Goats and soda: npr

New York – It is the first general assembly of the United Nations since President Donald Trump shaken the foreign auxiliary landscape by reducing billions of dollars from dollars.

“There is a lot of fear, concern. It is almost as if everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop,” says Solomon Zewdu, the CEO of the final fund, a group that focuses on the removal of neglected tropical diseases.

It is one of thousands of people from all over the world who fell off at the 80th meeting of the UN General Assembly for a week of high-ranking meetings in Manhattan.

NPR reporters were on site in New York and talked to global health leaders about their impressions of the week. They told us the following – edited for length and clarity.

Solomon Zewdu, the CEO of the final fund

Dr. Solomon Zewdu Is based in South Africa and he says that this general assembly impressed him the most that global health leaders “speak in silos”.

“We don’t hear ourselves,” he says. Some have discussions about how dependent countries are with help, while others complain about the cuts.

“But now what is the next step? Let’s go on. There is urgency. Time kills people,” he says.

He is afraid, “everyone will dispel, and then we could wait for the next summit to take place – and in between people are endangered.”

Varnee MuruganSenior Director of the Global Initiative for Health and Economy in the US Chamber of Commerce

Murugan let the general assembly enthusiastically New US global health strategy And his emphasis on corporate sector companies back to the global health arena.

“In the past, the private sector was considered a tangential in some cases,” she says.

She argues that non -profit companies have a lot to offer. “There is the end result – and that will always exist – but there are also broader goals.”

She says that you have a lot of knowledge to make a contribution, as well as the ability to “help the local economy, to grow and to thrive and then to pass from the help than to more sustainable trade”.

Atul Satija, CEO der Nudge Institute

Atul Satija lives in India, where he leads a non -profit organization that deals with poverty in his country. He says he feels a difference in the United Nations this year.

“The quality of the conversations is a little lower,” says Satija. “There is a lot about the problems with which we are confronted worldwide and how we can solve them together. So I enjoy it because it is much more real.”

Since people around the world lose health and educational opportunities due to the US cuts, says Staija that “people find new ways to design solutions so that the communities are not so badly affected.”

But he is also worried about what the future could hold: “What keeps me awake at night: do we have the space and calm to do the work we want to do?”

Peter Sands, CEO of the global fund

Peter Sands This year’s general assembly feels a bit like in a “high wire”.

“This is a bit, at the moment of billing. Negative: Funding and disorders of the services have been reduced on the negative side. But positive: we have some extraordinarily exciting scientific innovations,” he says. “There is a lot to lose, but there is also a lot to achieve.”

His spirit focuses on the financial bit of equation. The global fund is busy collecting money for the next three -year cycle. And finally Sands is a former banker – he was CEO from Standard Chartered PLC, one of the world’s large international banks.

“As someone who has spent a large part of my life to achieve capital return, investing in global health is one of the highest return investment things that you can do,” he says, pointing to the economic growth and health profits that arise from the fight against diseases.

Jackie Aldrette, managing director of Avsi-USA

Jackie Aldrette has not been in a UN general assembly for years. But this time she thought it was important to take part.

Her organization based in the United States, which supports marginalized communities around the world, is one of many auxiliary groups that have lost funding due to the US cuts.

“I wanted to gain more clarity about what we should concentrate on,” says Aldrette.

“I definitely felt a kind of this new energy,” she says. “Like a fire underneath, to find paths to work for the causes that are important to us, and the realization that it is better to do it together.”

Your favorite moment of the week? “In conversation with someone, I dealt with a very established organization with which I could simply share a kind of dream that I came up with and she was excited and shared with me,” she says. “And so we dreamed together.”

She also had a revelation about the US help shortcuts: “It feels like the United States no longer has a seat at the table,” says Aldrette. “But there was also hope because it was not as if the lack of US presence collapsed the table. No, we were still at this table so that we can continue.”