FRANCE 24 spoke to the CEO of the French development agency AFD, Rémy Rioux. He discussed the situation of foreign aid worldwide after US President Donald Trump suspended US development aid and moved to close down USAID, the main US government agency responsible for foreign aid. "It's a shock for our world," Rioux said. According to the UN, the US covers 47 percent of the world's annual humanitarian aid needs. The UN also predicts that some 305 million people will need emergency humanitarian aid in 2025, which will require $47 billion.
Rioux pointed out that Europe actually spends much more on foreign aid than the US. "I would like the contribution of Europe to be made more explicit, and hopefully Europe to maybe affirm itself a bit more," he said.Official development aid in jeopardy?However, both France and the UK have cut recently their foreign aid budgets. Global humanitarian agencies and NGOs are extremely worried about cuts in official development aid on both sides of the Atlantic. Read moreTrump's USAID shutdown halts life-saving programmes, threatens global security"We are, I think, passing from one state of our business to another and we have to speed up," Rioux said.Some 15 percent of total investment in development is made by public development banks, he pointed out, calling for the private sector to step up. "Fifteen percent is not enough if we want to face climate change, reduce inequalities, change the value chains and our societies."This interview was recorded on February 10, 2025.
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