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US President Donald Trump has ordered most foreign assistance to be halted for 90 days pending a review, causing alarm among aid agencies worldwide.
ADVERTISEMENTFrom life-saving HIV treatment to shelter for refugees to food for malnourished children, US-funded aid projects around the world are being paused, downsized or scrapped due to the Trump administration’s unprecedented freeze on almost all foreign assistance.US President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order suspending development assistance funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for 90 days, during which time his administration will review which of the thousands of humanitarian, development and security projects will keep getting money.The US State Department said the move was to ensure that all foreign aid programmes “are efficient and consistent with US foreign policy under the America First agenda”.Emergency food programmes were exempted from the initial order, and amid growing clamour from aid agencies worldwide, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday issued further exemptions for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” — including the provision of medicine, medical services, food and shelter — on a temporary basis. While some aid groups expressed hope Rubio’s move would maintain programmes that keep alive tens of millions of people in need around the globe, US-funded operations of all types stepped up the pace of layoffs, furloughs and project pauses or shutdowns.”The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, one of the few aid officials willing to speak publicly about the impact of the freeze amid Trump administration warnings to stay quiet.The decision “could have life or death consequences” for children and families worldwide, Maxman said.The US is the world’s top source of foreign assistance by far, although other nations give a bigger share of their budgets. In the 2023 financial year, it spent $68 billion (€65.4 billion) on foreign aid — most of it through USAID — the latest government data shows. In terms of humanitarian aid specifically, the US provided nearly $14 billion last year (€13.5 billion), accounting for 42% of all such assistance recorded by the UN for 2024.On Monday, the Trump administration placed more than 50 senior officials at USAID on leave due to suspicions that they had been resisting the order and helping aid groups to cope with the freeze. The agency’s staff have been told not to communicate with partners apart from to let them know that funding has been halted. ‘Life or death’One of the biggest projects affected by the aid freeze is the President’s Emergency Relief Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The groundbreaking HIV programme is credited with saving 25 million lives — including those of 5.5 million children — in more than 50 countries since it was started by Republican President George W Bush in 2003.”This is a matter of life or death,” said Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International AIDS Society. If funding stops, “people are going to die and HIV will resurge,” she warned.In Zimbabwe, Gumisayi Bonzo, the director of a health NGO, said she was worried for her organisation — and for herself.Bonzo said she had yet to hear whether funding would be cut for her NGO, Trans Smart Trust, which promotes health services for intersex and transgender people in a country where discrimination and stigma discourage many people from seeking treatment.ADVERTISEMENTRubio’s waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” does not include projects that deal with abortion, family planning, conferences or anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion or gender reassignment.”Everyone is just confused right now,” Bonzo said.The 54-year-old has been taking HIV treatment for 23 years thanks to PEPFAR support that has made the medication affordable.”I have been religiously taking medicines for over two decades, I am living a normal life again, and suddenly we have to stop. That’s a death sentence for many people,” she said.ADVERTISEMENTGyude Moore, a former cabinet minister in Liberia who is now a fellow at the US-based Center for Global Development, said the aid freeze would affect projects across Africa — from supporting girls’ education and helping farmers to strengthening health systems.The move would hurt the US because “it makes no distinction between ally, partner and adversary,” according to Moore. For decades, Washington’s policy maintained that foreign aid pays for itself through better national security, by stabilising regions and economies, and improving relations with partners. Yet the Trump administration and many Republican politicians argue that foreign aid is often wasted by partners abroad and that the money should be instead spent at home.ADVERTISEMENTUS rivals such as China could capitalise on the aid freeze by moving into areas of Africa and gaining influence and business contracts in resource-rich nations, Moore and other analysts have warned.”Feeding hungry children in Liberia or malnourished children in Kenya, providing life-saving anti-retroviral drugs in Uganda — none of these things undermine American interests,” Moore added.Pain for UkraineWhile the foreign assistance freeze does not affect vital US military aid to Ukraine — as confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday — the move risks hampering country’s war effort in other ways, according to analysts and activists.For example, the US provides salary support to keep Ukraine’s government running amid the damage done to the economy following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and USAID has funded several wartime civilian programmes. ADVERTISEMENTOne such programme is Veteran Hub, an NGO that runs a crisis hotline receiving up to 1,300 calls a month from Ukrainian veterans who need social and psychological support.Ivona Kostyna, head of the NGO, said she could lose half of her 31 staff due to the order.”If we had a month, say, warning, even two-week warning, it would have been a lot easier on us,” she said. “We could have managed to somehow secure ourselves for this time. But there just wasn’t any warning.”Days before the US freeze, Veteran Hub received a call from someone on the verge of hurting themselves, Kostyna said. A hotline staffer texted the person through the night.ADVERTISEMENT”Now what we have is a line that isn’t working and basically no answer, which is terrifying for us,” she said.UN agencies tighten beltsOn a global scale, major UN aid organisations including the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have also been forced to scale back or reconsider their operations following Trump’s executive order.The head of UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, sent an email to all of the agency’s staff on Monday night informing them of a spending pause on international air travel, workshops and events, and a 90-day hiring and contract freeze, among other belt-tightening measures.”We must proceed very carefully over the next few weeks to mitigate the impact of this funding uncertainty on refugees and displaced people, on our operations, and on our teams,” read the email, a copy of which was provided to Euronews by a source. ADVERTISEMENT”These steps will help us manage resources while we navigate this challenging period.”The US is UNHCR’s biggest donor by some distance, having contributed $2 billion (€1.9 billion) to the agency last year. That represented about 40% of the nearly $4.9 billion received by UNHCR in 2024, according to the agency’s latest available data.Whether the aid freeze will last beyond 90 days remains to be seen, but pessimism and panic has set in at countless foreign aid organisations the world over in recent days.”It’s an incredibly distressing time, it’s a frightening time, and many organisations are fearful to speak out and talk about what is going on,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and ex-USAID official under the administrations of former US Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. ADVERTISEMENT”It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that following through on this policy will kill a lot of people,” Konyndyk wrote on X.
