While the left likes to criticize President Trump for cutting spending used as international aid for poorer countries, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggests that these cuts could be a good thing.
On Tuesday, President Trump issued an immediate pause on most of the country’s foreign assistance to South Africa following the G20. WHO director Ghebreyesus, who was at the G20 Summit, acknowledged that these spending cuts would cause disruption to health systems and services in many African countries. But according to Breitbart, he pointed out that these cuts have also “exposed and amplified long-standing vulnerabilities, including soaring debt burdens and shrinking fiscal space.”
But instead of pointing fingers and laying blame, Ghebreyesus suggests that this could be an opportunity for global self-reliance.
“I have said many times that in this crisis lies an opportunity—an opportunity to leave behind the era of aid dependency, and embrace a new era of sovereignty, self-reliance, and solidarity,” he explained. While at the summit, Ghebreyesus spoke with African leaders and suggested that affordable and essential health packages can be created by introducing health taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks.
“Africa does not want charity. Africa wants fair terms,” he asserted.
According to Breitbart, these events are all part of the organization’s efforts to cut spending to align with expected income flows now that the U.S. is no longer a member of WHO. One of the first things that President Trump did when entering office in Janury was withdraw the country from WHO due to the “organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”
When the news broke, Ghebreyesus and his officials had originally reacted to President Trump’s announcement with panic and condemnation. This was not surprising since the U.S. had invested $1 billion a year on the agency. However, Breitbart reports that in March, Ghebreyesus changed his opinion and conceded that the U.S. “has been extremely generous over many years, and of course, it’s within its rights to decide what it supports and to what extent.”
