Devex: The world’s famine alarm finds itself on Trump’s chopping block
“If ever there was a model of a relied upon, evidence-based early warning system, it would be the Early Warning Famine Systems Network. Since 1985, the United States Agency for International Development’s FEWS NET has provided analysis on acute food insecurity by way of specialized reports on weather and climate, markets and trade, agricultural production, livelihoods, nutrition, and food assistance. … President Donald Trump’s 2018 fiscal year budget proposal — a leaked document … — proposed steep cuts to aid channeled through the USAID Bureau of Food Security on top of the elimination of FEWS NET. The future of the network remains unclear, as USAID does not ‘have additional details on what programs will be reduced as part of the FY 2018 request,’ according to a USAID spokesperson…” (Rogers, 5/5).