It has administered billions of dollars in financial aid distributed all over the world – about US$71.9 billion, or more than 40 per cent of global humanitarian assistance, in 2023 alone. Through USAID programmes in 177 countries, the market for American exports has also been expanded.
Major powers like China have followed suit, creating similar bodies to carry out their own soft power initiatives.
The dismantling of USAID is part of Trump’s broader war on federal bureaucracy under which a million civil servants have been urged to resign or risk being fired, while top research agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have been asked to review their grants and lay off staff.
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‘We all will die’: What would the end of USAID mean for Asia’s most vulnerable?
‘We all will die’: What would the end of USAID mean for Asia’s most vulnerable?