Many aid programmes are facing massive cuts in US aid after President Donald Trump last week suspended all foreign aid, including from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), for 90 days to assess their compliance with his “America First” policy, alarming global aid groups that depend on US funding, on Tuesday, the 28th of January, reports Reuters.
Humanitarian organisations and UN agencies say their ability to distribute food, shelter and health care could be drastically affected if aid is permanently frozen.
The US is the largest contributor to global humanitarian aid, with an estimated 13.9 billion US dollars in 2024, accounting for 42% of all aid listed by the UN.
After the US cut funding to the International Rescue Committee, it was ordered to close clinics in Thai refugee camps housing 100 000 Myanmar refugees, an aid worker said.
Washington said it would make exceptions in some areas, including emergency food aid, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
For example, emergency food aid has not been denied to more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi government said in a statement. However, other aid programmes, such as shelter support, remain frozen, said an aid worker living in Bangladesh.
In addition, aid cuts will affect the supply of critical medicines for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis needed by millions of people around the world, said another report seen by Reuters.
On Tuesday, USAID contractors and partners received notices instructing them to stop work immediately.
Atul Gawande, USAID’s former global health chief, called the situation “catastrophic”, warning that “drug supplies are keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive”.
Hsiao-Wei Lee, Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan, said she was worried about the aid freeze because WFP funding was already insufficient and more than six million Afghans were surviving “on just bread and tea”. Last year, the US provided 4.7 billion US dollars, 54% of WFP funding.
Some NGOs, such as the Freeland Foundation in Bangkok, have turned to public donations to cover the shortfall caused by the aid freeze. The Foundation has set up a GoFundMe to sustain its wildlife conservation programmes while funding is frozen for 90 days, saying that poachers and smugglers will continue their activities whether or not there is funding.
The funding freeze has caused chaos in USAID field offices and partner organisations, with many unsure whether to lay off staff or sell assets. USAID has also been instructed not to contact partners except to inform them of the suspension of funds.
Other agencies have stated that they will not be affected by the freeze. Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for UNHCR, said the agency does not receive funding from USAID.
Independent media that receive foreign funding in countries with authoritarian governments may find it difficult to survive, media freedom activists say.
In Georgia, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili of the ruling Georgian Dream party welcomed the freeze on US aid.
“I was pleasantly surprised when Trump’s order was based on the fact that international aid is being used in some cases to create some… chaos on the ground, including to the damage of US interests,” he was quoted as saying by Georgian media.
According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, in 2023 the US was the largest donor to the fight against landmines with a total contribution of 310 million US dollars, accounting for 39% of all international aid. Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine and Afghanistan were the countries where landmines claimed the most lives.
The State Department said on Sunday that the US government, as the steward of taxpayers’ money, must refocus on US national interests.
“President Trump made it clear that the United States is no longer going to blindly hand out money that does nothing to benefit the American people. Reviewing and redirecting foreign aid on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not only the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative,” the State Department said.
Oksana Matiiash, chairwoman of Teach for Ukraine, an NGO that trains university graduates and professionals to become teachers to improve the education system, said there is growing panic in Ukraine’s NGO sector.
“Not only funding has been frozen. Behind every grant there are real people working in unimaginable conditions,” she wrote on LinkedIn.