Neighbor Tuesday: What I'm watching with the new administration

Happy Tuesday, neighbors! With the new US administration coming in this week, I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what I’m watching from a global public health standpoint. You all in the FNE community live in over 80 countries (y’all, this will never cease to delight me), so you might gloss over this post. However, we all know that the US holds an immense amount of power and purse-strings globally. Here’s what I’m watching because of that.

1. Will the US withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO)? Word on the street is that this will happen on day one. So, this might be old news by the time this post is published. Here’s why it matters though. In 2020, the Trump administration pulled out of the WHO, citing reasons that were simply not true. Whether or not the US pulls out again could signal if the 2020 decision was a political move or more of an idealogical move. Historically, the US has been one of the largest WHO funders, so a withdrawl could severely impact the humanitarian efforts funded by the WHO. As an example, there are 305 MILLION people in urgent need of humanitarian response. The WHO is calling for $1.5 billion to respond with life-saving interventions to the most vulnerable populations. A withdrawl would cut that budget drastically and, in turn, impact programs like child vaccination programs to prevent polio, assistance during war, and food/housing for refugee populations.

   

   Source: WHO https://www.who.int/about/funding/contributors/usa

2. What will US funding look like to the UN? The UN provides a vast amount of help to our global neighbors - think the World Food Programme, UNICEF, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee. Think about food assistance in Yemen, healthcare in Ukraine, childhood vaccination programs in Russia. To do that, it takes a lot of money. The UN is already at a deficit from not meeting the $50 billion appeal in 2024 (this resulted in cuts to programs like I mentioned before including an 80% reduction in food programs in Syria). So, funding cuts trickle down but don’t affect populations equally. The cuts will affect the most vulnerable. $50 billion is not that big a hurdle when spread across the wealthy countries.

   

   In 2017, the Trump administration suspended all funding for the UNFPA (the UN Population Fund), reduced funding to UNAIDS, and the WHO 20-30%. During the Biden administration, most of that was restored. But, I’ll be watching the UN funding cuts and allocations in the coming months. I’ll pay particular attention to what agencies/programs are affected the most.

3. Will there be another travel ban? This one was personal. In 2017, the Trump administration signed an executive order banning people from 6 Muslim-majority countries from traveling (including refugee resettlement) to the US for 3 months. As many of you know, my work is among children in Somaliland, one of the areas banned. The ban not only affected travel but also signaled individualism (and discrimination) rather than collective diplomacy. Recent reports have stated that Trump mentioned bringing back the bans from “infested countries” to “seal our borders” and included refugees war-torn Gaza. This rhetoric, as in 2017, is incredibly discriminating and unneighborly.

4. What about funding for global health or equity-based work at the NIH? My day-job work is funded through the NIH. And, I’m so grateful for it. When I write about helping children with cancer or surgical needs in some of the poorest countries of the world, that’s the NIH funded work. With new leadership (if confirmed) at NIH and HHS, I’ll be watching for cuts, particularly among equity-based programs and projects. Likewise, I’ll be watching for possible redirections. One news organization stated that the potential incoming NIH lead mentioned moving the NIH away from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. That would be catastrophic, particularly for our most vulnerable neighbors! To me, it also signals a myopic way of thinking we have to choose one or the other. We can do both! We have been doing both. Leaders who can’t see the both/and approach, to me, do not understand the holistic way we should approach public health.

5. What happens with sanctuary cities, immigration, food assistance, housing insecurity, Medicare/Medicaid cuts, the UN Security Council…? These issues at the heart, to me, are issues of neighboring. What happens with immigration or persons without enough food or families who can’t afford a home or sanctuary churches/cities is one of neighboring. I’ll be watching here.

   

   "Golden Rule" - Norman Rockwell (USA - 1985) | United Nations

   This is certainly not an exhaustive list of what I’m watching with the new administration! But, I’m keeping a close eye on these issues. I’ll keep you updated.

-Emily