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Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Sam Fenwick.

Today, a stark warning about global poverty and health.

In 2000, over 10 million children under the age of five died every year of preventable diseases and in

2024 it reached 4.6 million and yet last year that number went up for the first time this century

the gates foundation the world's largest philanthropic organization says cuts to aid funding are

now having a huge impact on the lives of the

world's poorest. The fact that we are now the world's largest funder of the World Health

Organization should be a major embarrassment to every country on this planet. We're speaking

exclusively to the Foundation's CEO Mark Sussman. At a moment when the fund has become one of the most influential players in global health

and has itself faced questions about its power and priorities.

Last year, the White House moved to scale back parts of America's overseas aid budget,

arguing resources were needed at home and that foreign assistance wasn't delivering enough impact.

When we have $36 trillion in debt and we're taking care of countries that are very rich

and sending aid to countries in some cases that are rich in some cases they're not rich. But no,

it should very much decrease. The consequences of the cuts were immediate for countries and

communities that relied on that funding. At its peak, the United States provided almost 30% of all

international aid and paid for around 43% of the world's humanitarian response.

But in January 2024, just weeks into office, the Trump administration cancelled 83% of programmes

run by USAID. By July, the agency was formally shut. And the US wasn't alone.

As inflation rose, defence spending went up

and domestic politics took precedence.

...