How foreign aid cuts have sparked a humanitarian crisis

0:00Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts. Boston. We've got to bring diplomacy back centre stage. 65 wars is going to inevitably create a degree of human suffering that overwhelms the humanitarian systems. A world at war is failing to live up to its promises to the poor. It is Thursday, September 23rd, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, with world leaders meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, this week, we're checking in on the state of international aid

1:01and the people who need it most. A little later, we'll hear from a Palestinian in Gaza about life in the territory. He says humanitarian aid is not a substitute for political courage and accountability. Every day the world wears another child days that place here and does it, does it not need more exhibitions or concerns or political statements we need actions, we need the predictions, we need justice, we need us to bring them. But first, on top of big conflicts like war in Iran, Ukraine, and Sudan, the world is falling behind on its mission of alleviating extreme poverty. The United Nations always has a challenge in corralling humanitarian aid from countries that disagree with one another or have their own financial problems. But that's become particularly acute lately, says David Milliband, president of the International Rescue Committee. He's a former British foreign secretary and is in New York this week calling on leaders to recommit to helping the world's most vulnerable people.

2:02Here's his conversation with Indira Laksmanon. Well, I want to start out by asking you, you of course have been a foreign secretary. You once sat in on all those high-level meetings, like those going on at the UN General Assembly this week. You know, what are the conversations that you expect are going on in those private hallways? And what do you think the world bodies should be focused on? Look, I think that this week, this ministerial week, is the chance for the world to come together. It's really a vital moment. The danger of this week, obviously, is that the differences get larger, rather than smaller. And so the absolute priority is to address some of the pressing, really glaring wounds that exist in the global system and that are affecting literally hundreds of millions of people. So the decisions here really affect them. Well, I want to ask you, you know, the United Nations was formed, of course, in the aftermath of World War II, to try to prevent wars, prevent conflicts, and alleviate humanitarian suffering.

3:03The current and outgoing UN Secretary General has warned of the world bodies' imminent financial collapse because of funding cuts and non-payment of dues. Do you think that the United Nations is still able to fulfill its mandate? Well, yes, the United Nations is only as strong as the nations that are its membership. At the moment, we're seeing not just a redistribution of power around the world, a diffusion of power. We're also seeing great powers at loggerheads. We're seeing the international system suffering from fragmentation rather than coordination. And that leaves the United Nations trying to pick up the pieces rather than forging a more coherent future. I think it's up to the powers that be who are in the nation states to enable the UN to do its job. Hmm. Well, the US in the past has prided itself on being the world's most generous donor to humanitarian aid. It's not anymore. President Trump eviscerated the US agency for international development

4:04when he came back to office last year, and he's completely ended USAID to your organization, the International Rescue Committee. So tell me what happens to the world if the US is retreating, who's filling the void? Well, at the moment, no one's filling the void. It's a very good image that you create. I mean, the metaphor I use is that the US was the anchor of the global system. That didn't mean it provided all the money. It provided about a third of the money for the global aid system. And no other nation has stepped in. In fact, a number of other nations are cutting their budgets like the US, Germany, the UK. The European Union is the only major donor that is increasing its aid budget at the moment, even though there are record numbers of wars, 65 wars going on, 800 million people living on less than $3 a day. So the needs are there. We know what to do if we have the money, but the money is being reduced on a pretty striking scale. I think that you'll see from the figures that humanitarian aid has been more or less halved globally

5:05over the last year and a half. You know, I'm wondering, you've talked a lot recently about the breakdown of world order. We've all heard the arguments about how ineffectual the United Nations has been in the face of this. Tell us what the impact is on the ground. What is not getting done and who is suffering as a result? Well, as always, it's the weakest who suffer the most. So 45 million children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition today. One and a half million women a year die in childbirth from hemorrhagic bleeding today. 120 million refugees and displaced people from conflict and disaster today. 300 million people depend on humanitarian aid to survive. Those are big numbers. And the way we see it, there are more shocks, but fewer shock absorbers. And one of the best shock absorbers was a well-functioning aid system. Now, you're not only a former foreign minister,

6:05you also are yourself the child of refugees. In your role as the head of the International Rescue Committee, what are you telling world leaders in New York this week that they can do about the humanitarian aid crisis that they're facing and not solving? One is that we've got to bring diplomacy back center stage. 65 wars is going to just inevitably create a degree of human suffering that overwhelms the humanitarian system. The absolute root of these humanitarian problems are political problems. So diplomacy is absolutely core. If there are one or two countries or places that you want us to be focused on this week while world leaders are giving their speeches, what are those places that you're going to be sort of pulling on their elbows and telling you they need to pay attention to? This year, the biggest humanitarian crisis is one that is hardly ever mentioned. It's the war in Sudan. It's ripped apart a country that is strategically important. 12, 13 million people have been forced

7:06from their homes by a terrible civil war. And there's 30 million people who depend on organizations like mine to survive. In the current climate, though, with more wars being started than ended with the United States on the world stage pulling back from humanitarian aid, promises were made to Gaza a year ago that have not yet been fulfilled. I'm wondering how you can keep hope about the mission in front of you. Well, that's a very good point. But what I would say to you back is what right do I or you have to give up hope in an NGO in a non-governmental organization? You see the people every day. They're the source of hope. And it's important that we don't lose sight of the big picture. David Milliband is a former British Foreign Secretary who now leads the International Rescue Committee. David, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, and do. Well, Indira mentioned promises to Gaza not kept.

8:07We're going to delve more into that after the break. Stick around. This message comes from IXL, a learning platform for helping kids build confidence and get up to speed fast. One subscription covers math, science, and reading for all children in a household, received 20% off at IXL.com slash NPR. This message comes from Schwab. At Schwab, you can get everything from self-directed investing to full service wealth management all in one place. No matter your investing goal, life stage, amount to invest or know how, you can invest your way with Schwab. Support for NPR and the following message come from Bowling Branch. Change your sleep with Bowling Branch's Aerie Blankets, Cloud-like Duvets, and breathable sheets. Feel the difference with 15% off your first order at BowlingBranch.com with code NPR.

9:07Exclusions apply, seaside for details. It's been nearly a year since President Trump said he brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but life has hardly improved for Palestinians in Gaza. Most of the territories, two million residents live in tents or bombed out buildings, squeezed into the mere 30% of Gaza that is not occupied by the Israeli military. The ceasefire deal promised to ease Israel's blockade of aid in Gaza, but human rights groups and the UN report that the volume of trucks getting in is still well below levels they agreed upon, not to mention daily needs. The aid being blocked includes things like medical supplies and electrical infrastructure. So what's life like for people who live in Gaza? A Yad Amawi is an aid worker with the Gaza Relief Committee. We reached him yesterday in the Newsurouth Refugee Camp in Central Gaza. He spoke to Indira. Let me ask you, there was a ceasefire last October.

10:08However, Israeli forces continue to strike what they say are military targets. Casualties since that ceasefire include more than 1300 Palestinians, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures including many women and children, what are you seeing on the ground? So we talk about the ceasefire. There's no real ceasefire here as a relief called the Nators and Enjoukode Nasser. What's still happening here in Gaza is selective firing from time to time. And also we still wait missing the catastrophe and a higher level of the suffering for civilians, especially when we are waiting the upcoming winter. And the next few weeks here in Gaza. So A Yad Layout for Us, what hasn't changed since last year's ceasefire? Look, the main things here in Gaza, just the huge bombardment, they suspended. But the rocket from the Servants' War Plan still hitting tents, hitting people,

11:10and they're walking in the street without discrimination. When they need to kill one person, they need cause collateral damage for more than 15 up to 20 civilians around that man. And we're still living here in the 30 percentage, no safer place to escape for the civilians, especially when they hit a rocket among the tents. Just last week in Gaza, there was a bombed out building that a lot of civilians were sheltering in. The building collapsed, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens of others. It's just one of 200,000 buildings in Gaza that the UN says were damaged or destroyed by Israeli air strikes in two years of war. Describe to us what it is like walking in the streets of Gaza. What does the landscape look like? We see the full destruction and the full conversation for everything, not just buildings. The sight of life is completely destroyed. And the air we breathe is poisoning with the waste around us

12:13and the sewage water around us. So it's infictuous environment. You can imagine what's the meaning when you're walking around the collapsed buildings and the destroyed roads and the completely destruction for the infrastructures and the sewage. We need the crayons, we need Bordorsas, we need a truck to remove the rubbish to make safer places for the people here. Well, let me ask you why are so many Palestinians living in unsafe buildings rather than in tents? It's better than the tents. The living in tents and living in the hill. It's not a normal life. You can imagine what's the meaning in living in tents in the winter, in the summer. And your children still facing the horrible scenes from the insects, from the dogs, from the rats. So basically these buildings that are crumbling need to be crushed, taken away. New buildings need to be put up. It hasn't happened yet. You work for the Gaza Relief Committee. So you're focused on immediate humanitarian needs

13:16for people who are injured, suffering, starving. Tell us how your humanitarian operations have been affected by blockades or other restrictions in getting aid to people. As our NGOs and all of our remaining charity in Gaza, we noted that the last month they reduced the number of aid trucks entering Gaza and they refused to enter in enough number of shelters. And then so yes, we affected our distribution's number is decreased and our ability to decrease. And also we talk about this is a slightly land from the Israeli side that goes for compensation for every things that can help people to realize the numbers. A.Y.O.D. You know, the world's leaders are gathered in New York right now at the United Nations. You've got President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will be speaking on Thursday. What is the message that you want to send to the world community

14:19about the needs of the people in Gaza right now? Yes, that's the main things that we still following the news and linked our hope to their statements. Even though they're still repeating the promises they will bring the peace for Gaza, but nothing really happened here. It's just still killing. So we send our humanitarian message. Silence is not neutrality. Delay is not diplomacy. And the humanitarian aid is not a substitute for political courage, justice and accountability. Every day the world wears another child based at the Syrian Resda. Gaza does not need more exhibitions or concerns or political statements. We need actions, we need the protections, we need justice. We need a freedom. A.Y.O.D. I understand that you and your family have been displaced more than nine times in the last three years. Tell us about your personal experiences. What is your daily life like there? From the start, every moment, you spend searching for the drinking water,

15:20securing foods for your children. And also, if you have any patients in your family, you will spend many, many times searching medicines, searching doctors to investigate, to check and to take care for your elderly people around you. And there's no any facilitation that can easest our lives. I had, you're not just an aid worker, you're also a parent. I understand you have four children ranging in age between age four and age 15. What is life like for them? Are they able to attend school? Are they getting enough food? My children like other children, if they went to the temporary education space, it's not school. We have no remaining schools in the resident. Also, hundreds of displacement people hosted there and they divided the classroom between the displacement people and between the Shinden who was in the school. And my children asked me, when that will end, Baba?

16:21We need this end. We need to return to the normal school, to our normal life. And when they see another child with ambutes, with the injuries, they really feel something is staging their mind and their heart. Why that still happening for us as children? No one can recognize the real feelings of fears for the children like us here as parents, fathers, mothers. And really, we send many, many messages to the world that we need to protect our children. Who can you mention? What's the meaning of a my Shinden and other Shinden living in the darkness for more than three years? I had, let me ask you, parent to parent, when your children ask you, when life is going to return back to normal, what do you tell them? Really, I try to send them hope that we will wait the peace to come to the desert. And really, sometimes they have a strange look for you.

17:23Nothing happened, Baba. You talk to us again and again about the work promises and the peace would come to the desert. I'm just trying to calm them, to let them feel comfortable in the normal life. And to forget what's still happening here around us, but everywhere they will go, they see the catastrophe in the market, in the street, injuries, and the conversation and the destruction around them. So I have no more words to say to them that just have you must have patience. And I think the future will be good for you. That's Palestinian aid worker, Ayad Amawi speaking to us from the new Sarah, Refugee Camp in Gaza. Ayad, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and making time for us today. Thank you so much for hosting me. We will be right back.

18:28There is lots more news that we're following at here and now.org. Chinese President Xi Jinping got the red carpet treatment at the White House. So what's on his agenda for this summit with President Trump? It seems like their top priority is to mostly stabilize the relationship rather than to ask for something in addition. We'll also speak with a cybersecurity expert about a hack at the FBI. A group of hackers says it stole the personal information of thousands of FBI agents and others who applied for a job at the Bureau. You can learn more about all of that right now at here and now.org, where you will also find a preview of the new season of Saturday Night Live. Nick's superstar, Jalen Brunson, hosts the premiere this weekend. We called up Ithaca College professor Stephen Tropiano, co-author of the SNL companion. He told us a couple of new cast members are big online.

19:29Actually, this is probably this season. There's been the least changes in the past. I mean, that's bad as many as eight people leave. Usually it's usually about four or five people, except during the pandemic, everybody kind of stayed. I think because they had to. Okay. But they've added two women in the supporting cast. And I think significantly one of them is a woman of color, which they haven't had in a while, since Ego de Vordom was left back in 2025. Both of them are people who do viral comedy. I think they're trying for the younger demographic and a way of doing that is to get people who have a presence on YouTube. That's it for this show. Here now, anytime is not live, and we're not on Saturday Night. But every weekday of the year, we've got a new episode for you. So click that follow button and make sure you keep up. Tomorrow, we've got a special episode

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