in the federal budget has seen such significant savings, and the new government’s coalition agreement promises further cuts.

Burying one’s head in the sand!?

In light of this news, I feel the urge to bury my head in the sand, become cynical, or rant about “withdrawing into the private sphere.” I, too, understand the urge to put oneself first in such uncertain times and to save at the expense of others, but… what if people had acted that way in the past? In my childhood, Germany faced even greater challenges. The country was divided; just a few kilometers from my home ran the “Death Strip” (as we called the Berlin Wall back then), U.S. military interventions in other countries felt like part of everyday life, the unemployment rate was more than 50% higher than it is today, and Chernobyl, the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest, acid rain, and the ozone hole filled me with fear and dread.

My reaction as a child, however, was not to bury my head in the sand. Instead, I naively took up the fight. I wrote a letter full of “blunt criticism” (as it was stated in the – unfortunately not personally written – reply) to the then Chancellor Kohl, I started donating to Greenpeace, and published the “Kladower Environmental Newspaper” (with a nearly double-digit circulation ;-). Whether that achieved anything is debatable, but it felt good not to be idle.

That’s why I don’t want to be idle now. I want to do something, do more. I want to make up a very small part of what is being saved elsewhere. On a positive note, it is probably “cheaper” than it has been for a long time to save a life.

That’s why I’ve been working on our Giving Fund: Fighting Poverty I have made a donation and would be very grateful if you would do the same. As for how the funds will be used, we are in close contact with our research partner GiveWell, who is currently working on the most pressing funding gaps to close as a result of the cuts.

I simply refuse to accept that those who have already suffered the most are once again the ones who have to bear the brunt of a changing world. But I also want us to encourage one another. We don’t have to just stand by and watch—it’s up to us to make a difference. As Erich Kästner so beautifully put it: “There is nothing good.”. Unless you do it.”

About the author

Sebastian Schwiecker

Founder & Managing Director

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I am the founder and managing director of Effektiv Spenden. If you have any questions or feedback about this article, you can send me an email or reach me at 0176/23570281. You’re also welcome to book a free donation consultation with me.