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Partially complete healthcare and reduced rations threaten the livelihoods of millions around Bangladesh
Published : 14 Mar 2025, 05:51 PM
The Trump administration’s decision to slash USAID budgets have impacted several developing countries, including Bangladesh.
Kajol, a tuberculosis survivor, is one of the many beneficiaries of the US-based aid programme. She is now at risk again due to the budget cuts, reports the BBC.
Kajol, 17, is the only earning member of her family. When she contracted tuberculosis, or TB, in January, it meant the end of all hope for her mother and little brother. NGO worker Dipa Halder helped Kajol with free treatment, which has finally brought a sense of relief for the family.
“Nari Maitree”, the organisation Dipa works for, was funded by USAID until February. During that period, the NGO regularly raised awareness of TB, and provided treatment for the disease without any charges.
However, since the USAID funds have been terminated, many Bangladeshi NGOs have abruptly stopped their programmes, directly impacting the health and wellbeing of people like Kajol.
Kajol, whose treatment was only partially complete, is left with no other option than to pay for everything herself.
"Now I have to go get the medicine myself," she said to the BBC. "I am struggling a lot."
According to a US government performance report obtained by the BBC, USAID financing in 2023 directly helped the detection and documentation of more than a quarter of a million additional cases of tuberculosis in Bangladesh.
Moreover, 296,487 new or relapsed cases of tuberculosis were effectively treated or cured with the help of USAID.
"You ask people on the street, they will say yeah, it's the US, they are the ones that are keeping it [tuberculosis] in control," a director of a USAID project in Bangladesh anonymously told the BBC, despite not being authorised to speak publicly.
Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, told BBC: "Bangladesh was USAID's largest programme in Asia. In terms of its impact, particularly in the healthcare sector, it has been massive.”
"Particularly around vaccination, reducing child mortality and maternal mortality, USAID has played a massive role in this country."
Bangladesh was given $500 million in foreign aid in 2024. That sum has plummeted to $71 million this year. To put that figure in perspective, USAID spent an average of $83 million a year from 2021 to 2023 in Bangladesh for health-related operations, including TB prevention.
Dipa, too, has been laid off due to the USAID budget cuts, as organisations like Nari Maitree cannot afford their activities anymore.
"I am completely shattered now that I lost my job. I am carrying the burden of the family. Being unemployed is a devastating situation," she told the BBC.
The BBC revealed that 113 programmes in Bangladesh were funded by USAID, all of which have now stopped. "The NGO sector [In Bangladesh] employs 500,000 people at least," said Asif Saleh. "It's huge. Thousands and thousands of jobs are going to be eliminated."
This ushers in bad news for Bangladesh, as other countries, such as Switzerland, are following the USA’s footsteps by cutting off foreign aid.
Although Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has assured that Bangladesh will overcome the budget cuts, he is yet to outline a concrete plan on how to do so.
In an interview with the BBC, Yunus said: "It was a small part, not a big deal. It doesn't mean Bangladesh will disappear from the map."
However, the funding issue might amount to a “big deal” when it comes to the Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox's Bazar, where more than a million Rohingya refugees require foreign aid to survive. USAID alone contributed half the amount required to run the refugee camps, as well as funding the water sanitation projects.
"We have run out of soap," says Rana Flowers, country representative for the UN children's agency UNICEF. "We are now having to truck water into the camps. It's an absolutely critical time. There is an outbreak of cholera with over 580 cases, along with a scabies outbreak."
Since the terminations went into effect, hospitals like the International Red Cross have limited their operations to only emergency healthcare services.
This has endangered many, including Hamida Begum, a hypertension patient caring for four children by herself since her husband’s passing.
"I cannot go to another hospital far from home because of my daughter," she said to the BBC.
Similar worries engulf Rehana Begum, who relies on the rations distributed by different foreign aid projects like the World Food Programme, or WFP. The WFP told the BBC that it had no option but to cut costs due to a “critical funding shortfall for its emergency response operations”.
"How can we possibly survive with such a small amount?" cried Rehana, 47, when the BBC asked her about managing her household with reduced rations. Rehana lives in one room with her family of 6. "Even now, it is difficult to manage," she said.
The WFP rations will only include the absolutely necessary items from now, leading the camp’s families to believe that the rations will be barely enough for them to stay alive.
"This is an absolute disaster in the making," said Rana Flowers. "Desperate frustrated people within the camps will lead to security concerns. If that escalates to the degree it could, we won't be able to go into the camps to help."
