Funding Fallout as USAID Goes Dark: Agency reportedly gutted and shuttered

 

The New York Times reports that websites for the U.S. Agency for International Development went dark Saturday afternoon as lawmakers and aid workers, following freezes to foreign assistance and the suspension of senior officials, braced for the possibility that the agency might be shut down.

Attempts to access the group’s website on Sunday night were not successful. Reportedly, thousands of workers have been let go.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States Government responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. As outlined by Wikipedia, the agency has a budget of over $50 billion and is one of the biggest of its kind globally.

The US Congress passed the Foreign Aid assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid.

The US Embassy in Jamaica is one of the few places where agency information can still be accessed. It notes that USAID/Jamaica works in partnership with the people and Government of Jamaica to support the Vision 2030 goal of making Jamaica “the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business.”

The Mission supported Jamaican promoting community safety and security; widening access to quality basic education; increasing resiliency of targeted sectors to global climate change; and working to reduce the prevalence of HIV among key populations.

The agency recently celebrated its 60th year of activity in the island. Other sources note that over the past six decades, USAID has invested in excess of US$1.4 billion to support the environment, health, education, and citizen security in Jamaica.

In 2023, USAID launched a three-year, US$4-million Jamaica Energy Resilience alliance, which will invest up to US$50 million to boost Jamaica’s renewable energy programmes.

 Photograph of USAID-funded activity in schools by borgenproject.org

 Caribbean Money Daily

Caribbeanmoney.blogspot.com

Follow us for breaking news

Contact: austanny@yahoo.com/ 1 876 727 3818

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kintyre makes US$300,000 investment in Sevens Ice

Image
  Tyrone Wilson Chairman, President and CEO Kintyre Holdings (JA) Limited (KHL) and Seven Kingston Limited, owners of the Seven Ultra Lounge and Restaurant, on January 14 announced a joint venture to launch Sevens Ice. Kintyre Holdings has made an investment in excess of US$300,000 in acquiring an associate stake in Seven and also establishing the start-up for the ice venture. "This initiative addresses Jamaica’s growing demand for high-quality ice, with operations set to begin in Q1 2025," Wilson stated. Additionally, the venture has acquired a cold storage facility to manage its start-up capacity and is exploring the importation of ice to bridge the gap between demand and supply, ensuring a consistent and reliable market presence. Distribution Expansion Wilson said that Sevens Ice has secured a distribution point in Kingston and is in the process of setting up another in St. Catherine to serve the western and central parts of the island. This expansion will ensure broade...
Read more

BCMG increases risk management oversight: Launches surveys-as-a -service

Image
Insurance brokers in Jamaica often send underwriters themselves to survey risks; however, they frequently do not have the technical knowledge required to produce the best results. BCMG Insurance Brokers Limited (BCMG) in response, introduced - in support of the wider brokerage industry - an updated surveys-as-a service product which has been embraced by the wider community as groundbreaking. Senior Risk Manager on the New Business Team of BCMG David Lazarus explains, “We saw where the technical details and in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of business operations were not always being taken into consideration. This was seen as an opportunity to expand into this space.” In 2020, Billy Craig Insurance Brokers and Maritime General Insurance Brokers, MGI, signed an agreement to merge their operations to form BCMG Insurance Brokers Limited. Following the union, the new company has been exploring options to expand the service capability of the brokerage and increase value for clients...
Read more

Wish List: University Hospital CEO seeks top-flight CFO for turnaround miracle

Image
  It's a puzzling end of year for the finance team at the University Hospital of the West Indies where, despite an ongoing plan to quadruple plant size and service centres for the teaching institution, its current state is one of insolvency, with CEO Fitzgerald Mitchell wishing for a new Chief Financial Officer with a touch of genius to help in turning things around. Medium term, the government is aiming to significantly update this, the Caribbean's premium medical hospital and teaching school. At last report, the price tag on the project was $4.9 billion. In the works are plans for a new 6-storey, 120,000 square feet medical facility, which will accommodate an additional 40 medical and surgical beds, improvements to outpatient or ambulatory surgery, lecture rooms, conference rooms, and upgrading of the cardiology hybrid interventional surgery room and the neonatal intensive care and administrative departments. However, the institution is currently struggling to become solvent ...
Read more