WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is walking back an almost-total 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign assistance, making an exception for life-saving humanitarian aid, according to a memo the Miami Herald obtained.
The memo said that “implementers of existing life-saving humanitarian assistance programs should continue or resume work if they have stopped” but also warned that “this resumption is temporary.” The memo also said that that the hold on new contracts continues.
The waiver, according to the State Department, is among billions of dollars in exemption requests that have been received since the administration hit pause on U.S. foreign assistance, a halt that according to the office of the State Department spokesperson had already prevented $1 billion “in spending not aligned with an America First agenda.”
The State Department confirmed the humanitarian waiver in a question and answer on foreign aid Wednesday, explaining that U.S. tax payers dollars had gone toward condoms, sex education and abortions globally, and family planning throughout Latin America, programs that “do not make America stronger, safer, or more prosperous.”
“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. And that is exactly what we are doing right now – prioritizing America’s core national interests one dollar at a time,” the email from the office of the spokesperson said.
Rubio issued the humanitarian waiver on Tuesday amid outcry by Democratic lawmakers, the United Nations and aid groups around the world that the sweeping pause on billions of dollars in assistance ordered by President Donald Trump would be detrimental to those around the world who depend on the billions of dollars in U.S.-financed life-saving aid.
Hours after his return to the White House last week, President Trump issued an executive order halting virtually all aid pending a review to ensure distributions are aligned with his “America First” foreign policy. The move immediately prompted reactions that the move, which affects everything from HIV treatment to security assistance in places like Haiti, was “reckless” and a death sentence.
The State Department has received billions of dollars in requests for exceptions to the order, according to the spokesperson’s office. However, many are still under a merit-based review as they are not considered emergency or life threatening.
Rubio’s waiver, which now joins exemptions on military aid for Egypt and Israel, covers what he described as core life-saving assistance. This is defined as essential medicines, medical services, food, shelter, and other subsistence support, along with reasonable administrative costs to deliver the assistance.
Not covered: Activities that involve abortions, family planning conferences, gender or diversity, equity and inclusion “ideology programs,” transgender surgeries or other non-life saving assistance.
The U.S. is the largest aid donor around the world, with funds supporting everything from healthcare in Africa, shelter for fleeing refugees in the Middle East and food and security in a crisis-wracked country like Haiti. In 2023, $68 billion was disbursed worldwide, most of it through the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the most recent available U.S. government figures.
The freeze has disrupted humanitarian projects and the fight against gangs in Haiti, where panicked aid groups are still trying to figure out the impact. Some aid providers told the Herald as early as Saturday that they were already having problems accessing funding for HIV drugs, for example.
Whether the treatment is now covered under the exemption is unclear. But programs administered by the United Nations are expected to be among those covered under the exemption. The world agency is currently trying to get a better account of how its programs are affected by the U.S. order. Overall, the U.N. received $13.9 billion from the U.S. last year for its global humanitarian programs, making Washington the top country donor. according to the U.N. In Haiti, U.S. funds last year accounted for 60% of humanitarian program financing, the U.N. has noted.
“UNICEF USA welcomes the waiver and are assessing the full impact of this decision on our programs for children,” UNICEF USA said in a statement to the Herald. “The United States has been an important and generous donor throughout our history. Their generosity has enabled us to save millions of lives and help children all over the world fulfill their potential. We remain determined to deliver our support to children even as we work through the implications of the decision.”
Prior to Rubio’s waiver, U.N. officials said they did not know what the effects of the freeze would be, but they were worried. On Monday Secretary-General António Guterres asked the Trump administration for additional waivers to “ensure the continued delivery of critical development and humanitarian activities for the most vulnerable communities around the world, whose lives and livelihoods depend on this support.”
The Haiti crisis
Guterres didn’t go into details but one country that is sure to be affected by any aid cuts is Haiti, where mass killings by armed gangs contributed to the deaths of more than 5,600 people last year, including 34 police officers. Gangs now control close to 90% of the capital and are now also in the country’s breadbasket, the Artibonite region. Compounding the problem is that the Dominican Republic deported over 276,000 Haitians last year, and has already returned nearly 15,000 in the first two weeks of this year.
The worsening security crisis is fueling a worsening humanitarian crisis, Guterres’ special representative in Port-au-Prince, María Isabel Salvador, told the U.N. Security Council earlier this month.
“The humanitarian crisis in Haiti has reached alarming levels,” Salvador said. “Over 6 million people — nearly half the population —require humanitarian assistance, with 3.9 million targeted for aid. The number of internally displaced persons has tripled to over 1 million, with more than half being children. Displacement sites are overcrowded and lack essential services such as clean water, sanitation, and education.”
Meanwhile, nearly half of the 12 million people in Haiti are struggling to find enough food to eat, while an estimated 6,000 people are going hungry, Salvador added. For this year alone, the U.N. needs $908 million, she said, before calling on donors to contribute generously to alleviate suffering and support recovery.
On Wednesday, the Korean government announced a $6 million financial contribution to the U.N. humanitarian efforts in Haiti. The money will support urgent needs and be split evenly between UNICEF and two other U.N. agencies.
“Among other objectives, I hope that this humanitarian support contributes to providing better health care and education to Haitian children, because the Republic of Korea has learned through its history and economic development that they represent the future of the country,” saod Lee Sang Ryul, the Korean ambassador to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
James Elder, a representative of UNICEF, the U.N.’s leading child welfare agency, told the Herald on Tuesday that all of Haiti’s numbers are moving “in the wrong direction.”
In addition to the numbers Salvador shared with the Security Council, UNICEF has said that at least 94,000 children are living in makeshift displacement sites where families lack access to food, water and health services, all of which increases their vulnerability to disease and malnutrition.
“Overwhelming violence means people have lost access to so many things that they need,” Elder said, “it could be access to seeing other family members, it could mean access to a hospital, to water. It could be to school. It’s all those things.”
Organizations like his, which are trying to respond to the crisis by focusing on education and protection for children as well as water and sanitation, are right now “desperately underfunded,” he said.
Elder visited children and families forced to flee their homes under a barrage of gang gunfire, and are now living in soiled displacement camps, as well as a rape treatment shelter. There he met a young teenage girl who had been held hostage for at least a month and repeatedly raped by armed gang members.
“Haiti has fallen off the radar of so many donors,” he said.
More gang violence
On Monday, Haiti found itself grappling with two simultaneous crises. There was the beginning of the fallout from the Trump administration’s aid freeze — police advisers contracted by the U.S. to assist the Haitian police and Kenya-led multinational force in the fight against gangs were informed by email that they had been laid off until further notice — and gangs were attacking parts of downtown Port-au-Prince and the mountains above the capital.
The coalition of armed gangs that moved into communities around rural Kenscoff killed farmers and livestock, and torched homes, local residents said. At least 3,000 people had been forcefully displaced, according to the mayor, Masillon Jean.
Elder, the U.N. chief, said the needs in Haiti are great, from nutrition and education to assistance for those who have survived rape, which is skyrocketing. But aid groups and their workers also face constraints both in terms of the deteriorating security situation in Port-au-Prince, where 1.2 million children are trapped in gang-controlled communities, and roads made impassible by the violence.
“There’s a vast, vast need,” he said. “It’s not rocket science. A lot of these programs, it is difficult with the insecurity. But we know what to do around nutrition. We know what hospitals need. We know what medicines they need, we rebuild water points but a lot of it does come down to funding.”
Elder said the funding from the United States is “significant.”
“For a long, long time in Haiti and elsewhere, the United States has been a very important and generous, generous donor. And that generosity, you can see a direct impact,” he said. “If you’re talking about Haiti, you can see in the lives of children, enabling them to stand on their owns and supporting their communities.”
One startling reality of Haiti’s displacement camps today is that rather than tarps, most people are forced to sleep on a sheet, or worse, on dirt. While some camps have access to water, many do not.
“Some people will say, ‘We take one step forward, three back,’ “ Elder said, recalling a conversation with a pediatrician who told him she feels “enormous hope because every single one of her co-workers started work like three shifts in a row….”
“So their hope is basically in their community members the way that they will rally around. But for us, my colleagues, it’s some kind of incredible resolve that they all have, that they keep pushing,” he said. “But when you talk about fiscal realities, absolutely, we now have additional financial challenges for these people who are at rock bottom.”
By JACQUELINE CHARLES/Miami Herald
Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article299365114.html#storylink=cpy
