Indonesia health partnership with USAid 'put on hold'

Indonesia's health partnerships with the US Agency for International Development are on hold and it remains unclear whether they will be permanently suspended, its health minister said yesterday.

US President Donald Trump's administration is considering merging USAid, Washington's primary humanitarian agency, into the State Department in a major revamp that would shrink its workforce and align its spending with his "America First" policy.

A US freeze on foreign aid for Indonesia could strain the Asian country's efforts to fight against HIV and tuberculosis, which replaced Covid-19 to become the top cause of infectious disease-related deaths globally in 2023.

"Aid is on hold. Not stopped. We don't know if it's confirmed to be erased or still under assessment," Indonesian officials said.

USAid has invested US$800 million (HK$6.24 billion) in Indonesia since 2020, the US embassy in Jakarta said in November.

More so than USAid, officials said Indonesia also receives drugs from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which counts Washington as its biggest donor.

Indonesia has seen Tuberculosis cases spike in the past few years, with the health ministry estimating more than 1 million cases in 2023, versus around 820,000 in 2020.

Reuters