US to set up 12 regional disaster response hubs as it consolidates emergency humanitarian aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is setting up 12 regional hubs to coordinate disaster and emergency humanitarian responses under the auspices of a new bureau that will oversee some of the functions that had been handled by the now-dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development.

The new Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response will be based in Washington with about 200 staffers, the department said Friday, but on-the-ground operations are to be run from the regional hubs, which will be located in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

The Trump administration has been criticized by many aid and relief organizations for closing down USAID, which had been the government’s main platform for providing foreign assistance for decades. The new bureau, which will handle only disaster and emergency aid, is part of a larger office that oversees all foreign assistance.

The administration has drastically cut foreign aid spending, particularly for programs that dealt with climate change and social justice issues, but late last year announced a $2 billion contribution to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, through which assistance will be funneled to specific groups in specific countries in need.

The new bureau’s regional hubs will be located in Miami; Bogota, Colombia: Guatemala City; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Kyiv, Ukraine; Amman, Jordan; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Bangkok; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Manila, Philippines.