Indonesia's Health Ministry to Seek USAID Alternatives as Programs Halted

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry of Health is seeking new donor countries as a consequence of U.S. move to shut down , its minister said on Thursday, February 6, 2025.

“I will try and seek other sources of donors,” said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s Minister of Health, when met at the Directorate General of Health Resources office.

One of such alternatives, he said, was the funding he secured from Australia on his recent visit, amounting to 130 million Australian dollars. “We managed to bag the commitment, albeit the value of the Australian dollar differs from the U.S. dollar,” he said.

But USAID has given about US$100 million worth of financial assistance, which equals about Rp1 trillion. Based on a formal communication he has received, the U.S. aid will merely be put temporarily on hold.

The assistance is not given directly to the Ministry of Health but to third parties. “This will certainly be impactful later on,” he added.

Previously, it was known that President Donald Trump ordered the shut down of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. All staff will return to the United States on Friday, February 7, 2025, according to several sources cited by CBS News.

In the announcement on its website on Tuesday, USAID stated that almost all staff will be on leave on Friday night. Earlier that day, all USAID foreign missions had been ordered to close, and all staff had been called back since Friday.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said that no major projects in Indonesia are funded by USAID, which will prove the impact of its closure insignificant.

“I don’t monitor the USAID projects, but we are relatively unaffected since there are no major projects here,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference.

Ilona Estherina and Dewi Rina Cahyani contributed to the writing of this article.

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