In January this year, soon after taking over as president of the United States for the second time, Donald Trump announced a suspension of all prgrammes of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), pending review. Six weeks later, the United States government announced that it was shutting down 83 percent of those programmes, which it perceived as antithetical to the interests of the country.The development economist Jayati Ghosh points out that USAID, like a lot of foreign aid, has often been offered with strings attached, with donor countries using it to impose conditions or dictate policy to recipient countries. But foreign aid, especially USAID, has also helped marginalised communities ignored by their own governments and people. The impact of USAID withdrawal from Southasia has been swift and dramatic with several programmes shutting down in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. In this episode of State of Southasia, she speaks to Nayantara Narayanan about the politics of foreign aid in general, the sudden withdrawal of USAID, and how Southasia can move beyond aid dependency.

This episode is now available on

🎧 YouTube: https://youtu.be/DvYJNtAvUH0

🎧Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jayati-ghosh-on-the-usaid-shocker-and-the/id1464880116?i=1000699440923

🎧Website: https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/jayati-ghosh-usaid-trump-southasia

Episode notes:

Jayati Ghosh’s recommendations:

- Aid As Imperialism - Teresa Hayter (non-fiction)

- The Self-Deception Trap: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Charity - Dependency with Africa-Europe Relations - Carlos Lopez (non-fiction)

- Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital - Amiya Kumar Bagchi (non-fiction)

- Tax Wars - Hege Dehli and Xavier Harel (documentary film)

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

- Trump’s approach to Southasia bolsters China’s regional sway (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/united-states-trump-southasia-india-china)

- A Rohingya photographer’s dispatch on food-aid cuts in the refugee camps (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/rohingya-photographer-dispatch-on-food-aid-cuts-in-the-refugee-camps-coxs-bazar)

- Neoliberalism, foreign aid and trade unions in Nepal (https://www.himalmag.com/interview/mallika-shakya-on-nepals-political-economy-garment-industry-neoliberalism)

- How Thailand and India continue to fail Myanmar refugees (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/myanmar-refugees-india-thailand-military-junta-conflict-manipur-mizoram)

- How the IMF bailout is changing Sri Lanka’s foreign policy (https://www.himalmag.com/politics/imf-bailout-sri-lanka-china-india-us-foreign-policy0

- “Nobody is interested in Bangladesh” 9https://www.himalmag.com/comment/nobody-is-interested-in-bangladesh-naomi-hossain-2021)

Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional news and analysis magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For three decades, Himal Southasian has strived to define, nurture, and amplify that voice. Read more: https://www.himalmag.com/

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