United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to unite several foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency, statute law places USAID under "the direct authority and policy guidance of the Secretary of State". The Trump administration is attempting to shut it down, pending court cases and approval by Congress. The Trump administration plans to transfer some, but not all, of USAID’s functions to the State Department by July 1, 2025.
USAID has implemented programs in global health, disaster relief, socioeconomic development, environmental protection, democratic governance and education. With average annual disbursements of about $23 billion since 2001, USAID has been one of the world's largest aid agencies and accounts for most U.S. foreign assistance – the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms. USAID has missions in over 100 countries, primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
USAID has faced scrutiny over its role in political operations of influence abroad and potential conflicts of interest. In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14169 directing a near-total freeze on foreign aid, followed in February by placing most employees on administrative leave. The absence of authorization from Congress led to lawsuits against the Trump administration. In February, the administration, the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk made several false or misleading allegations of wasteful spending and fraud. On March 28, 2025, the Trump administration announced that it would fully put USAID under the State Department and would reduce its staff to 15 statutorily required positions down from a total of roughly 10,000 positions, effectively eliminating the agency in all but name. However, court cases are pending and the Trump administration stated “pending congressional consultations” at the time of the March 28 announcement.
Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. The goal of this agency was to counter Soviet Union influence during the Cold War and to advance U.S. soft power through socioeconomic development. USAID was subsequently established by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy, who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency.
Congress established USAID as a functionally independent executive agency with the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which gave the President 60 days to abolish or reorganize USAID. During that time, President Bill Clinton reorganized USAID and retained its independence from the U.S. Department of State.
Congress authorizes USAID's programs in the Foreign Assistance Act, which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation. As an official component of U.S. foreign policy, USAID operates subject to the guidance of the president, secretary of state, and the National Security Council.
When the U.S. government created USAID in November 1961, it built on a legacy of previous development-assistance agencies and their people, budgets, and operating procedures. USAID's predecessor agency was already substantial, with 6,400 U.S. staff in developing-country field missions in 1961. Except for the peak years of the Vietnam War, 1965–70, that was more U.S. field staff than USAID would have in the future, and triple the number USAID has had in field missions in the years since 2000.
After his inauguration as president on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps by Executive Order on March 1, 1961. On March 22, he sent a special message to Congress on foreign aid, asserting that the 1960s should be a "Decade of Development" and proposing to unify U.S. development assistance administration into a single agency. He sent a proposed "Act for International Development" to Congress in May and the resulting "Foreign Assistance Act" was approved in September, repealing the Mutual Security Act. In November, Kennedy signed the act and issued an Executive Order tasking the Secretary of State to create, within the State Department, the "Agency for International Development" (or A.I.D.: subsequently re-branded as USAID), as the successor to both ICA and the Development Loan Fund. With these actions, the U.S. created a permanent agency working with administrative autonomy under the policy guidance of the State Department to implement, through resident field missions, a global program of both technical and financial development assistance for low-income countries. This structure has continued to date.
On January 24, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered a near-total freeze on all foreign aid. Several days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for humanitarian aid. Despite the waiver, there was still much confusion about what agencies should do. More than 1,000 USAID employees and contractors were fired or furloughed following the near-total freeze on U.S. global assistance that the second Trump administration implemented. Matt Hopson, the USAID chief of staff appointed by the Trump administration, resigned.
On January 27, 2025, the agency's official government website was shut down. On February 3, 2025, Elon Musk, who has been carrying out parts of Trump's cost-cutting agenda, announced that he and Trump were in the process of shutting down USAID, claiming it to be a "criminal organization" and that it was "beyond repair". USAID's Inspector General had previously launched a probe into Starlink, which is operated by Musk; this led to concerns that Musk's role in the agency's downsizing constituted a conflict of interest. Also on February 3, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he had been appointed Acting Administrator of USAID by Trump and that the agency was being merged into the State Department. The legality of these actions is disputed given the mandate for the agency's creation in the Foreign Assistance Act.
It was announced that on February 6, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel would be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. By the evening of February 6, reports had emerged indicating that the total number of employees to be retained was 294, out of a total of more than 10,000. Trump declared that agency leaders were "radical left lunatics", while the State Department ordered them to halt virtually all their projects, even if that meant ceasing programs that helped to eradicate smallpox and prevented millions of HIV cases. The freeze in HIV relief programs, including PEPFAR, is estimated to jeopardize treatment access for 20 million people, including 500,000 children. This drastic action led to sudden pauses in over 30 clinical trials for ailments such as HIV, malaria, cholera, cervical cancer, and tuberculosis, leaving participants with medical devices in their bodies and cut off from researchers, likely going against the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
It also led to a pause in other efforts such as wartime help in Ukraine, hospital assistance in Syria, education programs in Mali, and conservation efforts in the Amazon rainforest. On February 6, CBS News reported that due to the civil war in Sudan, often called the “Forgotten War” because it receives comparatively little attention compared to the Ukraine and Gaza, an estimated 3 million children under age 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition. The American Farm Bureau Federation stated, "AID plays a critical role in reducing hunger around the world while sourcing markets for the surplus foods America's farmers and ranchers grow".
The action of the Trump administration also caused frustration among conservatives. Andrew Natsios, the administrator for USAID during the George W. Bush administration, told PBS that, "With all due respect, none of these people know anything about AID. What does Musk know about international development? Absolutely nothing. He has a bunch of young kids in their 20s. They don't know. They're techies. They don't know anything about international development. They don't know anything about the Global South. They don't know anything about these — the programs and policies of the agency. AID is the most pro-business and pro-market of all aid agencies in the world. I can tell you that categorically. I am a conservative Republican. I'm not a liberal. And I have served in repeated Republican administrations."
On March 10, Rubio posted to X that the administration had concluded its review, and 83% of USAID's programs would be cancelled, involving approximately 5,200 contracts.
On March 18, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang found Musk's planned cuts to USAID were likely to be unconstitutional and blocked him from making more cuts.
On March 24, 2025, DOGE announced the termination of a $2.63 billion grant from USAID to the Gavi Foundation because the Gavi Foundation "prioritizes 'zero-dose' children who have not received a single vaccine shot as well as missed communities. The zero-dose agenda is also a key priority for the global community’s immunization agenda 2030, which was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2020." DOGE stated the United States federal government saved $1.75 billion by cancelling the grant, which was 6.575% of the total USAID budget.
On March 28, former DOGE member and current USAID executive Jeremy Lewin announced plans to wind-down USAID by July 1 "following congressional consultations." The United States State Department will take over some of USAID’s functions, presumably the approximately 20% Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously spoken about. Some employees will remain at USAID until September 2 to responsibly shut down the agency.
Secretary of State Rubio wrote, "Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high."
Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, stated as an example of what he viewed as abrupt and irresponsible cost-cutting: “Thanks to DOGE, the men we paid to guard the most vicious ISIS terrorists in the world in Syria walked off the job.”
USAID employees won't be automatically transferred. Instead, the State Department will engage in a “separate and independent hiring process.”
As the United States cuts back on foreign aid, China may increase their efforts and funding as a way to gain influence. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said, "I have felt for a long time that USAID is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America in the Western Hemisphere." In addition, China often completes such projects on the basis of loans, not grants. Democrats on the House Select China Committee have put together talking points on how cutting aid too aggressively may give a win to China on the world stage.
Michael Sobolik, a China analyst at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank and a former aide to Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has said, "Sure, USAID was doing some highly questionable stuff that’s worthy of review. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Beijing is hoping we do exactly that."
In early February, China pledged an additional $4.4 million to de-mining efforts in Cambodia.
Regarding the March 28 Myanmar earthquake, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated that the United States is working through local partners in Myanmar, and said, “The success in the work and our impact will still be there.” However, a former USAID mission head in Myanmar said, “This is the new normal. This is what it looks like when the United States sits on the international sidelines, when the United States is a weaker international player, when it cedes the space to other global players like China.”
A lawsuit was filed on February 6 by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the administration, claiming that it violated separation of powers, the Take Care Clause of the Constitution, and the Administrative Procedure Act and requesting that all attempts to shut down the agency be halted, all recent actions be reversed, and a new acting director be appointed. The following day, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, nominated by President Trump in 2019, stated from the bench that he would enter in a "temporary restraining order", pausing the plan to put thousands of employees on leave and pausing the accelerated removal of workers from their posts abroad.
On February 21, Judge Nichols cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with pulling thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world, as part of an administration plan to also provide those abroad with a 30-day deadline to move back to the U.S. at government expense. Nichols had previously argued that Trump's actions threaten the safety of USAID workers abroad because many are deployed in unstable regions.
On February 10, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking a preliminary injunction that would prevent the enforcement of Executive Order 14169, along with an order reinstating foreign assistance funding.
On February 13, district court Judge Amir Ali granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) and told the government to pay $2 billion in funds that were owed to aid agencies. The government did not comply, leading the plaintiffs to return to court to seek enforcement, and Judge Ali gave the government until February 26 to comply. The Trump administration appealed that ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, also requesting a stay pending appeal; the stay was rejected. The administration then appealed to the US Supreme Court, asking the court to vacate the TRO and grant the stay while the appeal proceeded in the appeals court.
On March 5, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the government must pay for projects already completed. Voting in the majority were the 3 Democratic appointees, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Barrett; voting in the minority were the other 4 Republican appointees. However, Federal Judge Ali was ordered to proceed with "due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines." On March 6, Judge Ali ruled that at least some payments for completed work must be made by March 10. On March 10, Judge Ali ruled that the Trump administration must pay for projects completed by February 13 at the rate of 300 back payments a day, meaning four days for all 1,200 back payments. On March 11, ABC News reported that, until recently, no payments were being made because DOGE had disabled the payment system. On March 20, Reuters reported that the Trump administration is close to paying the $671 million owed to the organizations which sued.
On March 18, federal judge Theodore Chuang ruled that Musk’s and DOGE’s actions in placing USAID employees on leave were likely unconstitutional. Judge Chuang issued a preliminary injunction against further employees being placed on leave, buildings being closed, or websites having their contents deleted.
On March 28, the 4th Circuit Court overruled Judge Chuang on the preliminary injunction, with all three appellate judges voting to lift this injunction. However, they made a point of stating they were not ruling on the merits. Appellant Judge Marvin Quattlebaum wrote, “And none of this is to say that plaintiffs will not be able to develop evidence of unconstitutional conduct as the case progresses. Time will tell.”
USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions is drawn on to manage U.S. government programs in low-income countries for various purposes.
Some of the U.S. government's earliest foreign aid programs provided relief in war-created crises. In 1915, U.S. government assistance through the Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion. After 1945, the European Recovery Program championed by Secretary of State George Marshall (the "Marshall Plan") helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe.
After 1945, many newly independent countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies have continuously provided poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has also helped manage food aid provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also, USAID provides funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty.
Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues, trade and investment cooperation, safety standards for traded products, money laundering, and so forth. The United States has specialized federal agencies dealing with such areas, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency. USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries supports these and other U.S. government agencies' international work on global concerns.
Among these global interests, environmental issues attract high attention. USAID assists projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water, forests, and wildlife. USAID also assists projects in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to the risks associated with global climate change. U.S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable.
Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies to support U.S. geopolitical interests, mainly in the form of "Economic Support Funds" (ESF). USAID is called on to administer the bulk (90%) of ESF and is instructed: "To the maximum extent feasible, [to] provide [ESF] assistance ... consistent with the policy directions, purposes, and programs of [development assistance]."
Also, when U.S. troops are in the field, USAID can supplement the "Civil Affairs" programs that the U.S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of the State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda.
U.S. commercial interests are served by U.S. law's requirement that most goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U.S. vendors. American farms supplied about 41 percent of the food aid according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service.
To help low-income nations achieve self-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assists them in improving the management of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development mainly provides technical advice, training, scholarships, commodities, and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilizes the technical resources of the private sector and other U.S. government agencies, universities, and NGOs to participate in this assistance.
Programs of the various types above frequently reinforce one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act requires USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes ("Economic Support Funds") to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible.
USAID delivers both technical and financial assistance:
Technical assistance includes technical advice, training, scholarships, construction, and commodities. USAID contracts or procures technical assistance and provides it in-kind to recipients. For technical advisory services, USAID draws on experts from the private sector, mainly from the assisted country's pool of expertise and from specialized U.S. government agencies. Many host-government leaders have drawn on USAID's technical assistance to develop IT systems and procure computer hardware to strengthen their institutions.
To build indigenous expertise and leadership, USAID finances scholarships to U.S. universities and assists in the strengthening of developing countries' universities. Local universities' programs in developmentally important sectors are assisted directly and through USAID support for forming partnerships with U.S. universities.
The various forms of technical assistance are frequently coordinated as capacity-building packages for the development of local institutions.
Financial assistance supplies cash to developing country organizations to supplement their budgets. USAID also provides financial assistance to local and international NGOs who in turn give technical assistance in developing countries. Although USAID formerly provided loans, all financial assistance is now provided in the form of non-reimbursable grants.
In recent years, the United States has increased its emphasis on financial rather than technical assistance. In 2004, the Bush administration created the Millennium Challenge Corporation as a new foreign aid agency that is mainly restricted to providing financial assistance. In 2009, the Obama administration initiated a major realignment of USAID's own programs to emphasize financial assistance, referring to it as "government-to-government" or "G2G" assistance.
In April 2023, USAID and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve food safety and sustainable food systems in Africa. GFSI's work in benchmarking and standard harmonisation aims to foster mutual acceptance of GFSI-recognized certification programmes for the food industry.
USAID is organized around country development programs managed by resident USAID offices in developing countries ("USAID missions"), supported by USAID's global headquarters in Washington, D.C.
USAID plans its work in each country around an individual country development program managed by a resident office called a "mission". The USAID mission and its U.S. staff are guests in the country, with a status that is usually defined by a "framework bilateral agreement" between the government of the United States and the host government. Framework bilaterals give the mission and its U.S. staff privileges similar to (but not necessarily the same as) those accorded to the U.S. embassy and diplomats by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.
USAID missions work in over fifty countries, consulting with their governments and non-governmental organizations to identify programs that will receive USAID's assistance. As part of this process, USAID missions conduct socio-economic analysis, discuss projects with host-country leaders, design assistance to those projects, award contracts and grants, administer assistance (including evaluation and reporting), and manage flows of funds.
As countries develop and need less assistance, USAID shrinks and ultimately closes its resident missions. USAID has closed missions in a number of countries that had achieved a substantial level of prosperity, including South Korea, Turkey, and Costa Rica.
USAID also closes missions when requested by host countries for political reasons. In September 2012, the U.S. closed USAID/Russia at that country's request. Its mission in Moscow had been in operation for two decades. On May 1, 2013, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, asked USAID to close its mission, which had worked in the country for 49 years. The closure was completed on September 20, 2013.
USAID missions are led by mission directors and are staffed both by USAID Foreign Service officers and by development professionals from the country itself, with the host-country professionals forming the majority of the staff. The length of a Foreign service officer's "tour" in most countries is four years, to provide enough time to develop in-depth knowledge about the country. (Shorter tours of one or two years are usual in countries of exceptional hardship or danger.)
The mission director is a member of the U.S. Embassy's "Country Team" under the direction of the U.S. ambassador. As a USAID mission works in an unclassified environment with relative frequent public interaction, most missions were initially located in independent offices in the business districts of capital cities. Since the passage of the Foreign Affairs Agencies Consolidation Act in 1998 and the bombings of U.S. Embassy chanceries in East Africa in the same year, missions have gradually been moved into U.S. Embassy chancery compounds.
The country programs are supported by USAID's headquarters in Washington, D.C., "USAID/Washington", where about half of USAID's Foreign Service officers work on rotation from foreign assignments, alongside USAID's Civil Service staff and top leadership.
USAID is headed by an administrator. Under the Biden administration, the administrator became a regular attendee of the National Security Council.
USAID/Washington helps define overall federal civilian foreign assistance policy and budgets, working with the State Department, Congress, and other U.S. government agencies. It is organized into "Bureaus" covering geographical areas, development subject areas, and administrative functions. Each bureau is headed by an assistant administrator appointed by the president.
(Some tasks similar to those of USAID's Bureaus are performed by what are termed "Independent Offices".)
Independent oversight of USAID activities is provided by its Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development, which conducts criminal and civil investigations, financial and performance audits, reviews, and inspections of USAID activities around the world.
USAID's staffing reported to Congress in June 2016 totaled 10,235, including both field missions "overseas" (7,176) and the Washington, D.C. headquarters (3,059). Of this total, 1,850 were USAID Foreign Service officers who spend their careers mostly residing overseas (1,586 overseas in June 2016) and partly on rotation in Washington, D.C. (264). The Foreign Service officers stationed overseas worked alongside the 4,935 local staff of USAID's field missions.
Host-country staff normally work under one-year contracts that are renewed annually. Formerly, host-country staff could be recruited as "direct hires" in career positions and at present many host-country staff continue working with USAID missions for full careers on a series of one-year contracts. In USAID's management approach, local staff may fill highly responsible, professional roles in program design and management.
U.S. citizens can apply to become USAID Foreign Service officers by competing for specific job openings based on academic qualifications and experience in development programs. Within five years of recruitment, most Foreign Service officers receive tenure for an additional 20+ years of employment before mandatory retirement. Some are promoted to the Senior Foreign Service with extended tenure, subject to the Foreign Service's mandatory retirement age of 65. (This recruitment system differs from the State Department's use of the "Foreign Service Officer Test" to identify potential U.S. diplomats. Individuals who pass the test become candidates for the State Department's selection process, which emphasizes personal qualities in thirteen dimensions such as "Composure" and "Resourcefulness". No specific education level is required.)
In 2008, USAID launched the "Development Leadership Initiative" to reverse the decline in USAID's Foreign service officer staffing, which had fallen to a total of about 1,200 worldwide. Although USAID's goal was to double the number of Foreign Service officers to about 2,400 in 2012, actual recruitment net of attrition reached only 820 by the end of 2012. USAID's 2016 total of 1,850 Foreign Service officers compared with 13,000 in the State Department.
While USAID can have as little presence in a country as a single person assigned to the U.S. Embassy, a full USAID mission in a larger country may have twenty or more USAID Foreign Service officers and a hundred or more professional and administrative employees from the country itself.
The USAID mission's staff is divided into specialized offices in three groups: (1) assistance management offices; (2) the mission director's and the Program office; and (3) the contracting, financial management, and facilities offices.
Called "technical" offices by USAID staff, these offices design and manage the technical and financial assistance that USAID provides to their local counterparts' projects. The technical offices that are frequently found in USAID missions include Health and Family Planning, Education, Environment, Democracy, and Economic Growth.
Examples of projects assisted by missions' Health and Family Planning offices are projects for the eradication of communicable diseases, strengthening of public health systems focusing on maternal-child health including family planning services, HIV-AIDS monitoring, delivery of medical supplies including contraceptives, and coordination of Demographic and Health Surveys. This assistance is primarily targeted to the poor majority of the population and corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as strengthening the basis for socio-economic development.
USAID's Education offices mainly assist the national school system, emphasizing broadening the coverage of quality basic education to reach the entire population. Examples of projects often assisted by Education offices are projects for curriculum development, teacher training, and provision of improved textbooks and materials. Larger programs have included school construction. Education offices often manage scholarship programs for training in the U.S., while assistance to the country's universities and professional education institutions may be provided by Economic Growth and Health offices. The Education office's emphasis on school access for the poor majority of the population corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as to the socioeconomic development objective in the long term.
Examples of projects assisted by environmental offices are projects for tropical forest conservation, protection of indigenous people's lands, regulation of marine fishing industries, pollution control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and helping communities adapt to climate change. Environment assistance corresponds to USAID's objective of technical cooperation on global issues, as well as laying a sustainable basis for USAID's socioeconomic development objective in the long term.
USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has recently initiated the HEARTH (Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies) program, which operates in 10 countries with 15 activities aimed at promoting conservation of threatened landscapes and enhancing community well-being by partnering with the private sector to align business goals with development objectives. Through HEARTH, USAID implements One Health principles to achieve sustainable benefits for both people and the environment through projects focused on livelihoods, well-being, conservation, biodiversity, and governance.
Examples of projects assisted by Democracy offices are projects for the country's political institutions, including elections, political parties, legislatures, and human rights organizations. Counterparts include the judicial sector and civil society organizations that monitor government performance. Democracy assistance received its greatest impetus at the time of the creation of the successor states to the USSR starting in about 1990, corresponding both to USAID's objective of supporting U.S. bilateral interests and to USAID's socioeconomic development objective.
Examples of projects often assisted by Economic Growth offices are projects for improvements in agricultural techniques and marketing (the mission may have a specialized "Agriculture" office), development of microfinance industries, streamlining of Customs administrations (to accelerate the growth of exporting industries), and modernization of government regulatory frameworks for the industry in various sectors (telecommunications, agriculture, and so forth). In USAID's early years and some larger programs, Economic Growth offices have financed economic infrastructure like roads and electrical power plants. Economic Growth assistance is thus quite diverse in terms of the range of sectors where it may work. It corresponds to USAID's socioeconomic development objective and is the source of sustainable poverty reduction. Economic Growth offices also occasionally manage assistance to poverty relief projects, such as to government programs that provide "cash transfer" payments to low-income families.
Some USAID missions have specialized technical offices for areas like counter-narcotics assistance or assistance in conflict zones.
Disaster assistance on a large scale is provided through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. Rather than having a permanent presence in country missions, this office has supplies pre-positioned in strategic locations to respond quickly to disasters when and where they occur.
The mission director's signature authorizes technical offices to assist according to the designs and budgets they propose. With the help of the Program Office, the mission director ensures that designs are consistent with USAID policy for the country, including budgetary earmarks by which Washington directs that funds be used for certain general purposes such as public health or environmental conservation. The Program Office compiles combined reports to Washington to support budget requests to Congress and to verify that budgets were used as planned.
While the mission director is the public face and key decision-maker for an impressive array of USAID technical capabilities, arguably the offices that make USAID preeminent among U.S. government agencies in the ability to follow through on assistance agreements in low-income countries are the "support" offices.
Commitments of U.S. government funds to NGOs and firms that implement USAID's assistance programs can only be made in compliance with carefully designed contracts and grant agreements executed by warranted Contracting and agreement officers. The mission director is authorized to commit financial assistance directly to the country's government agencies.
Funds can be committed only when the Mission's Controller certifies their availability for the stated purpose. "FM" offices assist technical offices in financial analysis and in developing detailed budgets for inputs needed by projects assisted. They evaluate potential recipients' management abilities before financial assistance can be authorized and then review implementers' expenditure reports with great care. This office often has the largest number of staff of any office in the mission.
Called the "Executive Office" in USAID (sometimes leading to confusion with the Embassy's Executive Office, which is the office of the Ambassador), "EXO" provides operational support for mission offices, including human resources, information systems management, transportation, property, and procurement services. Increasing integration into Embassies' chancery complexes, and the State Department's recently increased role in providing support services to USAID, is expanding the importance of coordination between USAID's EXO and the embassy's Management section.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) states that some USAID appropriations are programmed collaboratively with the Department of State, which makes any calculation of the USAID budget imprecise, and the CRS generally refers to USAID-managed funds. The CRS stated USAID managed more than $40 billion of combined appropriations in 2023, and had a workforce of more than 10,000. The mean average managed foreign assistance disbursed in the fiscal years 2001 to 2024 was $22.9 billion in inflation adjusted to 2023 dollars; 2023 was an exceptional year because of an extra $16 billion of funds for Ukraine.
The U.S. government USAspending.gov website included International Security Assistance, Special Assistance Initiatives and a small amount of other spending alongside direct USAID spending in its assessment of the 2023 $50.1 billion of budgetary resources available to USAID, about $10 billion more than the headline CRS assessment. International Security Assistance was budgeted about $9 billion in 2023, of which Foreign Military Financing to strengthen military support of key U.S. allies and partner governments was $6 billion.
In fiscal year 2022, the cost of supplying USAID's assistance includes the agency's "Operating Expenses" of $1.97 billion, and "Bilateral Economic Assistance" program costs of $25.01 billion (the vast bulk of which was administered by USAID). In fiscal year 2012, "Operating Expenses" were $1.53 billion, and "Bilateral Economic Assistance" was $20.83 billion.
U.S. assistance budget totals are shown along with other countries' total assistance budgets in tables in a webpage of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, most of the world's governments adopted a program for action under the auspices of the United Nations Agenda 21, which included an Official Development Assistance (ODA) aid target of 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) for rich nations, specified as roughly 22 members of the OECD and known as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Most countries do not adhere to this target, as the OECD's table indicates that the DAC average ODA in 2011 was 0.31% of GNP. The U.S. figure for 2011 was 0.20% of GNP, which still left the U.S. as the largest single source of ODA among individual countries. According to the OECD, The United States' total official development assistance (ODA) (US$55.3 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2022, mainly due to support to Ukraine, as well as increased costs for in-donor refugees from Afghanistan. ODA represented 0.22% of gross national income (GNI).
According to a 2010 poll, the median American believes that 25% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid and that it should be 10%. In reality, less than 1% of the federal budget went to foreign aid.
In a 2019 poll of the American public, 35% said more money should be spent on foreign aid, 33% said spending should stay about the same, and 28% said less money should be spent.
Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, USAID helped provide safer housing for almost 200,000 displaced Haitians; supported vaccinations for more than 1 million people; cleared more than 1.3 million cubic meters of the approximately 10 million cubic meters of rubble generated; helped more than 10,000 farmers double the yields of staples like corn, beans, and sorghum; and provided short-term employment to more than 350,000 Haitians, injecting more than $19 million into the local economy. USAID has provided nearly $42 million to help combat cholera, helping to decrease the number of cases requiring hospitalization and reduce the case fatality rate.
With American entry into Afghanistan in 2001, USAID worked with the Department of State and Department of Defense to coordinate reconstruction efforts.
The interactions between USAID and other U.S. government agencies in the period of planning the Iraq operation of 2003 are described by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in its book Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience.
Subsequently, USAID played a major role in the U.S. reconstruction and development effort in Iraq. As of June 2009, USAID had invested approximately $6.6 billion on programs designed to stabilize communities; foster economic and agricultural growth; and build the capacity of the national, local, and provincial governments to represent and respond to the needs of the Iraqi people.
In June 2003, C-SPAN followed USAID administrator Andrew Natsios as he toured Iraq. The special program C-SPAN produced aired over four nights.
USAID has periodically supported the Lebanese American University and the American University of Beirut financially, with major contributions to the Lebanese American University's Campaign for Excellence.
In the twenty years prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine USAID dispersed modest funds, averaging $115 million, in Ukraine. Following the invasion Congress enacted large sums for Ukraine through USAID to support the operation of its government and civil society. In fiscal year 2022 nearly $9 billion was disbursed, and $16 billion in 2023 causing that year to be the highest total spending year for USAID with 36.6% of its managed funds being disbursed to Ukraine.
USAID has donated funds to international charity BBC Media Action, with approximately $3.23 million (£2.6 million) given in 2024. This funding supports media development, journalism training, and public education initiatives in over 30 countries.
A USAID subcontractor was arrested in Cuba in 2009 for distributing satellite equipment to provide Cubans with internet access. The subcontractor was released during Obama's second presidential term as part of the measures to improve relations between the two countries.
USAID has been used as a mechanism for "hastening transition", i.e., regime change in Cuba. Between 2009 and 2012, USAID ran a multimillion-dollar program, disguised as humanitarian aid and aimed at inciting rebellion in Cuba. The program consisted of two operations: one to establish an anti-regime social network called ZunZuneo, and the other to attract potential dissidents contacted by undercover operatives posing as tourists and aid workers.
USAID engineered a subversive program using social media aimed at fueling political unrest in Cuba to overthrow the Cuban government. On 3 April 2014 the Associated Press published an investigative report that revealed USAID was behind the creation of a social networking text messaging service aimed at creating political dissent and triggering an uprising against the Cuban government. The name of the messaging network was ZunZuneo, a Cuban slang term for a hummingbird's tweet and a play on "Twitter". According to the AP's report, the plan was to build an audience by initially presenting non-controversial content like sports, music and weather. Once a critical mass of users was reached the US government operators would change the content to spark political dissent and mobilize the users into organized political gatherings called "smart mobs" that would trigger an uprising against the Cuban government.
The messaging service was launched in 2010 and gained 40,000 followers at its peak. Extensive efforts were made to conceal the USAID involvement in the program, using offshore bank accounts, front companies and servers based overseas. According to a memo from one of the project's contractors, Mobile Accord: "There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement," "This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission." ZunZuneo's subscribers were never aware that it was created by the US government or that USAID was gathering their private data to gain useful demographics that would gauge their levels of dissent and help USAID "maximize our possibilities to extend our reach".
USAID officials realized they needed an exit strategy to conceal their involvement in the program, at one point seeking funding from Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey as part of a plan for it to go independent. The service was abruptly closed down around mid-2012, which USAID said was due to the program running out of money.
The ZunZuneo operation was part of a program that included a second operation which started in October 2009 and was financed jointly with ZunZuneo. In the second operation, USAID sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian children to Cuba to recruit Cubans into anti-regime political activities. The operatives posed as traveling aid workers and tourists. In one of the covert operations, the workers formed a HIV prevention workshop, which leaked memos called "the perfect excuse" for the programme's political goals. The Guardian said the operation could undermine US efforts to work toward improving health globally.
The operation was also criticized for putting the undercover operatives themselves at risk. The covert operatives were given limited training about evading Cuban authorities suspicious of their actions. After Alan Gross, a development specialist and USAID subcontractor, was arrested in Cuba, the US government warned USAID about the safety of covert operatives. Regardless of safety concerns, USAID refused to end the operation.
In light of the AP's report, Rajiv Shah, the head of USAID, testified before the Senate Appropriations State Department and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on 8 April 2014.
USAID operated in the coca-growing Chapare region, including under a 1983 agreement to support crop-substitution programs to encourage other crops. No later than 1998, this funding was conditional on farmers eradicating all their coca plants. In 2008, the coca growers union affiliated with Bolivian President Evo Morales ejected the 100 employees and contractors from USAID working in the Chapare region, citing frustration with U.S. efforts to persuade them to switch to growing unviable alternatives. Other rules, such as the requirement that participating communities declare themselves "terrorist-free zones" as required by U.S. law irritated people, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network. "Eradicate all your coca and then you grow an orange tree that will get fruit in eight years but you don't have anything to eat in the meantime? A bad idea. The thing about kicking out USAID, I don't think it's an anti-American sentiment overall but rather a rejection of bad programs."
Also in 2008, USAID's Bolivian programs under the Office of Transitional Initiatives and the Democracy Program, as well as separate funding by the National Endowment for Democracy, were the subject of critical investigative reports that documented them supporting political initiatives in regions governed by separatist movements. During the September 2008 political crisis, President Evo Morales expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg and spoke out against USAID interference. The US government had previously ended OTI spending in Bolivia and subsequently redirected Democracy Program funds to other purposes, while denying USAID had interfered in Bolivian politics.
President Evo Morales expelled USAID from Bolivia on May 1, 2013, for allegedly seeking to undermine his government following ten years of operations within the country. At the time, the USAID had seven American staffers and 37 Bolivian staffers in the country, with an annual budget of $26.7 million. President Morales explained that the expulsion was because USAID's objectives in Bolivia were to advance American interests, not to advance the interests of the Bolivian people. More specifically, President Morales noted the American "counter-narcotic" programs that harms the interests of Bolivian coca farmers who get caught in the middle of American operations.
Following the 2019 Bolivian political crisis that saw Jeanine Áñez's assumption of power, President Áñez invited USAID to return to Bolivia to provide "technical aid to the electoral process in Bolivia". In October 2020, USAID provided $700,000 in emergency assistance in fighting wildfires to the government of Luis Arce.
During the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, the organization launched MEC-USAID Agreements [pt], responsible for transforming the Brazilian education politics closer to the USA. USAID also acted in the countries public security. Between 1960 and 1972, USAID trained cops that were involved in political repression in Brazil.
Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, accused USAID of trying to influence political reform in Brazil in a way that would have purposely benefited right-wing parties. USAID spent $95,000 US in 2005 on a seminar in the Brazilian Congress to promote a reform aimed at pushing for legislation punishing party infidelity. According to USAID papers acquired by Folha under the Freedom of Information Act, the seminar was planned to coincide with the eve of talks in that country's Congress on a broad political reform. The papers read that although the "pattern of weak party discipline is found across the political spectrum, it is somewhat less true of parties on the liberal left, such as the [ruling] Worker's Party." The papers also expressed a concern about the "'indigenization' of the conference so that it is not viewed as providing a U.S. perspective." The event's main sponsor was the International Republican Institute.
In February 2025, Michael Benz, a former state department official, affirmed in an interview with Steve Bannon on The War Room that Bolsonaro was seen in USAID as "Tropical Trump" and "if USAID didn't exist, Bolsonaro would still be the president of Brazil". In February 3, Eduardo Bolsonaro, federal deputy and son of Jair Bolsonaro, answered Benz in his social media by, accusing USAID of financing institutions involved with fighting against fake news during the presidential elections in 2022, such as the International Center for Journalists, Sleeping Giants Brazil and Vero Institute, created by the YouTuber Felipe Neto, with the objective of "manipulating narratives and interfering with Brazilian democracy". He and Gustavo Gayer also began to collect signatures to open a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission to investigate the supposed interference. His accusations are largely considered as fake news and many of the accused institutions affirmed that they never received money from USAID. Shortly after, in a speech for the Ação Política Conservadora, president of Argentina Javier Milei alleged without evidence that USAID used millions of dollars to falsify the 2022 election.
On September 19, 2011, USAID and the Ad Council launched the "Famine, War, and Drought" (FWD) campaign to raise awareness about that year's severe drought in East Africa. Through TV and internet ads as well as social media initiatives, FWD encouraged Americans to spread awareness about the crisis, support the humanitarian organizations that were conducting relief operations, and consult the Feed the Future global initiative for broader solutions. Celebrities Geena Davis, Uma Thurman, Josh Hartnett and Chanel Iman took part in the campaign via a series of Public Service Announcements. Corporations like Cargill, General Mills, and PepsiCo also signed on to support FWD.
USAID halted its assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip on January 31, 2019, reportedly at the request of the Palestinian Authority. The request was related to new U.S. legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018, that exposed foreign aid recipients to anti-terrorism lawsuits. USAID restarted assistance to Palestinians in April 2021 under President Biden. The agency increased assistance during the Israel–Gaza war that began in October 2023. Since October 7, 2023, USAID gave more than $2.1 billion in assistance to Palestinians. On November 10, 2023, more than 1,000 USAID employees signed an open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war.
USAID, alongside the Department of State and Defence, has supported NGOs to removing UXO and landmines, and remediating soil contaminated by Agent Orange from multiple regions in Vietnam, as well as supporting victims of Agent Orange.
U.S. foreign economic assistance has been the subject of debate and criticism since at least the 1950s.
USAID frequently contracts with private firms or individuals for specialist services lasting from a few weeks to several years. It has long been asked whether USAID should more often assign such tasks to career U.S. government employees instead. United States government staff directly performed technical assistance in the earliest days of the program in the 1940s. It soon became necessary for the federal government technical experts to plan and manage larger assistance programs than they could perform by themselves. The global expansion of technical assistance in the early 1950s reinforced the need to draw on outside experts, which was also accelerated by Congress's requirement of major reductions of U.S. government staffing in 1953. By 1955, observers commented on a perceived shift toward re use of shorter-term contracts (rather than using employees with career-length contracts).
USAID states that "U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world." In 2008, a report found that approximately 40% of aid money spent in Afghanistan had returned to donor countries through corporate profits, consultants' salaries, and other costs.
Although USAID officially selects contractors on a competitive and objective basis, watchdog groups, politicians, foreign governments, and corporations have occasionally accused the agency of allowing its bidding process to be unduly influenced by the political and financial interests of its current presidential administration. Under the Bush administration, for instance, it emerged that all five implementing partners selected to bid on a $600 million Iraq reconstruction contract enjoyed close ties to the administration.
William Blum has said that in the 1960s and early 1970s, USAID has maintained "a close working relationship with the CIA, and Agency officers often operated abroad under USAID cover." The 1960s-era Office of Public Safety, a now-disbanded division of USAID, has been mentioned as an example of this, having served as a front for training foreign police in counterinsurgency methods (including torture techniques).
In 2008, Benjamin Dangl wrote in The Progressive that the Bush administration was using USAID to fund efforts in Bolivia to "undermine the Morales government and coopt the country’s dynamic social movements – just as it has tried to do recently in Venezuela and traditionally throughout Latin America".
From 2010 to 2012, the agency operated ZunZuneo, a social media site similar to Twitter in an attempt to instigate uprisings against the Cuban government. Its involvement was concealed in order to ensure mission success. The plan was to draw in users with non-controversial content until a critical mass is reached, after which more political messaging would be introduced. At its peak, more than 40,000 unsuspecting Cubans interacted on the platform.
In the summer of 2012, ALBA countries (Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda) called on its members to expel USAID from their countries.
Critics have accused USAID of being a tool for US interventionism. Additionally, the agency has been accused of covert political operations abroad, allegedly collaborating with the CIA on regime-change efforts and controversial funding decisions, leading to strained relations with some foreign governments.
Studies have found correlations between U.S. foreign aid levels and nations' membership on the United Nations Security Council, suggesting the use of aid to influence council votes.
In 1990, after Yemen voted against a resolution for a U.S.-led coalition to use force against Iraq, U.S. ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering told Yemen's UN Ambassador Abdullah Saleh al-Ashtal, "That's the most expensive No vote you ever cast." Within days, USAID ceased operations and funding in Yemen.
USAID requires NGOs to sign a document renouncing terrorism, as a condition of funding. Issam Abdul Rahman, media coordinator for the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network, a body representing 135 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said his organization "takes issue with politically conditioned funding". Also, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, listed as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State, said that the USAID condition was nothing more than an attempt "to impose political solutions prepared in the kitchens of Western intelligence agencies to weaken the rights and principles of Palestinians, especially the right of return."
In 2003, Congress passed a law providing U.S. government funds to private groups to help fight AIDS and other diseases all over the world through USAID grants. One of the conditions imposed by the law on grant recipients was a requirement to have "a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking". In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. that the requirement violated the First Amendment's prohibition against compelled speech.
For three decades, USAID has been the principal foreign donor to family planning in Peru. Until the 1990s, the Peruvian government's commitment to providing family planning services was limited. In 1998, concerns arose regarding the involvement of USAID in forced sterilization campaigns in Peru. Some far-right politicians in Washington opposed USAID's funding of family planning initiatives in the country. In January 1998, David Morrison, from the U.S.-based NGO Population Research Institute (PRI), traveled to Peru to investigate claims of human rights abuses related to these programs. During his visit, Morrison gathered testimony from Peruvian politicians and other figures opposed to family planning but did not meet with USAID officials in Peru. Upon his return to the United States, the PRI submitted its findings to U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, a member of the Republican Party, urging for the suspension of USAID's family planning efforts in Peru. Smith subsequently dispatched a member of his staff to Peru for further investigation.
In February 1998, another far-right U.S. organization, the Latin American Alliance for the Family, sent its director to Peru to examine the situation, again without consulting USAID officials. On February 25, 1998, a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, chaired by Smith, held a hearing on "the Peruvian population control program". Allegations that USAID was funding forced sterilizations in Peru prompted Congressman Todd Tiahrt to introduce the "Tiahrt Amendment" in 1998. However, the subcommittee concluded that USAID's funding had not supported the abuses committed by the Peruvian government.
According to a February 2024 report, the USAID's Office of Inspector General launched an investigation in 2023 into the agency for awarding $110,000 in 2021 to Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), a charity in Michigan that Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee have accused in recent years of sharing ties to terrorism organizations in South Asia. In August 2023, USAID's Vetting Support Unit cleared HHRD to receive the grant. In 2024, researchers at George Mason University reported that allegations against HHRD were part of a campaign targeting large American Muslim charities based on the manipulation of poorly-sourced information.
In 2025, the Trump administration accused USAID of "wasting massive sums of taxpayer money" over several decades, including during Trump's first presidency from 2017 to 2021. The administration cited a number of projects, including $1.5 million for LGBT workplace inclusion in Serbia, $2.5 million to build electric vehicle chargers in Vietnam, $6 million for tourism promotion in Egypt, and "hundreds of millions of dollars" (the largest item) purportedly allocated to discourage Afghanistan farmers from growing poppies for opium, which allegedly ended up supporting poppy cultivation and benefiting the Taliban. Fact checkers found that these claims were largely false, "highly misleading," or wrong.
On February 3, 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized four expenditures putatively uncovered by DOGE. Fact-checkers found that several of the alleged wasteful grants were actually administered by the State Department, not USAID. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, in his February 2025 order blocking the Trump administration from placing certain USAID employees on leave, "noted that despite Trump's claim of massive 'corruption and fraud' in the agency, government lawyers had no support for that argument in court."
During Trump's first term, his daughter Ivanka Trump, who served as Advisor to the President, used over $11,000 from USAID in 2019 to purchase video recording and reproducing equipment for a White House event. Both Ivanka and then-First Lady Melania Trump had publicly praised USAID's work during the first Trump administration. Melania Trump visited Africa in 2018, speaking about USAID's efforts and stating, "We care, and we want to show the world that we care, and I’ve partnered and am working with USAID." Ivanka Trump also toured Africa on behalf of USAID, lauding her father's creation of the "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" initiative and emphasizing its alignment with U.S. national security interests.
In February 2025, following the allegations of fraud, the White House announced a plan to reduce USAID's staff from over 10,000 employees to fewer than 300. Critics, including former USAID administrators, decried this move, calling it "one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in U.S. history", and have argued that the cuts will result in job losses, damage to American businesses, and harm to vulnerable populations worldwide. The Inspector General for USAID issued a report on the spending pause and staff furloughs noting that these actions limited USAID's efforts to assure that its distributed funds "do not benefit terrorists and their supporters". The Inspector General also warned that $489 million in humanitarian food aid was at risk of spoiling due to staff furloughs and unclear guidance. The Office of Presidential Personnel fired the Inspector General the next day, despite a law requiring 30 days notice to Congress before firing an Inspector General.
In March 2025, experts from the Center for Global Development estimated that before the freeze, USAID programs annually prevented approximately 1,650,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS, 500,000 deaths from lack of vaccines, 310,000 deaths from tuberculosis and 290,000 deaths from malaria.
Pe Kha Lau, 71, died after she was discharged from a USAID-funded healthcare facility operated by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) while still relying on oxygen to survive. In the Umpiem Mai camp in Thailand, witnesses reported the deaths of multiple patients who too relied on oxygen. The IRC offered their condolences to the family and friends of Pe Kha Lau. Nicholas Kristof also documented evidence contradicting Elon Musk's claim that "No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding. No one."
Christine Stegling, deputy executive director at UNAIDS, estimates that there could be a 400% increase in AIDS-related deaths around the world if PEPFAR is not formally reauthorized for USAID funding, which represents around 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths within four years.
According to Pio Smith, UNFPA’s Asia-Pacific regional director, the USAID freeze could lead to 1,200 maternal deaths and 109,000 additional unwanted pregnancies in the next three years in Afghanistan.