Trump s foreign aid freeze hurts Indonesian health programmes and aid workers

JAKARTA - Located in the heart of a residential community in East Jakarta, the office of Srikandi Sejati Foundation is usually abuzz with activity after lunchtime.

On a typical day, staff arrive to submit their reports after a morning of fieldwork, interviews and providing support for people with HIV/Aids. Volunteers and those in the community would also gather at the centre for the day’s activities.

But for the most part since late January, such activity has ceased, the foundation’s programme manager Ms Kamel, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told The Straits Times.

United States President Donald Trump froze the bulk of US foreign assistance for three months on returning to office in January, leaving global development programmes related to the US Agency for International Development (USAid) scrambling to deal with the fallout.

While a US federal judge on Feb 14 was reported to have ordered the Trump administration to restore foreign-aid funding, the situation remains uncertain, going forward.

And Indonesian non-governmental organisations (NGOs),such as the Srikandi Sejati Foundation which receives regular funding from USAid through a third-party organisation, are already feeling the ill effects, with disruptions in health programmes and fears of job losses among aid workers.

The local foundation, which relies on USAid funding to pay monthly salaries and operational expenses, laid off staff at its Jakarta office in early February. This has disrupted the HIV/Aids-related work it does, from helping with access to treatment, to advocacy and education on health issues.

The United States is the world’s largest provider of official development assistance, with most funds directed through USAid. Established in 1961, the agency has an annual budget of over US$40 billion (S$53.7 billion),used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, representing 42 per cent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.