Indonesia health programmes with USAID on hold, minister says

By Stanley Widianto

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's health partnerships with the U.S. Agency for International Development are on hold and it remains unclear whether they will be permanently suspended, its health minister said on Thursday.

U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

"That is on hold. Not stopped," health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told Reuters, referring to its projects with USAID.

"We don't know if it's confirmed to be erased or still under assessment," he said, adding he may have more clarity in the next 90 days.

USAID has invested $800 million in Indonesia since 2020, the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said in November.

The Southeast Asian country's projects with the U.S. agency have involved HIV and tuberculosis. More so than USAID, Budi said, Indonesia also receives drugs from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which counts Washington as its biggest donor.

The U.S. embassy in Jakarta and USAID did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Indonesia has seen TB 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.

Olivia Herlinda, health analyst at non-profit group Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives, said the USAID pause would have a big impact on Indonesia.

"The impact is huge because USAID supports many health issues in Indonesia, including maternal and child health, TB, HIV, and pandemic preparedness," she said.

Separately, Budi said Indonesia will provide a free health screening for its citizens starting February 10, with a budget of about 3 trillion rupiah ($184 million) to prevent early deaths. The initial target for the screening is 220 million people for this year.

He said it would be the biggest health programme the government has undertaken, surpassing vaccines for COVID-19.

Top causes of death in the world's fourth most populous nation include stroke, heart disease, and TB, data from the World Health Organization shows.

($1 = 16,327.0000 rupiah)

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Saad Sayeed)