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Tens of thousands of USAID staffers and the agency’s implementing partners have been caught up in the frozen aid maelstrom — bearing firsthand witness to its profound effects. So we decided to listen to what they had to say.
The results do not make for reassuring reading.
Lives lost. Jobs obliterated. Influence shredded. A range of troubling mental health repercussions.
Those are among the domino effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to put a stop to almost all U.S. foreign aid, according to a survey of current and former staffers at USAID and its partner organizations,
Nearly 90% of USAID respondents said they are either , particularly due to its impact on vital food security and global health programs.
But in addition to lives being threatened, respondents also pointed to a different kind of threat: An overwhelming majority of current and former USAID staffers said the Trump administration’s actions are and strengthen the geopolitical position of China and Russia.
Furthermore, over 90% say . “We lost staff who have been with us for 30 years. We lost institutional memory,” one respondent said.
“The dedicated workers of the,” another respondent said. “This will cost the livelihoods of thousands. It will also have .”
How the USAID funding freeze impacted the agency’s staff and partners
One of the benefits of the aid sector, its proponents say, is that it tackles unglamorous crises that fly under the radar but have an enormous impact on human life.
Take lead, for example. It’s and causes irreversible neurological and cognitive impairments in children, but you’d hardly know that based on how much attention — and money — the problem receives.
Enter the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future. Launched in 2024 by USAID and UNICEF — with financial backing from philanthropic donors such as Open Philanthropy and the Gates Foundation — it aims to raise global attention, leadership, and resources to support low- and middle-income countries to end childhood lead poisoning by 2040.
My colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo follows the intriguing path of one success story: the country of Georgia, which has almost entirely. It’s a case study in cross-collaboration — among governments, donors, research institutes, and even cities, with New York City health officials doubling as lead poisoning detectives who helped solve the riddle of why Georgians' risks of getting the toxic culprit were elevated.
Of course, with most of USAID’s work now terminated, its role in the partnership is unclear. But according to Santosh Harish, who leads the foundation’s grantmaking in the area of environmental health.
Harish tells Jenny that the current momentum in tackling lead exposure globally is driven in large part by successes in places such as Georgia. “These examples basically demonstrated that, sure, and see progress in a matter of just a few years,” Harish says.
: Cracking the code on what’s poisoning millions of children
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The funding freeze on U.S. foreign assistance is over, and the
That’s probably news to a lot of folks, but it’s apparently not news to the Trump administration, which made that claim in a court filing submitted yesterday urging the Supreme Court to nearly $2 billion in foreign aid.
“[USAID’s implementing partners] assert that they ‘would face extraordinary and irreversible harm if the funding freeze continues,’” wrote Sarah Harris, the acting solicitor general representing the administration.
I’m no lawyer, but I highly doubt that’s going to fly with the NGOs and for-profit contractors suing the government over that blanket freeze and overdue bills.
That wasn’t the only claim in the government’s response that stood out to us.
Far from “refusing to comply” with a previous order to disperse suspended funds, Harris states the Trump administration has done just that: ultimately deciding to last week. But in 2023, USAID and the State Department spent a combined — making Harris’ numbers virtually impossible.
While Devex has attempted to seek clarity on those calculations, the State Department has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Will the government’s argument be enough to sway the Supreme Court? We’ll see. The decision could come down at any moment.
Funding freeze on US foreign aid is 'over,' Trump administration claims
Who knew the U.K.’s Labour Party could steal the Trump administration’s thunder? But for a brief moment, it did just that — at least for aid observers — when U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer from 0.5% of its gross national income to just 0.3% to bolster the country’s defense budget.
Development minister Anneliese Dodds stepped down within days, to be replaced by Jenny Chapman — a former member of Parliament and current member of the House of Lords who has a . The fact that she’s in the House of Lords rather than the House of Commons could be a problem, according to major NGO players such as Oxfam, because it
Chapman was chair of Starmer’s campaign in the 2020 election and later his political secretary before joining the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, in light of the cuts that caused the whole kerfuffle, Devex took a look at what the U.K. is currently funding and what it plans to fund. Sneak peek: .
Who is Jenny Chapman, the new UK development minister?
How might UK aid change after the latest cuts? (Pro)
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through wheat purchases, reinforcing its economic partnership with the bloc. [Reuters]
UNICEF and its partners in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are after ongoing conflict disrupted water supply. [UN News]
by boat in 2024, with Mallorca emerging as a new hot spot alongside the Canary Islands. [DW]
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