MidPoint hosted two local former USAID advisors on March 5th to discuss the Trump Administration’s plans to end USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. Denny Robertson, a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer has worked for USAID for over 30 years in over a dozen countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Prior to moving to St. Petersburg, Denny was the country director for the US Peace Corps in the Philippines, and Ukraine. Nancy Wildfeir-Field spent over 35 years in both global health and the private sector as a Global Development Alliance Regional Advisor with USAID in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, before retiring from her career and moving to St. Petersburg.
The State of Affairs
In fiscal year 2023, USAID spent more than $40 billion in about 130 countries. The vast majority of funding went to help with governance, health, and humanitarian assistance. USAID is one of the tools the United States uses to develop soft power as it competes for influence around the world with authoritarian rivals such as China and Russia. But, USAID was the first agency targeted by President Trump and Elon Musk’s cost-cutting entity, DOGE, alleging–without evidence–that the agency was riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. Payments for USAID contracts have been paused, despite court rulings saying those payments must be resumed. The State Department, under Floridian former Senator Marco Rubio, said there would be a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they were efficient and consistent with Trump’s “America First” agenda. To date, the administration has placed nearly all USAID employees–both civil and foreign service–on administrative leave. This action reduced the workforce from over 10,000 to approximately 300 employees. These measures have disrupted humanitarian programs worldwide and prompted numerous lawsuits that are still pending.
The Value of USAID
Our guests opined that ending USAID is bad for American interests in several important ways. The ability of the US to respond to global health crises is weakened and those health crises could easily affect Americans. Weakening US influence in regions where strategic competitors like China and Russia are increasing their investments makes the US less economically competitive for US businesses in the world markets. Terminating USAID programs in developing countries contributes to political instability, leading to increased migration and security threats to the US while also hindering the fight against terrorism by reducing the US capacity to address the root causes of terrorism, such as poverty and lack of education. Fundamentally, ending USAID will also affect the global perception of American values, such as democracy and human rights.
Our USAID advisors acknowledged that waste and abuse can be found in any large organization including USAID, but they urged that the presence of Inspectors General armed with the power to conduct robust investigations and audits is an effective curb to protect taxpayer dollars. Ultimately, USAID has to answer to Congress which appropriates its funding, and could add additional reporting and monitoring if it was deemed necessary.
You can listen to the entire show here, from the archives, on the WMNF app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast from Spotify or Apple Music.
Leave a Reply
