Republican: funding cuts to UN food aid hurts US security

New head of World Food Programme aims to sway Trump

AMMAN //

A tough-talking former Republican governor with friends in the Trump administration has become the unexpected head of one of the United Nations agencies facing deep cuts in US funding.

David Beasley, the new executive director of the World Food Programme ( WFP), said he would use his connections in Washington to defend the cashstrapped UN agency in what he expected to be a dogfight over US budget next year.

The former governor of South Carolina said stakes were high.

One country, South Sudan, has been struck by famine, three are on the brink of it, 20 million people do not know where their next meal will come from, and the fund has received only US$2 billion (Dh7.34bn) of the $9bn in donations it needs this year.

“You are looking at 600,000 children seriously at risk of death if we don’t receive the funding we need,” said Mr Beasley.

“If we don’t, then we have to make some very hard decisions. We literally have to determine who lives and who dies, and that’s not a decision any of us want to make.”

Beyond the moral imperative, Mr Beasley said it was a US security interest not to slash funding for the WFP and other UN agencies, including those helping children and refugees. Such aid helps to stop migration and contributes to the fight against terrorism, he said.

“If you want to spend another half a trillion dollars on military operations, don’t fund the WFP,” he said. “Because if a mother or father can’t feed their child after a few weeks, they’ll turn to terrorist groups and other operations.”

Mr Beasley’s views seem to run counter to president Donald

‘ You are looking at 600,000 children seriously at risk of death if we don’t receive the funding we need David Beasley Executive director of the World Food Programme

Trump’s “America First” message. Mr Trump has called for drastic cuts to US funding for the UN and its agencies.

Mr Trump plans to release his budget blueprint for next year today, but an initial proposal in March called for a one-third cut to diplomatic and overseas programming while boosting the US military budget by $54bn.

The threatened cuts are a key point of contention between the US and Europe, Mr Trump’s next stop this week after a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank. At the weekend, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that such cuts “would create a major security issue worldwide, including in Europe”.

The link between aid and migration has been highlighted by the fallout from Syria’s civil war, which has uprooted millions, including more than 5 million who fled their homeland.

Mr Beasley said that although Mr Trump was pushing for UN reforms, he believed the president would eventually support UN agencies that “really get the job done”.

“It is my responsibility to make certain that he sees that, and we have all the plans of doing that,” he said.