Former USAID head warns disease outbreaks could grow after cuts to agency

The former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says major funding cuts to the agency could lead to more cases of diseases such as paralytic polio and malaria. 

In an interview airing Sunday on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live, Samantha Power described the consequences of the Trump administration's decision to gut the agency's funding.

"There's really no words," Power, who was the head of the agency during the Biden administration, told chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

"The estimates are now 200,000 more cases of paralytic polio," she said of the impact of the administration's cancelled USAID contracts.

"Malaria increases, probably as many as 166,000 deaths per year."

USAID administers funding, provided by the United States as well as international partners, including Canada, for development projects around the world.

Some 10,000 contracts with USAID were terminated last week, according to letters sent to non-governmental organizations. It's part of an unprecedented downsizing of the federal government by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Power said the cuts will also impact girls' education worldwide. 

"Many millions of girls will not be able to be in school because USAID funding for those programs has now been terminated," she said. 

Before leading USAID from 2021 to 2025, Power served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 under former president Barack Obama. 

"The United States government right now is acting as if we live in what used to be called splendid isolation, as if we are cut off from the rest of the world, as if there's no air travel where a virus can spread to the U.S," Power said. 

"[The administration is] acting as though we make all of our manufactured products here, all the parts come from here ... as though nothing bad will ever happen to the United States where we need friends."

She said she worries the Americans' long-held alliances are now "on the brink."

WATCH | USAID workers speak out against cuts:

USAID workers carry belongings out of headquarters after massive program cuts

10 days ago

Duration 0:53

USAID workers who lost their jobs were given 15-minute intervals to clear out their desks on Thursday amid a massive takedown of the widely successful program. Workers were greeted with cheers from supporters as they left the building for the final time.

USAID was established in 1961 by former president John F. Kennedy, and it has long had bipartisan support. 

Before the cuts, the agency employed about 10,000 people with approximately two-thirds serving overseas, according to the Congressional Research Service. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, USAID managed more than $40 billion US and provided assistance to about 130 countries.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has said many of the affected programs are in fragile countries that are highly reliant on U.S. aid to support health systems and nutrition programs. Dujarric said other issues, such as fighting terrorism, human and drug trafficking and helping migrants, will also suffer as a result of the cuts.

Power said it's unclear if there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

"There doesn't seem to be any sense of remorse, any sense of concern about the human consequences of these actions," she said.