Trump’s order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization could weaken the Caribbean’s access to essential health resources and technical support.
Aid has played a significant role in healthcare, particularly in combating diseases such as HIV/Aids, and the US withdrawal leaves Caribbean public health systems – under pressure from brain drains and underfunding – facing potential collapse.
Now, with the freeze of USAid – a foreign-aid programme that for decades underpinned US influence and its quid pro quo relationship with developing regions – the Caribbean and the aid-dependent regions of the wider global south face uncertainty.
Beneath the veneer of benevolence is interventionism, economic coercion and exploitation – beginning with the genocide of Indigenous peoples across the Caribbean and the Americas, and continuing in wars, invasions and the destabilisation of nations across the world.
The Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, acknowledged that the loss of USAid funding presented immediate cashflow challenges but said his country’s long-term vision was one of reducing reliance on aid while strengthening its economic foundation and independence.
