Editor’s note: In our dedication to supporting our members, we are actively working to understand this evolving landscape and are working to provide useful information and resources to our community, within the constraints of a rapidly changing situation. (See previous update.)
We also want to hear from our members about your concerns and ideas for action. Please complete this short anonymous survey or contact us via email.
As of February 3, 2025
Foreign aid has been frozen, programs and services around the world have been halted, and USAID was basically dismantled over the weekend—with the latest action of Secretary of State Marco Rubio now also serving as Acting Director of USAID.
This impacts people—the individuals who rely on lifesaving care, the citizens who need to safeguard against devastating disease outbreaks (such as Ebola in Uganda), the mothers seeking to protect their children, and the dedicated workers who make all of this possible—our community.
These abrupt policy changes, coupled with the stringent directives at HHS and DEI programs, have had profound and wide-ranging effects on global health initiatives and public health infrastructure. They have already disrupted ongoing health programs and research, impacted aid workers and health professionals, and raised significant concerns about the future of health programs, security, and research.
The sudden overhaul and disbandment of USAID pose significant risks to vital health initiatives in over 100 countries. This jeopardizes the agency’s efforts in disease prevention, maternal health, and more, potentially resulting in the wider spread of diseases and poorer health outcomes in underserved regions.
Professionals in the field are facing job loss, insecurity, and challenges in maintaining program continuity and effectiveness due to funding freezes and policy changes. They are navigating ethical dilemmas and operational challenges in an effort to deliver care amidst evolving regulations and diminished support for health programs. Health-focused NGOs, in particular, are at risk as they must swiftly adapt to funding cuts, seek alternative funding sources to maintain operations, and manage the impact on partnerships with local entities. Researchers are seeing interruptions in their work, losing access to crucial datasets, and encountering obstacles in conducting and publishing research that incorporates gender and diversity considerations, in addition to the NIH confusion.
The administration’s moves appear to contravene established laws, particularly the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which ensures USAID’s independence, and specific provisions in the 2024 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act that require consultation with Congress before restructuring. Historical context shows that similar actions in the past involved extensive consultations and were guided by comprehensive legislative frameworks – these have not.
Legal actions and congressional oversight are inevitable, yet it remains uncertain how effective these measures will be in the short term in mitigating the most harmful effects. Diminished aid budgets across Europe complicate their ability to alleviate the damage.
But many members and partners are already taking action, including:
Scoping the Impact
- TechChange and ICTWorks are mapping the global impacts of the funding freeze. Check out GlobalAidFreeze.com and https://www.ictworks.org/help-show-usaid-funding-freeze/.
- USAIDStopWork.com is also compiling the impact.
- Accountability Lab provided rapid analysis of the initial impact of the stop work orders. With more than 350 organizations and companies responding, more than half of the orgs won’t make it to May if things don’t change. Read more and add your organization.
- To quantify the impact, Humentum also has a survey and member FHI360 is compiling data to evaluate the economic impacts at the state and congressional district level; here’s the spreadsheet. Contact statedata@fhi360.org with questions.
- Devex provides excellent coverage of the evolving situation for our sector.
Advocacy and Mobilization
- Members CUGH (here and here), DNDi, GAIA, Global Health Corps, Global Health Council (here and here), Global Health Technologies Coalition, IDEO.org, Maya Health Alliance, MedShare, Nexleaf Analytics, North Carolina Global Health Alliance (here and here), PATH, Population Services International, Seed Global Health, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCGHI, and UCSF have spoken with the press or issued statements.
- Partners the CORE Group, UN Foundation, and Unlock Aid are organizing additional advocacy efforts.
- Brookings offered a piece, Why merging USAID into State would undermine U.S. strategic interests, and many others have powerful op-eds, see sources below.
- You can use their talking points to contact your Congressional representatives. Find your representatives here.
Navigating the Legal Questions and Resources for Workers
- Unlock Aid also held an “Ask Me Anything” webinar with their legal partners; the summary is here.
- Unlock Aid is establishing an emergency bridge fund, asking those who need funding to complete this form; they will share it with prospective funders.
- Tech Change is sharing a job board and resource curation for those impacted.
- Humentum offers resources for navigating the foreign assistance pause.
- Just Security, Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order?
Take the Alliance anonymous survey to help us better support you during this crisis. We want to know the impact on your organization, and how we can help.
Sources and other Key News Stories:
February 8, 2025
- Politico | How Spending $153M to Pay its Bills put USAID in DOGE’s Crosshairs
- Washington Post | NIH Cuts Billions of Dollars in Biomedical Funding, Effective Immediately
- NYT, Global Health Council | With Aid Cutoff, Trump Halts a Legacy of ‘Acting with Humanity’
- NYT | ‘We Are in Disbelief’: Africa Reels as U.S. Aid Agency Is Dismantled
- Washington Post | Judge Bars Trump from Putting 2,700 Additional USAID Workers on Leave
February 7, 2025
- Devex | Trump Will Double USAID Staff Numbers to 600, Up from 300 Yesterday
- KFF | How Much Global Health Funding Goes Through USAID?
- NPR | Why is the Trump Administration Targeting USAID?
- Devex | Even Washington’s Favorite UN Agency Has to Tighten its Belt
- Devex | US-Grown Food Aid is Stranded in Ports Worldwide Despite Waiver
- Reuters | Halt in U.S. Aid Cripples Global Efforts to Relieve Hunger
February 6, 2025
- Devex | The End of Foreign Aid as We Know It
- Health Policy Watch | Crucial WHO Health Emergency Response Faces Budget Cut of 25%
- Wall Street Journal | White House Preparing Order to Cut Thousands of Federal Health Workers
- Washington Post | Gutting USAID Threatens Billions of Dollars for U.S. Farms, Businesses
- PBS Newshour | Former USAID Head on the Global Impact of the Dismantling
- STAT | Researchers ‘Stunned’ After HHMI Abruptly Cancels Program to Make Science More Inclusive
- Semafor | How the USAID Collapse Helps Putin
- NYT | Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order
- Pew Research Center | What the Data Says About U.S. Foreign Aid
- Washington Post | Layoffs Hit Contractors and Small Businesses as Trump Cuts Take Effect
- Reuters | Africa’s Top Health Official Presses US to Resume Health Aid
- Devex | USAID’s Workforce to Be Slashed to Just 294 Staff
- Reuters | Trump Team Considers Demanding WHO Reform, Including American in Charge
- Devex | Thousands Gather in Washington to Protest the Dismantling of USAID
February 5, 2025
- Washington Post | U.S. Aid Void Puts Pressure on Europe, Where Some Also Turn Inward
- Devex | Left in the Dark: The Human Toll of USAID’s Global Recall of Employees
- Politico | Trump Rescinds $4B in US Pledges for UN Climate Fund
- Devex | Staff Cuts Coming to DFC
- Devex | In Letter to Rubio, Senators Question Efforts to ‘Destroy’ USAID
- Bureau of Investigative Journalism | Trump’s Data Deletions Pose a Stark Threat to Public Health
- Washington Post | USAID Workers Scramble for Answers After Trump Pulls Almost All of Them off the Job Worldwide
- Devex | Most USAID Staff Cut From Agency, Marking End of World’s Largest Donor
February 4, 2025
- Devex | USAID Inspector General Warned of Oversight Failures Before Aid Shutdown
- Washington Post | Trans Health, Research Programs Ordered to Stop By Trump Administration
- Devex | FCDO Says USAID Merger Would Have ‘Seismic Impact’
- Reuters | Trump Administration Puts on Leave USAID Staff Globally in Dramatic Aid Overhaul
- Devex | Newswire: The Slow but Sure Dismantling of USAID
- STAT | NIH Resumes Grant Reviews After Two-Week Pause, Along With Some Communications and Travel
- Devex | Scoop: USAID Headquarters Shuttered for Second Day
February 3, 2025
- NPR | U.S. Aid Freeze Hits Secret Girls’ Schools, Post-Flood Repair and Much More
- Devex | Scoop: UN Population Fund Thought It Prepared for the Worst — It Didn’t
- Devex | Tedros Refutes Trump’s Claims of WHO’s Lack of Independence
- CBS | USAID to Be Merged Into State Department, 3 U.S. Officials Say
- Devex | Dismantling Without a Merger: How Trump and Musk Undermined USAID
- Devex | USAID May Be Reorganized, Absorbed by the State Department, Rubio Says
- CGD | No, 90 Percent of Aid Is Not Skimmed off Before Reaching Target Communities
- Devex | As Trump Upends USAID, What Can Be Done?
- Devex | Trump’s First 100 Days: Tracking the Impact on Development Work
- Washington Post | Trump and Allies Make More Moves to Wrest Control of USAID
- NYTimes | Top Security Officials at Aid Agency Put on Leave After Denying Access to Musk Team
February 2, 2025
- Politico | Trump Vows to Cut Off Aid to South Africa
- STAT | National Science Foundation Restores Payments After Five-Day Pause, but Worries Over Science Funding Persist
- Washington Post | What is USAID, the Government Agency Targeted by Trump and Elon Musk?
February 1, 2025
- Devex | Exclusive: Some PEPFAR Programs Get Waiver to Restart Operations
- Inside Medicine | Massive Censorship Escalation at CDC. Trump Administration Now Choosing the Public Health Data You Can See.
- Inside Medicine | CDC Orders Mass Retraction and Revision of Submitted Research Across All Science and Medicine Journals. Banned Terms Must Be Scrubbed.
- Just Security | Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order?
January 31, 2025
- ProPublica | “People Will Die”: The Trump Administration Said It Lifted Its Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid. That’s Not True.
- NYTimes | Health Resources Vanish Following D.E.I. and Gender Orders
- KFF | Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions on Global Health
- MedPage | CDC Purging Its Website After Trump Orders
- NYTimes | How the World Is Reeling From Trump’s Aid Freeze
- CUGH | Suspending Federal Support Threatens Lives, Jobs, & US Security
January 30, 2025
- Devex | Confusion, fear as PEPFAR partners suspend HIV services
- Devex | Atul Gawande: Stop-work Could Destroy US Global Health Infrastructure
- STAT | National Science Foundation Suspends Salary Payments, Leaving Researchers Unable to Pay Their Bills
January 29, 2025
- Devex | USAID Issues Blanket Stop-Work Order, Promising ‘Equitable Adjustments’
- Devex | 5 Key Questions About the US Foreign Aid Halt, Funding Freeze
- Devex | Questions Swirl About Whether Humanitarian Aid Waiver Applies to PEPFAR
- Devex | How Trump’s US Aid Stop-Work Order Affects Global Food Aid
- NY Times | Trump Administration Halts H.I.V.. Drug Distribution in Poor Countries
January 28, 2025
- The Guardian | Charities Reeling From USAID Freeze Warn of ‘Life or Death’ Effects
- Washington Post | White House Tries to Clarify Trump Federal Spending Freeze as Confusion Spreads
- NYTimes | State Department Permits Distribution of H.I.V. Medications to Resume — for Now
- NYTimes | Which Federal Programs Are Under Scrutiny? The Budget Office Named 2,600 of Them
- NYTimes | U.S. Halt to Foreign Aid Cripples Programs Worldwide
- BNI | Trump Order Suspends Healthcare in Refugee Camps
- Reuters | Trump Order Set to Halt Supply of HIV, Malaria Drugs to Poor countries, Sources Say
- Reuters | US Issues New Waiver for Humanitarian Aid Amid Freeze
- STAT | Trump Order Aims to End Federal Support for Gender Transitions for Those Under 19
- STAT | Trump Administration Suspension of Global HIV Treatment Program Sparks Chaos and Fear of Lost Lives
- STAT | The Trump Administration’s Latest Decisions on Federal Health Agencies, Summarized and Explained
- Devex | Trump’s Executive Order on WHO, Explained
- Devex | Scoop: USAID Furloughs Hundreds of Contractors from Humanitarian Bureau
- Devex | USAID Cancels Stop-Work Q&A with Partners, Citing Stop-Work Order
- Devex | ‘Game-Changing Moment’ in US Foreign Aid Throws Everything Into Doubt
- Think Global Health | President Trump Begins Changing U.S. Global Health Policy
- Inside Medicine | Updates on Trump’s Public Health Choke Hold. A Scorched Earth Approach Ensues.
- NPR | If Confirmed as HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. Would Have a Vast Global Reach
- amfAR | Impact of Stop Work Orders for PEPFAR Programs
January 27, 2025
- Devex | Trump Reinstates Mexico City Policy, Further Limiting Abortion Care
- Devex | Opinion: The Case for Democratizing Global Pandemic Preparedness
- AP | CDC Ordered to Stop Working With WHO Immediately, Upending Expectations of an Extended Withdrawal
- NPR | Trump Administration Puts Senior USAID Officials on Leave
- STAT | CDC Ordered to Stop Working With WHO Immediately, Upending Expectations of an Extended Withdrawal
- Forbes | CDC Ordered to Stop Working With WHO Immediately
January 26, 2025
January 24, 2025
- White House | Mexico City Policy
- Devex | Trump’s first 100 days: What’s next for US foreign aid?
- Devex | Exclusive: State Department Issues Stop-Work Order on Us Aid
- UC Berkeley | US Withdrawal from WHO Could Bring Tragedy at Home & Abroad
January 23, 2025
January 22, 205
- NPR | Assessing Trump’s claim that U.S. pays ‘unfair’ share of dues to WHO
- Devex | Trump’s Foreign Assistance Freeze Generates Uncertainty and Confusion
- Vox | Trump’s Sweeping New Order Tries to Dismantle DEI in Government — And the Private Sector
- HHS | Immediate Pause on Issuing Documents and Public Communication
January 21, 2025
- Devex | Trump Wastes No Time on Foreign Aid, Climate, and Health
- Devex I USAID Employees Told to ‘Pause’ Public Communications
- KFF | Trump Administration Withdrawal From the World Health Organization: What’s at Stake?
- NPR I Trump’s Federal Health Website Scrubs ‘Abortion’ Search Results
- NY Times | Change to Birthright Citizenship Would Affect Visa Holders, Too
- Science | Immediate Pause on Issuing Documents and and Public Communications
- Washington Post | Trump Officials Pause Health Agencies’ Communications, Citing Review
- Brady Responds to Trump Administration’s Apparent Closure of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
- GHTC | Statement From the Global Health Technologies Coalition on US Withdrawal From WHO
- Global Health Council; People | Trump Withdraws US from World Health Organization — What Does That Mean?
January 20, 2025
- The Hill | Trump Signs Executive Order Pausing Foreign Assistance for 3 Months
- The Hill | Trump Signs Executive Order Recognizing Only 2 Sexes
- Politico | Trump Imposes Federal Government Hiring Freeze, Orders Workers Back to Office
- White House | Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization
- White House | Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid
- White House | America First Policy Directive to the Secretary of State
- White House | Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government
- White House | Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing
January 17, 2025