US budget cuts will reduce aid to developing countries by up to 70%; disaster for world’s poor: Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah

Aid to help developing countries fight poverty, hunger, disease and climate change is likely to fall 50 to 70 percent under proposed U.S. budget cuts, a “disaster” for the world’s poor, the president of The Rockefeller Foundation has warned.

Closing the expected gap through private or charitable spending looks unlikely, added Rajiv Shah, who ran the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2009 to 2015.

If the 15 largest U.S. foundations, including giants such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, combined their donations, the total would not match the cuts proposed just to USAID funding by President Donald Trump’s administration, Shah said.

“This is not the kind of problem philanthropy can step in and solve – or should,” he said. “These are public-sector responsibilities.”

But philanthropists can play a key role in restoring badly eroded public faith in aid spending, by tracking results and proving investments work, he said.

They can also push money into ventures – such as off-grid solar power in India – that are hugely promising but sometimes too financially risky for governments or business at the start, the 44-year-old said.

“When Americans are told what our aid accomplishes – that we can provide a school lunch in the Nairobi slum …read more