AIDS, Malaria and Child Hunger: What Will the Closure of USAID Mean?

The US State Department has notified Congress that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is closing. Despite this, USAID employees are still challenging the dismissal as illegal: the cessation of funding deprives the agency of the opportunity to continue most of its activities. According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, approximately five thousand of the agency’s six thousand programs will be closed . In fact, the development of AIDS vaccines, the fight against malaria in entire regions, as well as the fight against child hunger are being stopped. Donald Trump is abandoning the traditions of American “soft power”. Millions of people in dozens of countries around the world will suffer from this.