National

After making landfall earlier this month, Cyclone Idai caused devastating flooding and destruction throughout Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, leaving up to 1,000 people  feared dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The big picture: The UN called Idai "one of the worst natural disasters to hit southern Africa in living memory." Shortages of food and clean water and the risk of contracting fatal diseases like cholera or malaria only make the situation worse.

Details: Like the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the post-Idai emergency didn't initially receive the attention crises of this scale often do, though the international humanitarian system has begun to respond.

Farmers have lost crops and livestock in the floods, and many impacted areas were already facing food insecurity. In response, the UN's World Food Programme has sent 20 tons of high-energy food, but more supplements will be needed.

Regional communications and transportation remain major challenges. Local officials are rushing to restore power while government workers slowly repair and reopen roads that were washed away.

Experts have warned of a "ticking time bomb" of disease as survivors are exposed to bacteria-infested flood waters. The World Health Organization has sent 900,000 oral cholera vaccines to the region (at least 5 cases of cholera have already been reported) and is preparing to send 900,000 bed nets in anticipation of a spike in malaria.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has authorized $700,000 in emergency assistance — an amount likely to climb — and deployed a response team to Mozambique to determine the extent of the damage. Personnel from U.S. Africa Command have also been dispatched.

Nonprofit groups from Save the Children to the International Committee of the Red Cross have stepped up to deliver supplies, provide health services and help reunite families.

The bottom line: Even the smallest shocks to regions like southern Africa can trigger vicious cycles of poverty, violence and conflict — and the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai was anything but small. Hundreds of thousands of people now depend on a robust international response that will need to be sustained from emergency management through to rebuilding.

Gayle E. Smith is the president and CEO of the ONE Campaign and a former administrator of USAID.

Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery

Risks of food and water shortages and infectious disease loom over the region.

people wading through floodwaters in Mozambique

People wading through flood waters in Buzi, Mozambique, after Cyclone Idai. Photo: Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images

World

Cyclone Idai

Expert Voices

After making landfall earlier this month, Cyclone Idai caused <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="devastating flooding" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/mozambique-cyclone-idai-death-toll-impact-16fcbfab-3911-48ee-8dfc-0e741f284bbf.html" data-vars-content-id="2ae21b75-5e00-4b99-8e60-e82baa6c168a" data-vars-headline="Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/mozambique-cyclone-idai-death-toll-impact-16fcbfab-3911-48ee-8dfc-0e741f284bbf.html" target="_self">devastating flooding</a> <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="and destruction" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/mozambique-cyclone-idai-death-toll-impact-16fcbfab-3911-48ee-8dfc-0e741f284bbf.html" data-vars-content-id="2ae21b75-5e00-4b99-8e60-e82baa6c168a" data-vars-headline="Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/mozambique-cyclone-idai-death-toll-impact-16fcbfab-3911-48ee-8dfc-0e741f284bbf.html" target="_self">and destruction</a> throughout Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, leaving up to <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="1,000 people" data-vars-click-url="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/21/cyclone-idai-death-toll-surpasses-500-southern-africa/3238877002/" data-vars-content-id="2ae21b75-5e00-4b99-8e60-e82baa6c168a" data-vars-headline="Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/21/cyclone-idai-death-toll-surpasses-500-southern-africa/3238877002/" target="_blank">1,000 people</a> feared dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.The big picture: The UN <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="called" data-vars-click-url="https://www.apnews.com/301ffb0d2dd542f59b59759ceb48a8a1" data-vars-content-id="2ae21b75-5e00-4b99-8e60-e82baa6c168a" data-vars-headline="Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.apnews.com/301ffb0d2dd542f59b59759ceb48a8a1" target="_blank">called</a> Idai &quot;one of the worst natural disasters to hit southern Africa in living memory.&quot; Shortages of food and clean water and the risk of contracting fatal diseases like cholera or malaria only make the situation worse.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reportedly preparing to submit this week a rescission package that could cut billions in foreign development funding — a move that would have a long-term impact on both the federal budget process and vulnerable populations around the world.

Why it matters: OMB’s plan could target global programs that reduce food insecurity, improve public health, expand energy access and combat corruption. And it would upend decades of bipartisan consensus that development funds are a valuable tool to advance America’s values and foreign policy, national security and economic interests.

Details: OMB officials have expressed a desire to cut more than $4 billion from a number of State Department and USAID accounts.

The proposal could strike millions for UN peacekeeping activities in places like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Ebola outbreak is now a public health emergency.

Aid to Europe and Eurasia could be part of OMB’s rescissions, taking away a valuable diplomatic tool.

The cuts could also include programs that combat international narcotics trafficking.

Between the lines: Although the rescission package has been presented as a deficit reduction, a roughly $4 billion cut would amount to less than 0.1% of the federal budget, making its contribution minimal even as it risks driving up long-term costs.

The impact: The proposed budget maneuver also raises balance-of-power concerns in bypassing Congress to cut funding it has already authorized. It would effectively let the executive branch undermine legislative power of the purse.

What to watch: As early as this week, President Trump could send Congress details of the administration’s requested rescissions, which a bipartisan group of lawmakers have vocally opposed.

The plan will likely move ahead unless key players in the administration manage to derail it, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did to halt a similar effort last year. Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have reportedly been in talks to scale back the cuts.

Planned cuts to U.S. development funds could hurt world's neediest

OMB officials have suggested pulling more than $4 billion from State Department and USAID accounts.

Bags of sorghum from USAID being unloaded at a port in Sudan. Photo: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images

Development aid

Politics

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="reportedly preparing" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-12/white-house-targets-foreign-aid-cash-with-caps-limiting-spending" data-vars-content-id="6e99fcec-ffba-4f84-83a8-12aedf757d02" data-vars-headline="Planned cuts to U.S. development funds could hurt world&#x27;s neediest" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-12/white-house-targets-foreign-aid-cash-with-caps-limiting-spending" target="_blank">reportedly preparing</a> to submit this week a rescission package that could cut billions in foreign development funding — a move that would have a long-term impact on both the federal budget process and vulnerable populations around the world.Why it matters: OMB’s plan could target global programs that reduce food insecurity, improve public health, expand energy access and combat corruption. And it would upend decades of <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="bipartisan consensus" data-vars-click-url="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-politics-of-foreign-aid/" data-vars-content-id="6e99fcec-ffba-4f84-83a8-12aedf757d02" data-vars-headline="Planned cuts to U.S. development funds could hurt world&#x27;s neediest" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-politics-of-foreign-aid/" target="_blank">bipartisan consensus</a> that development funds are a valuable tool to advance America’s values and foreign policy, national security and economic interests.

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

A record $14 billion in commitments made last week to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could help the multilateral health partnership save up to 16 million lives while halving mortality rates from the illnesses it targets.

Why it matters: Very few countries are on track to reach the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets for HIV, TB and malaria. The new commitments mark a 15% increase from the previous replenishment three years ago and reflect greater prioritization of preventable disease.

What's happening: This successful replenishment benefitted from pressure by French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders to secure support from an unprecedented number of implementing countries.

Yes, but: It comes as global multilateral organizations find themselves treading water amid a recent rise in complacency and nationalism.

The development community has to some degree suffered from its success, leaving a distracted public less alert to the ongoing crises around global health that span international borders.

The U.S. Congress, for example, held well over a dozen hearings on the global AIDS crisis at the height of the epidemic but just one in the past seven years.

Although the U.S. is the world's largest global health donor, a recent budget proposal would reduce that funding to its lowest level since 2008.

How it works: The Global Fund, which connects governments, health organizations and the private sector to help low-income countries treat and prevent disease, reported in September that it has saved over 32 million lives since 2002.

The Fund incentivizes countries to increase domestic spending on health care, fortifying their health systems against disease outbreaks like the current Ebola emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It also works to improve health care access, especially for young women and girls across sub-Saharan Africa.

What to watch: This round of commitments now has to be backed up with real dollars from donor countries, where some argue those funds would be better spent at home.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, could face similar headwinds in its scheduled replenishment next year.

The bottom line: Funding multilateral health organizations has become harder in recent years, but this round of financing for the Global Fund is proof that global cooperation can still be marshaled.

Gayle E. Smith is the president and CEO of the ONE Campaign and a former administrator of USAID. ONE’s sister organization, (RED), mobilizes funds from the private sector to the Global Fund.

New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing

Nationalism and complacency have made global fundraising more challenging.

Emmanel Macron and Mahamadou Issoufou shake hands in front of flags and a Global Fund sign

Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou and French President Emmanuel Macron the Global Fund conference on Oct. 9, 2019. Photo: Olivier Chassignole/AFP via Getty Images

The Global Fund

Health Care

A <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="record" data-vars-click-url="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/replenishment/" data-vars-content-id="9e26976b-af94-4d40-ada3-2c19882807e8" data-vars-headline="New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/replenishment/" target="_blank">record</a> $14 billion in commitments made last week to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could help the multilateral health partnership <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="save up to 16 million lives" data-vars-click-url="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/2019-09-19-global-fund-partnership-has-saved-32-million-lives/" data-vars-content-id="9e26976b-af94-4d40-ada3-2c19882807e8" data-vars-headline="New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/2019-09-19-global-fund-partnership-has-saved-32-million-lives/" target="_blank">save up to 16 million lives</a> while halving mortality rates from the illnesses it targets.Why it matters: Very few <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="countries are on track" data-vars-click-url="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HowManyLeftBehind.pdf" data-vars-content-id="9e26976b-af94-4d40-ada3-2c19882807e8" data-vars-headline="New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HowManyLeftBehind.pdf" target="_blank">countries are on track</a> to reach the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets for HIV, TB and malaria. The new commitments mark a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="15% increase" data-vars-click-url="https://www.devex.com/news/q-a-key-issues-at-the-global-fund-replenishment-95795" data-vars-content-id="9e26976b-af94-4d40-ada3-2c19882807e8" data-vars-headline="New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.devex.com/news/q-a-key-issues-at-the-global-fund-replenishment-95795" target="_blank">15% increase</a> from the previous replenishment three years ago and reflect greater prioritization of preventable disease.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Gayle E. Smith

Stories

New Global Fund commitments resist pressures on public health backing

Planned cuts to U.S. development funds could hurt world's neediest

Cyclone-lashed southern Africa needs more support for recovery