martindrewry.bsky.social
CEO of Health Poverty Action & campaigner. (Posting personal views.)
Poverty/health... drugs policy... electoral reform & Labour. (he/him)
healthpovertyaction.org
186 posts
684 followers
682 following
Prolific Poster
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Brilliant post 👏🏼👏🏼🙏🏼❤
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In all my years in the sector, I've never seen anything quite like what is happening right now - all at the whim of a man who announces it by posting:
"We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead."
So, so dangerous - and so, so sad.
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But until that happens, we should remember that a lot of US wealth is made from exploitative relationships with poorer parts of the world, eg corporate tax dodging and corruption, international debt, unfair trade agreements, etc.
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We can also debate how much 'aid' rich countries should provide to poorer ones - and whether or not that is ultimately the answer to the problems. Ultimately I think it's more important to deal with the causes of the problems - many of which relate back to colonial times.
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But what Musk & Trump are doing right now is unquestionably going to result in a huge amount of death and suffering - among people who had no vote in appointing him, and are among the most vulnerable in the world.
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We can debate the pros and cons of how well USAID spent its budget.
The truth is it's a complex combination of some genuine humanitarian work with other things more designed to further US interests.
I'd spend a lot of it differently if I could.
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That's just one tiny project. The costs in those marginalised regions are low, which means a small amount of money does a lot.
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Direct participants would have been over 3000 San men, women, youth, adolescent and children, prioritizing key population like Adolescent Girls and Young Women, Orphan and Vulnerable Children, Pregnant and Lactating Women who are HIV positive or at risk of infection.
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The organisation I work for (Health Poverty Action, HPA) just had a USAID funded programme cancelled in Namibia.
Its purpose was:
Improve equitable access to HIV services primarily targeting the San population in key locations of Tsumkwe and Omaheke region.