Aid discounts will lead to irreversible damage.

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The head of the United Nations Development Program has warned that external aid discounts by rich countries will lead to irreversible damage to global development systems that have taken on decades.

Aham Steiner, whose service expires for 10 years as an official of the United Nations World Development Agency on June 16, told the Financial Times that the discounts by the United States and European governments were “retreating from an investment commitment together in development of our time.”

In fact, the administration of US President Donald Trump closed the US Agency for International Development, and has reduced multi -year aid contracts by 92 percent.

In February, the United Kingdom reduced the external aid budget from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of GDP, away from the 0.7 percent level of decades developed countries.

“The largest donor has disappeared, in absolute terms, from the international scene to a large extent,” Steiner said of the United States.

He added that the United Kingdom has chosen “mainly canceling the tradition of participation and being a strategic partner for many developing countries in the Commonwealth and beyond.”

He pointed out that other rich countries were following their example, including the Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland.

Steiner warned that aid discounts had already had “life -threatening consequences” in many countries.

He said: “You see our inability, for example, through (the World Food Program), to continue providing the necessary shares in refugee camps all over the world.”

“You can also see that in the way the United Nations cannot currently ascend in Sudan, where millions of people are displaced internally or have become refugees.

“And millions of people … with HIV/AIDS – literally, overnight, clinics are closed, supply chains are disrupted, and people do not receive anti -virus treatments.”

The United Nations itself was severely appointed by reforming Trump’s spending. Washington’s new annual budget proposal, published on May 30, does not include any funding for the United Nations basic operations.

It will also end the American financing of agencies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations Relief and Business Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees.

The United Nations Secretariat is now preparing to reduce its budget of $ 3.7 billion by fifth and reduced about 6900 jobs, Reuters I mentioned On May 29, quoting an internal note.

Steiner said this was only part of the job losses that were appointed to reach “tens of thousands” through United Nations agencies.

He said about the broader development assistance discounts: “These are decisions that mainly weaken the institution and settle its ability to be one of the backbone of international cooperation.”

He said that the damage may be impossible to reverse, even if the budgets will recover later.

“This type of capacity is not something you can only bring with the project,” he said. “These are not things you can just jump again.”