U.S. Agency for International Development Status

The agency’s funding was corrupted, with grants going to radical causes and organizations.

Perhaps the best illustration of how USAID has misused its funding is found in the Middle East.

In 2024, as the region reeled from the aftermath of the bestial atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel the previous year, the United States significantly boosted its financial support for projects in Gaza and the West Bank, spending more than $200 million of American taxpayers’ money in territories already rife with terrorist incitement and activity.

The respected Israeli research organization NGO Monitor pointed out that as the US government “dramatically increased funding” for these various projects, it “drastically decreased transparency.”

These grants were made to what USAID called “miscellaneous foreign awardees.” You wouldn’t know from the opaque accounting process that beneficiaries included local partners who praised the October 7 onslaught.

A “flash appeal” issued by the United Nations for assistance in Gaza attracted $114 million from Washington, feathering the nests of local non-governmental organizations like Al Awda, a “health and community center” with close ties to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a terrorist organization, and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, whose president described the massacres in Israel as “a glorious day for the Palestinian resistance and people.” 

Foundation for Defense of Democracies

 

"With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with [the president] in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down."

"It became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm in it."

"What we have is just a ball of worms. You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair." 

"We're shutting it down."

Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency

Demonstrators outside the US Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in Washington, DC on Monday   Getty Images

 

When President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1961 its mandate was clear; "international development assistance opportunities", then a shift in focus occurred, to "basic human needs". USAID had been dedicated to extending assistance to countries in  recovery from disasters, countries working internally to escape poverty, countries dedicated to democratic reforms.

 

President Trump, on the other  hand, saw the agency as being run by "radical lunatics" and said as much on Sunday, agreeing with tech maestro Elon Musk that it was a "criminal organization" and he said as much the following day, when he posted just that. 

On Monday, staff of USAID were instructed not to enter the Washington headquarters of USAID. Police blocked the agency's lobby after President Trump took steps to shut the agency down. This follows the laying-off of thousands of USAID employees since Donald Trump took office two weeks ago. As an example of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s powers in influencing government administration this is compelling.

 

Latterly USAID focused on "basic human needs" in the form of food availability, population planning, health, education and human resources development, along with sustainable development abroad. Sectors such as gender equality and female empowerment, as well as water availability and sanitation, along with issues relating to economic growth and trade. Billions in funding have been dispensed on an annual basis globally.

 

It is Mr. Musk's contention in his new quasi-governmental role influencing the Trump administration that in promoting liberal causes the organization mismanaged its funds. USAID  workers wee informed by way of a memo last week that they should cooperate with the new administration in Washington in recognition of Mr. Trump's "America First" policy.

 

Once Mr. Trump issued  his executive order re-evaluating and realigning U.S. foreign aid, Marco Rubio as Secretary of State "paused all U.S. foreign assistance funding by or through the State Department and USAID for review". By Wednesday the USAID website was no longer in evidence. Over 600 staffers were reportedly locked out of the agency's computer system. Those still able to access their computers received emails to the effect that "at the direction of Agency leadership" the headquarters building "will be closed to Agency personnel on February 3."

 

Two top security chiefs at USAID were placed on leave of  absence after refusing to turn classified material in restricted areas over to Mr. Musk's inspection teams. DOGE conducted a similar operation at Treasury Department, to gain access to sensitive information, leading to a resignation by a senior Treasury official. At the present time, USAID's future remains unknown. 

USAID-funded Palestinian NGOs: Introducing Children to Convicted Terrorists

June 09, 2021

A number of USAID sub-grantees ran programs that introduced children to convicted terrorists, presented convicted terrorists as role models, and publicly demonstrated support for terrorists and terrorist organizations

NGO Monitor

Norwegian People’s Aid Funding to Terror Affiliated NGOs

April 10, 2018

According to the US Department of Justice, NPA provided “material support” to Iran, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) – designated terrorist organizations under US law. As a result of these partnerships, in March 2018, NPA settled a civil-fraud suit, paying a $2 million settlement to the US.

NGO Monitor

 

On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).

For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential. The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Agency will consider exceptions based on the timing of dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming.

Thank you for your service

 

Predicting Infectious Outbreaks, Preventing Pandemics

"[Predict, a U.S. pathogens surveillance initiative] was an approach to heading off pandemics, instead of sitting there waiting for them to emerge and then mobilizing. That's expensive."
"The United States spent $5-billion fighting Ebola in West Africa. This [Predict] costs far less."
Peter Daszak, president, EcoHealth Alliance

"[Allowing Predict to be terminated] is really unfortunate, and the opposite of what we'd like to see happening."
"Americans need to understand how much their health security depends on that of other countries, often countries that have no capacity to do this themselves."
Dr.Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian prime minister, former WHO director-general

"We generated an illustrated book on how to keep bats out of houses by putting screens on windows or mesh below the roof thatch. "That's the kind of thing Predict paid for."
"We were getting to the point of having a trained work force that could gather animal samples and labs that could test for unknown viruses, not just known ones."
"Once it stops, it's going to be hard to maintain that level of proficiency."
Dr.Jonathan Epstein, EcoHealth Alliance veterinarian

The EPT program is strengthening laboratory capacity to detect and report common infectious diseases in humans and wildlife as well as new disease threats. A. Clements/USAID

In the wake of the West African Ebola outbreak, researchers funded by the Predict program identified the bat species carrying the Ebola Zaire strain that caused the disease. Following which yet another team of researchers in Sierra Leone discovered a new strain altogether, known as Ebola Bombali. Dr. Epstein explained that the strain in Zaire was discovered in a bat habitually roosting in caves and mines, whereas the Bombali vector bat was identified as a species that tended to roost in houses.

Finding a solution that would prevent the Ebola-carrying bats to enter homes in Zaire was a huge obvious benefit to the population involved as well as to the world of medical science and disease prevention.

Focus countries for USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats program.

The U.S.-funded and -led program known as Predict, operated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), had its initiation a decade ago. Its ten years of operation cost the U.S.Treasury $207-million as an investment in global health. The program is being closed down for the simple reason that it has reached the end of a funding cycle, explained Irene Koek, acting assistant administrator of the global health bureau of USAID. She added that USAID is "proud and happy over the work Predict has done".

Over one thousand new viruses, including the new Ebola strain, were discovered thanks to Predict and the work it funded. About five thousand people from thirty African and Asian countries were trained under Predict, which also established 60 research laboratories. Predict was closing as a result of "the ascension of risk-averse bureaucrats", according to Dennis Carroll, who had been appointed to oversee the project. The project's goal was to accelerate and organize the search for zoonotic diseases; the type of disease that may cross species from infected animals to infect humans.

Some of the discoveries accredited to Predict in various parts of the world identified risks and recommended preventive action. SARS was found in captive civet cats in China that transmitted the disease to humans -- while Ebola circulates among bats and apes and in South Asia Nipah virus reaches out to infect humans through contact with pigs or date palm sap infected by bats carrying the virus. MERS is also carried by bats in Saudi Arabia, to infect camels, which in turn infect humans.

Focus countries for USAID’s H5N1 Avian Influenza Investment.

One Predict team established that endangered otters in a Cambodian zoo, fed raw chickens infected with bird flu killed the otters. Bat-borne viruses were found in a cave in Thailand where a boys' soccer team might have been exposed to them, while trapped for weeks before being rescued, and it was a Predict laboratory that identified those viruses.Some health-related programs such as the President's Malaria Initiative and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are continuing to be supported by USAID.

Predict looked for ways in which to curb culturally traditional hunting for bush-meat or the breeding of racing camels, both of which practices encouraged disease eruptions. It also sponsored computer modeling that was set up to predict where the likeliest geographic locations set to erupt in outbreaks were to be found, and recommended pre-emptive actions to avoid those outbreaks.

Surveillance for new pandemic threats in “hot spot” countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America focuses on wildlife (particularly non-human primates, bats, and rodents) as well as people with close contact with wildlife. A. Clements/USAID