Last week marked one year since Donald Trump began his second term as President of the United States, bringing with it immediate and sweeping changes to the global aid landscape. Within days of taking office, he issued Executive Orders freezing all US foreign assistance, a move that disrupted international development efforts and affected millions of vulnerable people worldwide.
The United States has historically been a global leader in humanitarian and development aid, both as the largest bilateral donor and through flagship programmes like PEPFAR, which has saved 26 million lives across 55 countries since 2003. In 2024, USAID disbursed roughly $68 billion in aid, over 40% of global assistance, much of it through NGOs and local partners that deliver services to marginalized communities.
The immediate impact of the freeze was devastating. Overnight, NGOs and local implementing partners faced stop-work orders, leaving clinics empty, humanitarian supplies stranded, and community outreach efforts halted. For example, MSI Reproductive Choices in Zimbabwe was forced to end a five-year reproductive health programme abruptly, leaving women and girls in rural areas without essential care. Staff described the experience as deeply undermining the trust built with the communities they serve.
Over the following months, the Trump administration systematically terminated 80% of USAID-funded projects worldwide, dismantled much of the agency, and transferred remaining responsibilities to the State Department. It also withdrew from international commitments, including the World Health Organization, compounding the crisis. NGOs were forced to cut staff, reduce programme reach, or close offices entirely. Organizations such as Amref UK and NACOSA reported program closures and severe funding shortages, leaving thousands of community-level services disrupted.
Even as NGOs sought alternative funding sources, the sheer scale of lost USAID support proved difficult to replace. The uncertainty created by these abrupt cuts has undermined long-term planning, workforce capacity, and programmatic expertise. The human cost has been staggering, with estimates of over 750,000 deaths worldwide, including 500,000 children, attributed to the disruption of essential services such as healthcare, nutrition, and disease prevention.
The US aid freeze also triggered a wider global retreat from development commitments. Other Western donor countries, including Germany, France, Canada, and the UK, reduced aid in tandem, contributing to a projected 17% fall in total global assistance from 2024. Multilateral institutions such as OCHA remain severely underfunded, while new bilateral agreements negotiated by the US often impose heavy conditions that risk excluding local delivery partners from decision-making.
Looking ahead, the long-term consequences of these cuts are still unfolding. The Gates Foundation estimates an additional 200,000 children under five may die in 2025 due to the year of unprecedented aid reductions. With 239 million people currently in humanitarian need worldwide, NGOs, donors, and multilateral agencies face the urgent challenge of adapting to a reshaped aid environment, building a more resilient and agile global aid sector amid ongoing political and funding uncertainties.
