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International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband on Wednesday warned that rising “forces of division” and “tribalization of pain” risked the world losing its humanity.
“The forces of division are on the march, and I really fear a world where we live with what’s called the tribalization of pain,” the former British foreign secretary said at Semafor’s The Next 3 Billion summit.
“If we end up in a world that I only care about your pain if I look like you, we’ve lost our humanity. And I think there’s a real imperative to sustain our humanity,” he said.
Miliband called for a “new era of aid,” emphasizing the importance of opening new financing streams and ways to better deliver aid to those who need it most amid a broad cutback of many Western nations’ aid budgets, and especially the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID funding earlier this year.
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Miliband’s remarks come follow a call he made in March to businesses to help fill the gap left by government aid budget cuts as part of a broad “reinvention” of global aid. The IRC is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations.
In countries like Sudan that are engulfed in war and humanitarian crises, grant aid can be “the difference between life and death,” Miliband said on Wednesday.
According to research recently published in The Lancet, Washington’s foreign aid cuts could lead to an additional 14 million deaths by 2030 as countries scramble to make up for the sudden, massive shortfall. Up to a third of those deaths would be of children, with sub-Saharan Africa likely to be hardest hit, the research found.
When asked about rumors that he is being considered for the role of the UK government’s ambassador in Washington, Miliband did not offer any confirmation but said, “It’s not a job you apply for. Put it that way.”
“I’m not going to overstep my limits, but I think that this is a time when the world needs more coherent, more effective global governance, and that starts with honest and straight talking,” he said when asked what advice he would give to the next person in that role.
“Let’s have the courage of our convictions. Let’s explain what we think. Let’s listen to those who disagree. Let’s find common ground across disagreement.”