The US Agency for International Development, Washington s primary humanitarian aid agency, has been a top target of a government reduction program spearheaded by billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, Reuters reported.
Hours after he was sworn in, Trump ordered a 90-day pause to all U.S. foreign assistance pending assessments of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy. Four days later, on January 24, the U.S. State Department issued a "stop-work" order for all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid with the exception of waivers for military financing for Israel and Egypt. While the government gave an exemption for emergency food assistance and issued waivers for certain life-saving aid, uncertainty around most other programs has put thousands of jobs and millions of dollars’ worth of aid material in jeopardy.
The U.S. has contributed the largest foreign assistance among countries, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Net disbursements of official development assistance by OECD developed countries.
The line chart shows net disbursements of foreign assistance by developed countries with the United States highlighted in blue.
Why does USAID matter?
Foreign assistance is provided by different agencies of the U.S. government. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was the primary foreign assistance agency between 2014 and 2024. The agency disbursed, or spent, $314.3 billion out of the total $635.2 billion in this period. The State Department disbursed $175 billion. Obligations are money that was owed.
USAID accounted for half of foreign aid obligations and disbursements
Foreign assistance by managing agency between 2014 and 2024. Obligations refer to money that was promised but not yet spent, while disbursements refer to money spent.
The stacked bar chart shows foreign assistance obligations and disbursements by different managing agencies of the U.S. government.
The majority of USAID programs across the world are non-military in nature. Nearly one-third of all disbursements were for programs in the health sector. Aiding communities living with HIV or AIDS, providing sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation services, improving maternal and child health were among the top programs.
People seen with placards saying USAID must be saved, and USAID saves lives.
People hold placards as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura.
The agency also disbursed a substantial amount to provide food, water, shelter, healthcare and other such services for communities affected by natural and human-made disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, drought and wars.
The U.S. state and defense departments provide most of their assistance to peace and security measures.
Programs in the Peace and Security sector received the most assistance given by the Department of State and the Department of Defense. The Stabilisation operations and security sector reform program, which was the top program for the sector, attempts to stabilise conflict-affected regions and help improve a country s security institutions like the military, police, and intelligence services.
As many as 31 countries, the majority in the Asia and Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, were reliant on the United States for at least one-fourth of their total foreign aid. The Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Thailand in Asia and Botswana and Eswatini in Sub-Saharan Africa were reliant on the U.S. for over half of their foreign aid.
The Middle East and North Africa region received nearly half of the aid disbursed for the Peace and Security sector. Israel, Afghanistan and Egypt were the top beneficiaries. The Trump administration exempted military aid to Israel and Egypt when it first decided to pause all foreign assistance.
The Sub-Saharan Africa region, which has received a bulk of the aid disbursed for the Health and Humanitarian Assistance sectors, may not be so lucky. Due to the sudden freeze in aid, anti-malaria programs in Kenya and Ghana have come to a standstill. They had received $434 million and $334 million respectively to combat the vector-borne disease. The vast majority of the world’s 597,000 malaria deaths in 2023 were African children aged under five years old, the WHO had said in December last year.
Although HIV/AIDS programs have been exempted from the freeze, the uncertainty around the future of the programs has caused widespread concerns. The United Nations AIDS agency has said that more than 6 million people could die from the disease in the next four years if funding is pulled from all programs. South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania have received the most aid to combat AIDS.
Ukraine, which has been dependent on the U.S. to rebuild its economy after its war with Russia, is likely to be affected as well. It has received more than $28 billion in assistance for Economic Development sector, nearly 90% of the total aid for the sector received by Europe and Eurasia.
Peace and security is the largest sector, with most funding going to the Middle East and North Africa
Other sectors such as health and humanitarian causes were more funded in Sub-Saharan Africa, or in world programs.
The United States’ assistance to Afghanistan significantly reduced over the years. Between 2014 and 2019, it disbursed $810 million on average every year. However, after it decided to pull out its troops from the country in early 2020, its aid has significantly reduced. Between 2020 and 2024, it disbursed $217 million on average every year.
Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines were the other major beneficiaries in the region.
The multiple bar charts show the four countries that have received the most foreign assistance in Europe, Eurasia and Western Hemisphere.
After Afghanistan, Ukraine has received the most foreign assistance from the U.S. However, unlike Afghanistan, Ukraine received the majority of its aid from 2022. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, the country had received just over $4 billion between 2014 and 2021. However, since 2022, this figure increased by over nine times. From 2022, it has received nearly $40 billion from the U.S. for all sectors. Now with aid frozen, non-military programs are severely affected as a lot of them depend on the U.S. for its finances.
