Thread by @ScottTPaul

THREAD

Today @JustSecurity, a deep dive into the warped humanitarian justifications for USAID’s suspension of aid in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis (#Yemen) amidst a terrifying pandemic 1/

justsecurity.org/71576/usaid-ha…

Aid is critical in Yemen. The band-aid metaphor doesn’t do it justice. Aid is more like a blood transfusion – necessary to keep the patient alive even if not substantial enough to heal (only a political settlement and economic revival can do that) 2/

Towards the end of last year, a lot of aid programs slowed or were paused – not for lack of funding, but due to interference by authorities in Yemen. It got bad in the South and even worse in the North 3/

Principled aid agencies had little choice but to pause or scale back activities that couldn’t be delivered under acceptable conditions or without undue interference 4/

The UN and most aid donors also took a risk-based approach to this problem. They stopped funding activities that couldn’t be carried out properly and they also negotiated to remove the impediments 5/

USAID took a different approach: it suspended the vast majority of funding for programs in northern Yemen, $73 million in ongoing programs. Even funding for activities being implemented without undue interference was stopped 6/

Meanwhile, USAID continued funding programs throughout southern Yemen (and the rest of the world), regardless of the risks and impediments they face or whether they can be delivered 7/

This undercuts USAID’s main rationale for the suspension: that the aid couldn’t be delivered in accordance with globally accepted humanitarian principles 8/

The correct explanation - which USAID also espouses - is that the aid suspension is meant to be a principled stand against interference by the Houthis. But there’s nothing principled about putting lives at risk to make a political point, even if it concerns humanitarian access 9/

Since COVID-19 arrived in #Yemen, humanitarian need has increased even more – but USAID did not even adjust, let alone pause, its suspension. And that tells you all you need to know about the principles supposedly underlying USAID’s approach 10/10