On Tuesday, the Associated Press published an article detailing the “abrupt end” to USAID support to people in Liberia not being able to gain access to contraceptives. The AP used cherry-picked and one-sided narratives to paint the Trump administration as monsters.
The article started with a woman named Roseline Phay, a 32-year-old farmer who has two daughters and was “determined not to have more children.” In search of contraceptives, Phay “trekked for hours” to find condoms had run out at the local clinic.
Bong County, where Phay lived, was no stranger to logistical shortcomings due to its rural location in the center of Liberia. These shortcomings date long before USAID cuts and were even experienced while USAID was at full funding during the Ebola crisis.
AP spun the narrative that the sole responsibility of Liberia’s access to contraceptives fell strictly on the United States and USAID. They failed to give the narrative that these failures also fall on the Liberian government’s ability to protect their citizens. For example, AP published an article in February that showed Liberia’s president suspended over 450 government officials for failing to declare their assets.
The United States had been funding aid for over six decades. From 2014 to 2023, the U.S. sent an average of $527.6 million taxpayer dollars to Liberia per year. We made up 2.6 percent of their GDP. Despite all of this funding, the percentage of women estimated to have unmet needs for contraceptives has stayed at 29-27 percent since 2012. This measurement report showed that USAID had not been as effective as AP wanted people to believe.
Perhaps, instead of giving out aid with no end in sight, the administration deemed it more responsible to teach Liberia how to make their own condoms. Liberia currently boasts a significant rubber latex industry, but lacks domestic processing capabilities to make the liquid latex into contraceptives.
60 percent of Liberia’s population lives below the poverty line, despite decades of aid, suggesting inefficiencies that justify the administration's right to reevaluate. Under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, USAID was swapped out in favor of a department that relies on trade and sustainable development over handouts and never ending charity.
Former USAID Administrator under Biden, Samantha Power, told Congress herself that only 10.5 percent of funding from USAID went to local partners.
State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce cited the new changes to aid make it more efficient, effective, and nimble. She claimed that foreign assistance for each specific region will sit with the bureau assigned to it as opposed to a massive agency. Citing that there was nothing to be proud of when 90 percent of aid wasn’t going to where it was promised.
The Associated Press also receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation.