USAID: Humanitäre Hilfe im Nahen Osten in Krise

Die Abwicklung von USAID durch die Trump Regierung betrifft auch unzählige Projekte im Nahen Osten.

Fast 40% aller weltweiten Hilfe stammten bisher aus den USA, wobei USAID eine der zentralen Agenturen für die Verwaltung und Verteilung darstellte. Deren Zahlungen sind nun quasi über Nacht eingestellt. Das hat überall gravierende Folgen. In Syrien etwa sind unter anderem Hilfsprojekte in Flüchtlingslagern aber auch die White Helmets betroffen:

One former contractor working on a project with USAID in Syria, which funded the volunteer nongovernmental organization the White Helmets, told CNN that their grant was frozen.

Food kitchens funded by the US in Sudan are already shutting down, according to Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former USAID official.

“A lot of displaced people and a lot of people who are caught in famine and other crises could be harmed, if not gravely harmed, if not killed by this pullback of aid,” Konyndyk said, warning of the wide-reaching impact on refugees in Sudan, Syria and Gaza.

Konyndyk also noted that USAID employees can’t act on the waivers if they are locked out of their government systems or placed on administrative leave.

Tausende von Mitarbeiter lokaler und internationaler Hilfsorganisationen und NGO bangen um ihre Zukunft.

Besonders betroffen sind auch enge Verbündete der USA in der Region wie etwa Jordanien, das traditionell extrem von ausländischer Hilfe abhängt. Im National erschien ein Artikel, der die Folgen beschreibt:

About 35,000 employees, both Jordanian and Americans, from public and private sector organisations working on US projects have lost their jobs, according to preliminary estimates by the NGO sector in Jordan.

The result has limited or severed access to essential services funded by the US agency such as health care, education, water projects, public infrastructure projects, gender-based violence response and protection programmes, and critical support for Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Jordan, according to members of NGOs and development communities.

In addition to upending its economy, suspending USAID “will have a devastating effect on human security and stability in Jordan and beyond”, the head of one of the country's larger NGOs told The National on condition of anonymity.

This will be “double devastation” for the underprivileged and marginalised, including refugees, the organisation leader added.

Jordan is a strategically important country for the US and hosts nearly 3,000 American troops, according to a Congressional Research Service Report in 2022. US assistance has helped Jordan address serious vulnerabilities, both internal and external, it said. Jordan’s small size, refugee burden and lack of major economic resources have made it dependent on aid from western and various Arab sources.

The suspension of USAID will hit the beneficiaries that were receiving essential services from programmes funded by the agency as their activities come to a halt and the money dries up. (...)

A second wave is expected in the next few months, as the organisation anticipates it must stop providing 58,000 beneficiaries, mostly vulnerable groups such as refugees, with sexual and reproductive health services and gender-based violence protection and rehabilitation services, said the NGO leader.

“Within one to two months, we have been hearing from UN agencies and others that we should expect more projects to stop, which means that we cannot afford any more to sustain a bigger number of staff.”

The organisation will also be forced to close community centres across Jordan, which will have “trickle effects across the ecosystem” in terms of rented spaces, consultants, suppliers and medical aid providers, she added.

“It goes beyond the numbers. It's a ripple effect on the whole economy.”

Ultimately, she expects her organisation to slash about 50 per cent of its budget, while the number of beneficiaries given access to services will also be halved in a worst-case scenario.

“We're talking about around 100,000 beneficiaries losing their services and maybe 30 per cent of the 700 staff we will have to let go,” she said. “Ït's the uncertainty and unpredictability of what's going to happen next … we are trying to mitigate this, because as an NGO we have an obligation towards our staff and we're trying to transfer people or find different means but it's a very harsh and hard situation we're finding ourselves in.”