The US State Department has been advised to cut nearly $1.3bn in grants for global pro-democracy initiatives, according to a report in The Guardian on Thursday.
The move would cut approximately 80 percent of programmes that sit under the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour (DRL), except for two programmes that operate in China and Yemen. The State Department oversees the DRL.
The overhaul was reportedly outlined in a foreign assistance review produced by the Office of Management and Budget and would impact 391 active grants. The review was seen by three State Department officials, who were sourced by The Guardian.
Such programmes fund pro-democracy activists or communities overseas in places like Cuba and Venezuela, with little information on these initiatives available, as the State Department fears it will put involved individuals in danger.
According to the State Department website, DRL was created in 1977 to “help advance individual liberty and democratic freedoms around the world” and supports people who wish “to live in freedom and under democratic governments as a means of combating terrorism and the spread of authoritarianism”.
