Paper details

Paper authors	Emily Bauman
In panel on	Redrawing the Map: Rethinking Humanitarian Financing in Times of Structural Instability
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

While the impact of the gutting of USAID has primarily been discussed in relationship to the impact on medicine and food aid, a lesser known but also profound impact has been on the impact of the cuts to global higher education networks. Universities in the Global South have relied on this support to fund student scholarships, both national and international; educational infrastructure development; and research partnerships, primarily focused on public health, agricultural sustainability, and climate change adaptation. The loss of this funding not only reveals the vulnerability of higher education in lower income countries but also spells a diminished systemic response to other forms of financial and environmental precarity, given the nature of the research and professional training funded. In the face of this loss a lively conversation around funding alternatives has emerged, including innovative strategies to stimulate local investment and self-reliance, direct investment by alternative non-state actors, and increased aid from non-Western governments, especially China with its One Belt One Road initiatives. This paper discusses the potential alternatives, arguing that their evaluation should consider their ability to generate and strengthen networks at local, regional, and international levels, as the best way to foster LIC higher education’s resilience to and ability to serve as an institutional bulwark against increasing global precarities.

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