What are the costs and impacts of shutting down USAID?

For decades, US foreign aid has played a vital role in humanitarian assistance, development and global security.

But last month, the US government – the world’s biggest aid donor – announced a sudden 90-day freeze on foreign aid. This will have a devastating impact on communities globally who depend on it to survive. It has triggered widespread uncertainty across the global development sector.

In the days following the decision, the harm was already visible. Reports show that antiretroviral drugs for HIV patients ran out, landmine clearance efforts stopped, and critical humanitarian operations were left in limbo.

Although an exemption was later introduced for “life-saving humanitarian assistance”, its scope remains unclear. Many organisations are scrambling to understand the full implications of USAID's brutal shutdown.

This episode examines these developments in detail. Experts formerly at USAID join us to assess what the freeze means for communities dependent on this funding and the global development sector, and what should come next.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (Chief Executive, ODI Global)
• Elizabeth Campbell (Executive Director, ODI Global Washington and former Deputy Assistant Secretary, US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration)
• Sarah Charles (Former Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, USAID)
• Kate Almquist Knopf (Senior Advisor, Former Director of the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, US Department of Defense, and Former Assistant Administrator for Africa, USAID)

Related resources

• Out of the rubble (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Donors In A Post-Aid World January 2025 update (Newsletter, ODI Global)
  
  
• What role should donors play in a post-aid world? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)
  
  
• Investing in frontier economies – what can public-private collaboration achieve? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)