Devex: Trump budget proposes more U.S. aid cuts, but backs new DFI
“President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget request included all of the expected proposals to cut United States global development spending, but it also endorsed one of the most significant aid reform ideas to gain serious traction in years: Creating a new development finance institution. … Even as U.S. aid groups greeted the White House budget with dismissal and derision, some members of the development community found reason to celebrate an achievement that has been a long time in the making. Tucked between the calls for cuts and reductions that pepper Trump’s second budget request, was a proposal to create something new, a U.S. development finance institution. Anticipating parallel efforts in Congress, the White House called for the creation of ‘a new, enhanced U.S. development finance institution that will build the capacity and capability of developing countries and the private sector to drive sustainable change and economic growth, and thereby reduce the need for traditional development assistance, and reduce risks and costs to the American taxpayer.’ As Devex reported last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are currently hashing out the details of what this new institution might look like, and what its specific authorities will be…” (Igoe, 2/13).

Intellectual Property Watch: Trump Budget Would Slash Funding For Health, International Organisations
“The Trump administration this week proposed drastic cuts in funding for international activities including foreign policy and global health in 2019, while further building up military and big business activities. Programs related to international activities will have to prove their value to American interests and other countries are demanded to pay more, according to the proposed budget sent [Monday] to Congress, which is ultimately expected to set about the task of restoring numerous programs…” (New, 2/13).

Daily Beast: Trump’s Budget Cut for HIV/AIDS Would Kill 300,000 People Per Year, Report Says
“Three-hundred thousand deaths per year. That’s the human cost of President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut … global HIV funding in 2019, … according to a report by the ONE campaign. And it comes just when American-led efforts are paying off, and the global tide of the epidemic appears to be turning…” (Michaelson, 2/13).

U.N. Dispatch: Here’s How Trump’s Budget Request Would Impact the United Nations
“The White House released its budget request to Congress this week. The document is a formal expression of the Trump administration’s budget priorities for the next fiscal year, FY 2019. And when it comes to foreign affairs spending, those priorities are heavily titled against diplomacy, development, humanitarian affairs, and non-military international affairs. … Here are some of the ways this budget would impact the United Nations and its agencies, according to [an] analysis provided by the Better World Campaign…” (Goldberg, 2/13).