13/02 • USAID

The administration had intended to reduce USAID’s staff from approximately 10,000 to just under 300 employees, leaving a small team to manage the agency’s worldwide operations. Critics of the foreign aid freeze assert that it is an unprecedented attack on a vital institution that delivers aid to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. 

The cuts and operational freezes have already had significant global ramifications. With USAID’s funding pipelines disrupted, essential aid—ranging from food to medical supplies—has slowed or halted entirely in regions such as Ukraine and the Thai-Myanmar border. “This debate in D.C. on bureaucratic shakeups is in reality defining who will live and who will die abroad,” warned Scott Paul of Oxfam. Aid organisations, many of which rely on USAID support, fear the dismantling of the agency could trigger a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. 

As affirmed by the NZ Council for International Development and others, including Anglican Missions, the abrupt withdrawal of USAID threatens to leave power vacuums that may be filled by anti-democratic or oppressive forces. Development initiatives are already overstretched and faltering. The ripple effects of losing USAID will be felt deeply across the Pacific and beyond, where NGOs and vulnerable communities rely on sustained support. Aotearoa New Zealand’s decision to step forward in leadership or risk losing ground to instability will reflect our commitment to global solidarity. 

While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio—the agency’s acting administrator—has issued waivers to maintain “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance”, concerns remain that the full scope of USAID’s work is failing to be acknowledged.  

As legal battles continue and global aid remains in limbo, the fate of USAID—and the millions it serves—hangs in the balance.