Jeremy Gaines
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Jeremy Gaines
@jeremytgaines.bsky.social
370 followers 410 following 7 posts
Comms for @cgdev.org. Interested in African politics, cities, data viz, tech, A's baseball. Californian. Views mine. he/him
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jeremytgaines.bsky.social
Statement from @jmadankeller.bsky.social on the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy:
Janeen Madan Keller, Policy Fellow and Deputy Director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development, comments: “An expanded Mexico City Policy will have wide-reaching impacts on women and girls’ access to life-saving healthcare. When women and girls make informed decisions about whether and when to have children, it has a direct impact on boosting education outcomes, labor force participation, and wages. “As research shows, the Mexico City Policy reduces access to contraception which—counter to the policy’s intended goal—leads to more unplanned pregnancies and higher abortion rates. In addition, the expanded policy, which was introduced during Trump’s first term and applied to all US global health assistance, also led to disruptions and gaps in other critical health services, including HIV/AIDS programming and cervical cancer screenings. “Finally, withholding US funding for UNFPA could have very different consequences today compared to 2017 when the first Trump administration cut UNFPA funding. At that time, other donors bolstered UNFPA’s budget, preventing negative impacts on programming. However, with many donors now slashing aid budgets, it’s unclear whether they would cover the shortfall.
January 25, 2025 at 10:43 PM
jeremytgaines.bsky.social
Statements from CGD's Javier Guzman and Gyude Moore on the foreign aid freeze:
Javier Guzman, a senior policy fellow and the director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development said: “We don't know the full extent of the disruptions, but the US is the largest aid provider in the world, with millions of lives depending on its support, making the potential disruptions hugely consequential. “The impact on bipartisan programs like PEPFAR is particularly unfortunate. PEPFAR’s work, including the distribution of antiretroviral drugs to millions of HIV-positive individuals in low-income countries, represents the kind of cost-effective, life-saving aid that US funding should prioritize. “Crucially, the memo appears to allow ongoing activities, such as distributing HIV medications, to continue in the short term. However, the way this provision is interpreted will be critical in determining the scope of these programs' survival amidst the uncertainty.” Gyude Moore, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the former public works minister of Liberia, said: “Some of these spending decisions are long-term contracts, and suspension could carry liabilities for breach of contract. “These programs include ones that distribute essential medicines, like PEPFAR, which provides anti-retroviral drugs to people who are HIV-positive. Disrupting them puts lives at risk. “Others are the only thing keeping refugee communities alive. Very vulnerable people will be hurt and it is unclear how this advances American interests. “US relations with the world are meant to survive any given four-year period, and these actions raise serious questions about the reliability of the United States going forward.”
January 24, 2025 at 9:31 PM