United States Agency for International Development#USAID field missions

{{Main|History of the United States Agency for International Development}}

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. The goal of this agency was to counter Soviet Union influence during the Cold War and to advance U.S. soft power through socioeconomic development.{{Cite web |last=Da Silva |first=Chantal |title=What cutting USAID could cost the U.S. — and how China, Russia may benefit |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/donald-trump-elon-musk-usaid-soft-power-china-russia-rcna189756 |date=2025-02-05 |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=NBC News |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Matanock |first=Aila M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BssDwAAQBAJ&dq=usaid+cold+war+counter&pg=PA90 |title=Electing Peace: From Civil Conflict to Political Participation |date=2017-07-25 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-10140-0 |language=en |quote=The mission of USAID had initially been to counter communism through development}} USAID was subsequently established by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy, who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency.{{cite web|title=Celebrating Sixty Years of Progress |url=https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/usaid-history|website=USAID History|publisher=USAID|archive-date=2023-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128031859/https://www.usaid.gov/about-us/usaid-history}} USAID by law is placed under "the direct authority and policy guidance of the Secretary of State".

Congress authorized USAID's programs in the Foreign Assistance Act,{{cite web |title=Foreign Service Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-465) |url=http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/400/fsa.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031119001121/http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/400/fsa.pdf |archive-date=November 19, 2003 |access-date=2013-05-27}} which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation. As an official component of U.S. foreign policy, USAID operated subject to the guidance of the president, secretary of state, and the National Security Council.{{cite book |url=http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/100/101.pdf |title=ADS 101 – Agency Programs and Functions |page=3 |chapter=101.2 Primary Responsibilities |access-date=22 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031118231328/http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/100/101.pdf |archive-date=November 18, 2003 |url-status=dead}}

File:Brock Bierman and Maia Sandu at USAID HQ (3).jpg" honors as "fallen national heroes" 99 nominated USAID officers killed in the line of duty. It was previously located in the lobby of the Ronald Reagan Building, and was reportedly removed by DOGE employees and subsequently misplaced.{{Cite web |date=2025-04-27 |title=Opinion - Here's what USAID really did — it wasn't bunnies and rainbows |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-usaid-really-did-wasn-110000211.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGxC2Kg4Qc1udC0oXUQ540OELscxN_omxGyRKna4wgDFibZSd3MrwOMRYrQJaZ43McjhTZJaycnhC7wVJejpqsUU_vsRW1cUGaorsXe1w4S8A5-2og7GOFklpWXlH9gfVU7ZwoTw2IgMhLSG56FCsWE0xVutDrO7RHUq6PHfa-Ru |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=USAID Memorial Wall Taken Down? Fact-Checking Claims Amid 'Shutdown' Row |url=https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/usaid-memorial-wall-taken-down-fact-checking-claims-amid-shutdown-row/ar-AA1ypSzj |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.msn.com}}]]

When the U.S. government created USAID in November 1961, it built on a legacy of previous development-assistance agencies and their people, budgets, and operating procedures. USAID's predecessor agency was already substantial, with 6,400 U.S. staff in developing-country field missions in 1961. Except for the peak years of the Vietnam War, 1965–70, that was more U.S. field staff than USAID would have in the future, and triple the number USAID has had in field missions in the years since 2000.{{efn|Data from USAID reports, "Distribution of Personnel as of June 30, 1949 thru 1976",{{cite report |title=Distribution of Personnel: As of June 30, 1948 thru 1976 |date=April 1977 |id=PN-ADT-574 |url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADT574.pdf |access-date=26 February 2019 |archive-date=2019-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226172808/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADT574.pdf}} "Supporting the USAID Mission",{{cite web |title=Supporting the USAID Mission: Staffing and Activities from Inception to Present Day |date=November 27, 2007 |id=PN-ADM-027 |url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADM027.pdf |access-date=26 February 2019 |archive-date=2019-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226111243/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADM027.pdf}} and the "USAID Staffing Report to Congress" of 2016.}}

After his inauguration as president on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps by Executive Order on March 1, 1961. On March 22, he sent a special message to Congress on foreign aid, asserting that the 1960s should be a "Decade of Development" and proposing to unify U.S. development assistance administration into a single agency. He sent a proposed "Act for International Development" to Congress in May and the resulting "Foreign Assistance Act" was approved in September, repealing the Mutual Security Act. In November, Kennedy signed the act and issued an Executive Order tasking the Secretary of State to create, within the State Department, the "Agency for International Development" (or A.I.D.: subsequently re-branded as USAID),{{efn|The names of predecessor agencies often continued in popular usage. In Vietnam in the 1960s, it was common to refer to A.I.D.'s office as "USOM," while in Peru A.I.D. telephone operators continued in the 1960s to answer calls saying "Punto Cuatro" (Point Four).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}}} as the successor to both ICA and the Development Loan Fund.{{efn|In 1966, the UN would also integrate its EPTA and the Special Fund into a new agency, the UN Development Program, or UNDP.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}}} With these actions, the U.S. created a permanent agency working with administrative autonomy under the policy guidance of the State Department to implement, through resident field missions, a global program of both technical and financial development assistance for low-income countries. This structure has continued to date.{{efn|The Fulbright educational and cultural exchange program was also strengthened by the Fulbright-Hays Act in September 1961.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}}}

Congress established USAID as a functionally independent executive agency with the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which gave the President 60 days to abolish or reorganize USAID. During that time, President Bill Clinton reorganized USAID and retained its independence from the U.S. Department of State.{{cite web |last1=Bridgeman |first1=Tess |title=Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order? |url=https://www.justsecurity.org/107267/can-president-dissolve-usaid-by-executive-order/ |website=Just Security |access-date=19 March 2025 |date=1 February 2025}}{{cite report |first=Emily M. |last=McCabe |title=USAID under the Trump Administration|date=February 3, 2025|url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500|access-date=February 10, 2025|publisher=Congressional Research Service}}{{cite magazine |

title=Can He Do That? What Legal Experts Say About Trump's Most Radical Moves |

magazine=Time |

date=Feb 4, 2025 |

author1=Nik Popli |

url=https://time.com/7212753/trump-elon-musk-federal-laws-legal-analysis/}}

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in March 2025 that the second Trump administration had cancelled around 5,200 of the 6,200 USAID programs, after a six-weeks review, and that the remaining 1,000 programs would be transferred to the Department of State.{{cite news |last1=Knickmeyer |first1=Ellen |title=Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency's programs gone |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-rubio-usaid-foreign-aid-bf442d62af67918a6fc5eee839074601 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=Associated Press |date=March 11, 2025}} Also that month, USAID acting executive secretary Erica Carr wrote that USAID was "clearing our classified safes and personnel documents", instructing colleagues: "Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break".{{cite news |last1=Hillyard |first1=Vaughn |last2=Williams |first2=Abigail |last3=Lebowitz |first3=Megan |title=USAID employees told to burn or shred classified documents |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/usaid-employees-told-burn-shred-classified-documents-rcna195853 |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=NBC News |date=March 12, 2025}}

During a lawsuit regarding the second Trump administration's suspension of almost $2 billion of foreign aid, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali found in March 2025 that the second Trump administration "usurps Congress’s exclusive authority to dictate whether the funds [for foreign aid] should be spent", with the second Trump administration claiming "an unbridled view of Executive power that the Supreme Court has consistently rejected — a view that flouts multiple statutes whose constitutionality is not in question."{{cite news |last1=Gowen |first1=Annie |last2=Jouvenal |first2=Justin |title='Unlawful' suspension of USAID funding probably violated Constitution, judge says |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/03/11/usaid-foreign-funding-suspension-unlawful/ |access-date=March 12, 2025 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 11, 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250311142949/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/03/11/usaid-foreign-funding-suspension-unlawful/ |archive-date=March 11, 2025}} At that point of the lawsuit, Ali stated that the second Trump administration had "yet to offer any explanation, let alone one supported by the record, for why a blanket suspension setting off a shockwave and upending reliance interests for thousands of businesses and organizations around the country was a rational precursor to reviewing programs".{{cite news |last1=Falconer |first1=Rebecca |title=Judge holds Congress has power on foreign aid spending, not president |url=https://www.axios.com/2025/03/11/trump-usaid-foreign-aid-payments-power |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=Axios |date=March 11, 2025}}

On March 28, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio notified Congress that USAID would be dissolved and absorbed into the U.S. State Department, stating that USAID had been fiscally irresponsible and strayed from original mission.{{Cite web |date=2025-03-28 |title=On Delivering an America First Foreign Assistance Program |url=https://www.state.gov/on-delivering-an-america-first-foreign-assistance-program/ |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=United States Department of State |language=en}} He argued, "Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high."{{Cite web |last1=Beitsch |first1=Rebecca |last2=Weixel |first2=Nathaniel |date=March 28, 2025 |title=Trump administration moves to eliminate USAID, firing remaining employees |url=https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5220447-trump-administration-to-end-usaid/ |website=The Hill |language=en}} Since July 1, 2025, U.S. foreign assistance has now been administered by the U.S. State Department.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2025-07-01 |title=USAID programs now being run by State Department as agency ends operations |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/usaid-programs-now-run-state-department-agency-ends/story?id=123373289 |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=ABC News |language=en}} In connection with termination of the agency, 83% of USAID programs were cancelled.{{Cite news |last=Gedeon |first=Joseph |date=2025-03-10 |title=Rubio says 83% of USAid programs terminated after six-week purge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/10/marco-rubio-usaid-funding |access-date=2025-07-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} 94% of staff were laid off.{{Cite news |last=Daniel |first=Ari |date=2025-07-01 |title=Farewell to USAID: Reflections on the agency that President Trump dismantled |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/07/01/g-s1-75222/usaid-trump-humanitarian-rubio-musk |access-date=2025-07-02 |work=NPR |language=en}} However, USAID still exists, as formally abolishing the agency would require congressional authorization.{{Cite web |last=McCabe |first=Emily M. |date=February 3, 2025 |title=USAID Under the Trump Administration |url=https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12500 |url-status=live |access-date=July 6, 2025 |website=Congress.gov}}

USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions was drawn on to manage U.S. government programs in low-income countries for various purposes.{{efn|Each particular official statement of USAID's goals is specific to the U.S. foreign-policy emphases of the moment the statement is made. The best official statement relevant to the most recent era was in USAID's 2004 "White Paper",{{cite report |last1=USAID |date=2004 |title=U.S. Foreign Aid: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century (White Paper)}}{{verify source|date=February 2025|reason=URL in previous cite did not link to the actual report.}} reaffirmed in high-level USAID policy documents in 2006 and 2011.{{cite web |title=USAID Primer: What We Do and How We Do It |url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACG100.pdf |website=Development Experience Clearinghouse |publisher=USAID |access-date=16 July 2018 |date=January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716223935/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACG100.pdf|archive-date=2018-07-16}} (See the references USAID authored at the end of this article.)

To give a perspective of USAID's goals that are as general as possible, the list of goals in this article subsumes one of the goals from the 2004 White Paper, "Strengthen fragile states," whose emphasis as understood at the time was on Iraq and Afghanistan, into a more general goal, "U.S. national interests", together with one of the White Paper's other goals, "Support strategic states". State fragility is understood to be one of the development issues addressed under this article's "Socioeconomic development" goal.

On the other hand, the White Paper's goal, "Provide humanitarian relief", is divided in this article into two goals, both of which are humanitarian: "Disaster relief" (which may assist victims at various income levels) and "Poverty relief" (which targets chronic poverty, not just the result of a disaster, and which does not necessarily have to be justified by a developmental impact).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}}}

• Disaster relief
• Poverty relief
• Technical cooperation on global issues, including the environment
• U.S. bilateral interests
• Socioeconomic development

File:USAID.jpg personnel.]]

Some of the U.S. government's earliest foreign aid programs provided relief in war-created crises. In 1915, U.S. government assistance through the Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion. After 1945, the European Recovery Program championed by Secretary of State George Marshall (the "Marshall Plan") helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe.{{Cite web |last=Fick |first=Maggie |title=Exclusive: US global disaster response teams unable to deploy following USAID shutdown, sources say |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-disaster-response-teams-unable-deploy-following-usaid-shutdown-sources-say-2025-02-14/ |website=Reuters|date=February 14, 2025 }}

File:Early reading and literacy programs contribute to long-term development (7269588282).jpg.]]

After 1945, many newly independent countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies have continuously provided poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has also helped manage food aid provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.{{Cite news |last=Wu |first=Daniel |date=February 6, 2025 |title=Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms, businesses |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/06/trump-usaid-money-american-farms/ |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206214033/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/06/trump-usaid-money-american-farms/ |archive-date=2025-02-06}} Also, USAID provides funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty.

Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues, trade and investment cooperation, safety standards for traded products, money laundering, and so forth. The United States has specialized federal agencies dealing with such areas, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency. USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries supported these and other U.S. government agencies' international work on global concerns.

Among these global interests, environmental issues attracted high attention. USAID assisted projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water, forests, and wildlife. USAID also assists projects in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to the risks associated with global climate change.{{cite web | title = Global Climate Change: Capacity Building | publisher = USAID | url = http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/climate/policies_prog/capacity.html | access-date = 2014-08-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120120113701/http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/climate/policies_prog/capacity.html | archive-date = 2012-01-20 }} U.S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable.

Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies to support U.S. geopolitical interests, mainly in the form of "Economic Support Funds" (ESF). USAID is called on to administer the bulk (90%) of ESF and is instructed: "To the maximum extent feasible, [to] provide [ESF] assistance ... consistent with the policy directions, purposes, and programs of [development assistance]."{{cite web |title=Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (Public Law 187-195), as amended through May 5, 2017 |date=1961 |at=Section 531 |url=https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Foreign%20Assistance%20Act%20Of%201961.pdf|access-date=21 June 2017 |archive-date=15 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815101734/https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/Foreign%20Assistance%20Act%20Of%201961.pdf}}

Also, when U.S. troops are in the field, USAID could supplement the "Civil Affairs" programs that the U.S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of the State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda.{{cite web |title=Stabilization: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan |date=May 2018 |url=https://www.sigar.mil/interactive-reports/stabilization/index.html |publisher=Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=2018-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527183738/https://www.sigar.mil/interactive-reports/stabilization/}}

U.S. commercial interests are served by U.S. law's requirement that most goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U.S. vendors.{{cite web |title=ADS Chapter 310: Source and Nationality Requirements for Procurement of Commodities and Services Financed by USAID |publisher=USAID |url= https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1876/310.pdf |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=2020-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031232911/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1876/310.pdf |url-status=dead }} American farms supplied about 41 percent of the food aid according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service.

To help low-income nations achieve self-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assisted them in improving the management of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development mainly provides technical advice, training, scholarships, commodities, and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilized the technical resources of the private sector and other U.S. government agencies, universities, and NGOs to participate in this assistance.

Programs of the various types above frequently reinforced one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act required USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes ("Economic Support Funds") to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible.

USAID delivered both technical and financial assistance:{{cite web|url=http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/primer.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050803211329/http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/primer.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 3, 2005 |title=USAID Primer: What We Do and How We Do It |publisher=USAID |date=2010-12-08 |access-date=2011-03-12}}

Technical assistance included technical advice, training, scholarships, construction, and commodities. USAID contracts or procures technical assistance and provides it in-kind to recipients. For technical advisory services, USAID draws on experts from the private sector, mainly from the assisted country's pool of expertise and from specialized U.S. government agencies. Many host-government leaders have drawn on USAID's technical assistance to develop IT systems and procure computer hardware to strengthen their institutions.

To build indigenous expertise and leadership, USAID financed scholarships to U.S. universities and assists in the strengthening of developing countries' universities. Local universities' programs in developmentally important sectors are assisted directly and through USAID support for forming partnerships with U.S. universities.

The various forms of technical assistance were frequently coordinated as capacity-building packages for the development of local institutions.

File:National Open Source Software Competition - USAID.jpg

Financial assistance supplied cash to developing country organizations to supplement their budgets. USAID also provided financial assistance to local and international NGOs who in turn give technical assistance in developing countries. Although USAID formerly provided loans, all financial assistance is now provided in the form of non-reimbursable grants.

In recent years, the United States had increased its emphasis on financial rather than technical assistance. In 2004, the Bush administration created the Millennium Challenge Corporation as a new foreign aid agency that is mainly restricted to providing financial assistance. In 2009, the Obama administration initiated a major realignment of USAID's own programs to emphasize financial assistance, referring to it as "government-to-government" or "G2G" assistance.

In April 2023, USAID and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve food safety and sustainable food systems in Africa.{{cite web |title=USAID Signs Partnership with the Global Food Safety Initiative |url=https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/apr-25-2023-usaid-signs-partnership-global-food-safety-initiative |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427162511/https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/apr-25-2023-usaid-signs-partnership-global-food-safety-initiative |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 27, 2023 |website=USAID |date=April 26, 2023 |publisher=United States Agency for International Development}} GFSI's work in benchmarking and standard harmonisation aims to foster mutual acceptance of GFSI-recognized certification programmes for the food industry.

File:USAID_Org_Chart.png

USAID is organized around country development programs managed by resident USAID offices in developing countries ("USAID missions"), supported by USAID's global headquarters in Washington, D.C.{{cite web |url=http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidorg.html |title=USAID: Organization |publisher=USAID |date=2011-03-04 |access-date=2011-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110423111526/http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidorg.html |archive-date=2011-04-23 |url-status=dead }}

USAID planned its work in each country around an individual country development program managed by a resident office called a "mission". The USAID mission and its U.S. staff are guests in the country, with a status that is usually defined by a "framework bilateral agreement" between the government of the United States and the host government.{{cite web|last1=USAID|title=ADS Chapter 349 |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1876/349.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203033115/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1876/349.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 3, 2016|access-date=19 June 2017|page=Section 349.3.1.1|date=2003}} Framework bilaterals give the mission and its U.S. staff privileges similar to (but not necessarily the same as) those accorded to the U.S. embassy and diplomats by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.{{cite web|last1=USAID|title=ADS Chapter 155 |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/155.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222060130/http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/155.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 22, 2014|access-date=19 June 2017|page=Section 155.3.1.1.c|date=2004}}

USAID missions work in over fifty countries, consulting with their governments and non-governmental organizations to identify programs that will receive USAID's assistance. As part of this process, USAID missions conduct socio-economic analysis, discuss projects with host-country leaders, design assistance to those projects, award contracts and grants, administer assistance (including evaluation and reporting), and manage flows of funds.{{cite report |last1=Tarnoff |first1=Curt |title=U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): Background, Operations, and Issues |date=21 July 2015 |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R44117 }}

As countries develop and need less assistance, USAID shrunk and ultimately closed its resident missions. USAID had closed missions in a number of countries that had achieved a substantial level of prosperity, including South Korea,{{cite web |title=South Korea: From Aid Recipient to Donor |url=https://photos.state.gov/libraries/korea/115197/kimnamhee/Korea%20case%20study%2020110615%20_corrected%2020111027%20TU_%20-%2050th.pdf |publisher=USAID |access-date=1 December 2019}} Turkey,{{cite web |title=Mission Directory |url=https://www.usaid.gov/mission-directory |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630135457/http://www.usaid.gov/mission-directory |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 30, 2012 |publisher=USAID |access-date=1 December 2019}} and Costa Rica.

USAID also closed missions when requested by host countries for political reasons. In September 2012, the U.S. closed USAID/Russia at that country's request. Its mission in Moscow had been in operation for two decades.{{cite news |title=USAID mission in Russia to close following Moscow decision |first=Arshad |last=Mohammed |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-aid-idUSBRE88H11E20120918 |work=Reuters |date=September 18, 2012 |access-date=September 19, 2012 |archive-date=September 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918172926/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/18/us-usa-russia-aid-idUSBRE88H11E20120918 |url-status=live }} On May 1, 2013, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, asked USAID to close its mission, which had worked in the country for 49 years.{{cite news |title=Bolivia's President Morales expels USAID, accused it of working against him |newspaper=Washington Post |date=May 1, 2013 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/bolivias-president-morales-expels-usaid-accused-it-of-working-against-him/2013/05/01/00e1ce28-b263-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501161502/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/bolivias-president-morales-expels-usaid-accused-it-of-working-against-him/2013/05/01/00e1ce28-b263-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html |archive-date=May 1, 2013}} The closure was completed on September 20, 2013.

USAID missions were led by mission directors and are staffed both by USAID Foreign Service officers and by development professionals from the country itself, with the host-country professionals forming the majority of the staff. The length of a Foreign service officer's "tour" in most countries is four years, to provide enough time to develop in-depth knowledge about the country. (Shorter tours of one or two years are usual in countries of exceptional hardship or danger.){{cite web |title=ADS Chapter 436: Foreign Service Assignments and Tours of Duty |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/436.pdf |publisher=USAID |access-date=1 December 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504131439/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/436.pdf}}

The mission director was a member of the U.S. Embassy's "Country Team" under the direction of the U.S. ambassador.{{cite web |last1=Dorman |first1=Shawn |title=Foreign Service Work and Life: Embassy, Employee, Family |url=http://afsa.org/sites/default/files/iuse_country_team_local_staff_role.pdf |publisher=American Foreign Service Association |access-date=1 December 2019}} As a USAID mission works in an unclassified environment with relative frequent public interaction, most missions were initially located in independent offices in the business districts of capital cities. Since the passage of the Foreign Affairs Agencies Consolidation Act in 1998 and the bombings of U.S. Embassy chanceries in East Africa in the same year, missions have gradually been moved into U.S. Embassy chancery compounds.

File:Samantha Power official portrait.jpg, USAID Administrator under President Biden]]

The country programs are supported by USAID's headquarters in Washington, D.C., "USAID/Washington", where about half of USAID's Foreign Service officers work on rotation from foreign assignments, alongside USAID's Civil Service staff and top leadership.

USAID is headed by an administrator. Under the Biden administration, the administrator became a regular attendee of the National Security Council.

USAID/Washington{{cite web |title=Organization |url=https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611085217/http://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 11, 2012 |publisher=USAID |access-date=21 July 2018 |date=February 16, 2018}} helps define overall federal civilian foreign assistance policy and budgets, working with the State Department, Congress, and other U.S. government agencies. It is organized into "Bureaus" covering geographical areas, development subject areas, and administrative functions. Each bureau is headed by an assistant administrator appointed by the president.

(Some tasks similar to those of USAID's Bureaus are performed by what are termed "Independent Offices".)

• Geographic bureaus
• AFR{{snd}}Africa
• ASIA{{snd}}Asia
• LAC{{snd}}Latin America & the Caribbean
• E&E{{snd}}Europe and Eurasia
• ME{{snd}}the Middle East
• Subject-area bureaus
• GH{{snd}}Global Health
• Every year, the Global Health Bureau reports to the U.S. Congress through its Global Health Report to Congress.{{cite web |url=https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/global-health-programs-report-congress-fy-2014/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508130507/https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/global-health-programs-report-congress-fy-2014|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 8, 2016|title=Global Health Programs: Report to Congress FY 2014|website=USAID|date=July 12, 2021}} The Global Health Bureau also submits a yearly report on the Call to Action: ending preventable child and maternal deaths.{{cite web|url=https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/maternal-and-child-health/|title=Maternal and Child Health|website=USAID|date=June 4, 2019|access-date=June 1, 2016 |archive-date=May 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508142801/https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/global-health/maternal-and-child-health|url-status=dead}} This is part of USAID's follow-up to the 2012,{{Cite web |date=2013-09-23 |title=Event |url=http://5thbday.usaid.gov/pages/ResponseSub/Event.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160626225910/http://5thbday.usaid.gov/pages/ResponseSub/Event.aspx |archive-date=2016-06-26 |access-date= |website=USAID}} where it committed to ending preventable child and maternal deaths in a generation with A Promise Renewed.{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicef.org/health/maternal-newborn-and-child-survival|title=Maternal, newborn and child survival|website=www.unicef.org}}
• E3{{snd}}Economic Growth, Education, and the Environment
• Economic Growth offices in E3 define Agency policy and provide technical support to Mission assistance activities in the areas of economic policy formulation, international trade, sectoral regulation, capital markets, microfinance, energy, infrastructure, land tenure, urban planning and property rights, gender equality and women's empowerment. The Engineering Division, in particular, draws on licensed professional engineers to support USAID Missions in a multibillion-dollar portfolio of construction projects, including medical facilities, schools, universities, roads, power plants, and water and sanitation plants.
• The Education Office in E3 defines Agency policy and provides technical support to Mission assistance activities for both basic and tertiary education.
• Environment offices in E3 define Agency policy and provide technical support to Mission assistance activities in the areas of climate change and biodiversity.
• Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance
• Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance
• The mission of the DRG Bureau is to lead USAID's efforts to invigorate democracy, enhance human rights and justice, and bolster governance that advances the public interest and delivers inclusive development.{{Cite web |access-date=October 3, 2023 |title=USAID DRG Bureau |url=https://www.usaid.gov/democracy |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231128130032/https://www.usaid.gov/democracy |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 28, 2023 |website=USAID Democracy}}{{Cite web |title=DRGLinks |url=https://www.drglinks.org/ |access-date=October 2, 2023 |website=DRGLinks}}
• LAB{{snd}}U.S. Global Development Lab
• The Lab serves as an innovation hub, taking smart risks to test new ideas and partner within the Agency and with other actors to harness the power of innovative tools and approaches that accelerate development impact.{{Cite web |url=https://www.usaid.gov/GlobalDevLab |title=U.S. Global Development Lab|access-date=July 17, 2018|archive-date=August 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180803002928/https://www.usaid.gov/GlobalDevLab|url-status=dead}}
• RFS{{snd}}Resilience and Food Security
• Headquarters bureaus
• M{{snd}}Management
• OHCTM{{snd}}Office of Human Capital and Talent Management
• LPA{{snd}}Legislative and Public Affairs
• PPL{{snd}}Policy, Planning, and Learning
• BRM{{snd}}Office of Budget and Resource Management

Independent oversight of USAID activities is provided by its Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development, which conducts criminal and civil investigations, financial and performance audits, reviews, and inspections of USAID activities around the world.

USAID's staffing reported to Congress in June 2016 totaled 10,235, including both field missions "overseas" (7,176) and the Washington, D.C. headquarters (3,059).{{cite report|title=USAID Staffing Report to Congress |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/2016_USAID_Staffing_Report_to_Congress.pdf|publisher=USAID|access-date=27 December 2017|archive-date=May 3, 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170503155112/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/2016_USAID_Staffing_Report_to_Congress.pdf |url-status=dead |date=June 2016}} Of this total, 1,850 were USAID Foreign Service officers who spend their careers mostly residing overseas (1,586 overseas in June 2016) and partly on rotation in Washington, D.C. (264). The Foreign Service officers stationed overseas worked alongside the 4,935 local staff of USAID's field missions.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Host-country staff normally work under one-year contracts that are renewed annually.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Formerly, host-country staff could be recruited as "direct hires" in career positions{{cite web |last1=USAID |date=2017-06-15 |title=ADS Chapter 495: Foreign Service National Personnel Administration|url= https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/495.pdf |archive-date=June 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615233535/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/495.pdf|url-status=dead |at=section 495.3.1}} and at present many host-country staff continue working with USAID missions for full careers on a series of one-year contracts.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In USAID's management approach, local staff may fill highly responsible, professional roles in program design and management.{{cite web |last1=USAID |date=2017-06-15 |title=ADS Chapter 495: Foreign Service National Personnel Administration|url= https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/495.pdf |archive-date=June 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615233535/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1877/495.pdf|url-status=dead |at=section 495.3.4}}{{cite report |last1=Koehring |first1=John W.|display-authors=etal |date=October 1992 |title=A.I.D.'s In-Country Presence: An Assessment Report No. 3 |url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnaax260.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007130801/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAX260.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 7, 2006 |publisher=USAID |access-date=15 June 2017 |id=PN-AAX-260 |pages=17, 28}}

U.S. citizens can apply to become USAID Foreign Service officers by competing for specific job openings based on academic qualifications and experience in development programs.{{cite web|title=USAID Foreign Service|url=https://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/careers/foreign-service |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618061343/http://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/careers/foreign-service |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 18, 2012 |publisher=USAID|access-date=22 December 2016}} Within five years of recruitment, most Foreign Service officers receive tenure for an additional 20+ years of employment before mandatory retirement. Some are promoted to the Senior Foreign Service with extended tenure, subject to the Foreign Service's mandatory retirement age of 65.{{Cite web |title=FOREIGN SERVICE MANDATORY RETIREMENT - GENERAL |url=https://fam.state.gov/fam/03fam/03fam6210.html |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=The Foreign Affairs Manual}} (This recruitment system differs from the State Department's use of the "Foreign Service Officer Test" to identify potential U.S. diplomats. Individuals who pass the test become candidates for the State Department's selection process, which emphasizes personal qualities in thirteen dimensions such as "Composure" and "Resourcefulness". No specific education level is required.{{cite web|title=Foreign Service Test Information|url=https://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/officer/test-process|publisher=U.S. Department of State|access-date=22 December 2016}})

In 2008, USAID launched the "Development Leadership Initiative" to reverse the decline in USAID's Foreign service officer staffing, which had fallen to a total of about 1,200 worldwide.{{cite web|title=Survey of USAID's Development Leadership Initiative in Southern and Eastern Africa|url=https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/audit-reports/4-000-15-001-s.pdf|publisher=USAID Inspector General|access-date=22 December 2016|page=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227114150/https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/audit-reports/4-000-15-001-s.pdf |archive-date=27 December 2016|url-status=dead}} Although USAID's goal was to double the number of Foreign Service officers to about 2,400 in 2012, actual recruitment net of attrition reached only 820 by the end of 2012. USAID's 2016 total of 1,850 Foreign Service officers compared with 13,000 in the State Department.{{cite web|title=Mission|url=https://careers.state.gov/learn/what-we-do/mission|publisher=U.S. Department of State|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-date=December 15, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215231134/https://careers.state.gov/learn/what-we-do/mission|url-status=dead}}

File:USAID-Pakistan Staff in 2009.jpeg

While USAID can have as little presence in a country as a single person assigned to the U.S. Embassy, a full USAID mission in a larger country may have twenty or more USAID Foreign Service officers and a hundred or more professional and administrative employees from the country itself.

The USAID mission's staff is divided into specialized offices in three groups: (1) assistance management offices; (2) the mission director's and the Program office; and (3) the contracting, financial management, and facilities offices.{{cite web|publisher=USAID|title=ADS Chapter 102: Agency Organization|url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/102_0.pdf|access-date=13 June 2017|page=23|date=2012|archive-date=June 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630222347/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/102_0.pdf|url-status=dead}} See in particular the definitions of "Large mission" and "Office."

Called "technical" offices by USAID staff, these offices design and manage the technical and financial assistance that USAID provides to their local counterparts' projects. The technical offices that are frequently found in USAID missions include Health and Family Planning, Education, Environment, Democracy, and Economic Growth.

Examples of projects assisted by missions' Health and Family Planning offices are projects for the eradication of communicable diseases, strengthening of public health systems focusing on maternal-child health including family planning services, HIV-AIDS monitoring, delivery of medical supplies including contraceptives, and coordination of Demographic and Health Surveys. This assistance is primarily targeted to the poor majority of the population and corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as strengthening the basis for socio-economic development.

USAID's Education offices mainly assist the national school system, emphasizing broadening the coverage of quality basic education to reach the entire population. Examples of projects often assisted{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} by Education offices are projects for curriculum development, teacher training, and provision of improved textbooks and materials. Larger programs have included school construction. Education offices often manage scholarship programs for training in the U.S., while assistance to the country's universities and professional education institutions may be provided by Economic Growth and Health offices. The Education office's emphasis on school access for the poor majority of the population corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as to the socioeconomic development objective in the long term.

Examples of projects assisted by environmental offices are projects for tropical forest conservation, protection of indigenous people's lands, regulation of marine fishing industries, pollution control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and helping communities adapt to climate change. Environment assistance corresponds to USAID's objective of technical cooperation on global issues, as well as laying a sustainable basis for USAID's socioeconomic development objective in the long term.

USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has recently initiated the HEARTH (Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies) program, which operates in 10 countries with 15 activities aimed at promoting conservation of threatened landscapes and enhancing community well-being by partnering with the private sector to align business goals with development objectives. Through HEARTH, USAID implements One Health principles to achieve sustainable benefits for both people and the environment through projects focused on livelihoods, well-being, conservation, biodiversity, and governance.{{cite journal |last1=Shen |first1=Jianzhong |last2=Schwarz |first2=Stefan |title=Introducing One Health Advances: a new journal connecting the dots for global health |journal=One Health Advances |date=29 March 2023 |volume=1 |issue=1 |article-number=1 |doi=10.1186/s44280-023-00011-1 |doi-access=free |pmid=37521534 |pmc=10049891 }}

Examples of projects assisted by Democracy offices are projects for the country's political institutions, including elections, political parties, legislatures, and human rights organizations. Counterparts include the judicial sector and civil society organizations that monitor government performance. Democracy assistance received its greatest impetus at the time of the creation of the successor states to the USSR starting in about 1990, corresponding both to USAID's objective of supporting U.S. bilateral interests and to USAID's socioeconomic development objective.

File:Dry Fruit Wala. Peshawar.jpg

Examples of projects often assisted by Economic Growth offices are projects for improvements in agricultural techniques and marketing (the mission may have a specialized "Agriculture" office), development of microfinance industries, streamlining of Customs administrations (to accelerate the growth of exporting industries), and modernization of government regulatory frameworks for the industry in various sectors (telecommunications, agriculture, and so forth). In USAID's early years and some larger programs, Economic Growth offices have financed economic infrastructure like roads and electrical power plants. Economic Growth assistance is thus quite diverse in terms of the range of sectors where it may work. It corresponds to USAID's socioeconomic development objective and is the source of sustainable poverty reduction. Economic Growth offices also occasionally manage assistance to poverty relief projects, such as to government programs that provide "cash transfer" payments to low-income families.

Some USAID missions have specialized technical offices for areas like counter-narcotics assistance or assistance in conflict zones.

Disaster assistance on a large scale is provided through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. Rather than having a permanent presence in country missions, this office has supplies pre-positioned in strategic locations to respond quickly to disasters when and where they occur.{{cite web|publisher=USAID|title=Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance |url=https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/bureaus/bureau-democracy-conflict-and-humanitarian-assistance/office-us|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218171155/http://usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/bureaus/bureau-democracy-conflict-and-humanitarian-assistance/office-us|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 18, 2013|access-date=13 June 2017|date=November 15, 2016}}

The mission director's signature authorizes technical offices to assist according to the designs and budgets they propose. With the help of the Program Office, the mission director ensures that designs are consistent with USAID policy for the country, including budgetary earmarks by which Washington directs that funds be used for certain general purposes such as public health or environmental conservation. The Program Office compiles combined reports to Washington to support budget requests to Congress and to verify that budgets were used as planned.

While the mission director is the public face and key decision-maker for an impressive array of USAID technical capabilities, arguably the offices that make USAID preeminent among U.S. government agencies in the ability to follow through on assistance agreements in low-income countries are the "support" offices.

Commitments of U.S. government funds to NGOs and firms that implement USAID's assistance programs can only be made in compliance with carefully designed contracts and grant agreements executed by warranted Contracting and agreement officers. The mission director is authorized to commit financial assistance directly to the country's government agencies.

Funds can be committed only when the Mission's Controller certifies their availability for the stated purpose. "FM" offices assist technical offices in financial analysis and in developing detailed budgets for inputs needed by projects assisted. They evaluate potential recipients' management abilities before financial assistance can be authorized and then review implementers' expenditure reports with great care. This office often has the largest number of staff of any office in the mission.

Called the "Executive Office" in USAID (sometimes leading to confusion with the Embassy's Executive Office, which is the office of the Ambassador), "EXO" provides operational support for mission offices, including human resources, information systems management, transportation, property, and procurement services. Increasing integration into Embassies' chancery complexes, and the State Department's recently increased role in providing support services to USAID, is expanding the importance of coordination between USAID's EXO and the embassy's Management section.

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USAID managed foreign assistance disbursed
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The Congressional Research Service (CRS) states that some USAID appropriations are programmed collaboratively with the Department of State, which makes any calculation of the USAID budget imprecise, and the CRS generally refers to USAID-managed funds.{{cite report |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10261 |title=U.S. Agency for International Development: An Overview |last=McCabe |first=Emily M. |work=Congressional Research Service |publisher=Library of Congress |date=6 January 2025 |access-date=7 February 2025}} The CRS stated USAID managed more than $40 billion of combined appropriations in 2023, and had a workforce of more than 10,000. The mean average managed foreign assistance disbursed in the fiscal years 2001 to 2024 was $22.9 billion in inflation adjusted to 2023 dollars; 2023 was an exceptional year because of an extra $16 billion of funds for Ukraine.

The U.S. government USAspending.gov website included International Security Assistance, Special Assistance Initiatives and a small amount of other spending alongside direct USAID spending in its assessment of the 2023 $50.1 billion of budgetary resources available to USAID, about $10 billion more than the headline CRS assessment.{{cite web|title=Agency for International Development |url=https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/agency-for-international-development?fy=2023|website=USASpending.gov|publisher=US government|access-date=March 8, 2024}} International Security Assistance was budgeted about $9 billion in 2023, of which Foreign Military Financing to strengthen military support of key U.S. allies and partner governments was $6 billion.

In fiscal year 2022, the cost of supplying USAID's assistance includes the agency's "Operating Expenses" of $1.97 billion, and "Bilateral Economic Assistance" program costs of $25.01 billion (the vast bulk of which was administered by USAID).{{cite web |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/FY%202024%20CBJ%20FINAL_3.9.23_0.pdf |title=FY 2024 Congressional Budget Justification - Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs |pages=95, 96 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205144751/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/FY%202024%20CBJ%20FINAL_3.9.23_0.pdf |archive-date=5 December 2024}} In fiscal year 2012, "Operating Expenses" were $1.53 billion, and "Bilateral Economic Assistance" was $20.83 billion.{{cite web |title=FUNCTION 150 & OTHER INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS |pages=63, 66 |url=http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/207305.pdf |publisher=U.S. Department of State |date=10 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430055801/http://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/207305.pdf |archive-date=30 April 2013}}

U.S. assistance budget totals are shown along with other countries' total assistance budgets in tables in a webpage of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.{{cite web |title=ODA trends and statistics |publisher=OECD |url=https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/oda-trends-and-statistics.html |access-date=2015-02-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129120640/https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/oda-trends-and-statistics.html |archive-date=2025-01-29}}

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, most of the world's governments adopted a program for action under the auspices of the United Nations Agenda 21, which included an Official Development Assistance (ODA) aid target of 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) for rich nations, specified as roughly 22 members of the OECD and known as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Most countries do not adhere to this target, as the OECD's table indicates that the DAC average ODA in 2011 was 0.31% of GNP. The U.S. figure for 2011 was 0.20% of GNP, which still left the U.S. as the largest single source of ODA among individual countries. According to the OECD, The United States' total official development assistance (ODA) (US$55.3 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2022, mainly due to support to Ukraine, as well as increased costs for in-donor refugees from Afghanistan. ODA represented 0.22% of gross national income (GNI).{{cite report |author=OECD |title=Development Co-operation Profiles |date=24 June 2023 |doi=10.1787/2dcf1367-en |chapter=United States |publisher=OECD Publishing |location=Paris |chapter-url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/45472e20-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/5e331623-en&_csp_=b14d4f60505d057b456dd1730d8fcea3&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=chapter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822144407/https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/45472e20-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/5e331623-en&_csp_=b14d4f60505d057b456dd1730d8fcea3&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=chapter |archive-date=2023-08-22}}

According to a 2010 poll, the median American believed that 25% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid and that it should be 10%. In reality, between 0.8% and 1.4% of the U.S. federal budget has gone to foreign aid since 2001.{{Cite web |last=DeSilver |first=Drew |date=2025-02-06 |title=What the data says about U.S. foreign aid |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/06/what-the-data-says-about-us-foreign-aid/ |access-date=2025-06-15 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}} The USAID portion of the federal budget is even smaller, accounting for 0.6% in 2023.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-07 |title=What is USAID and why does Donald Trump want to end it? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyezjwnx5ko |access-date=2025-06-15 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}

In a 2019 poll of the American public, 35% said more money should be spent on foreign aid, 33% said spending should stay about the same, and 28% said less money should be spent.{{Cite web |last1=DeSilver |first1=Drew |date=2025-02-06| title=What the data says about U.S. foreign aid funding |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/06/what-the-data-says-about-us-foreign-aid/ |website=Pew Research |language=en}}

A 2025 poll revealed that 50% of Americans believed that the US should play a major or leading role in improving health in developing countries, with 36% preferring a minor role and 14% preferring no role at all. However, the same poll also revealed that 43% of Americans thought that "too much" US funding was being given to these initiatives.{{Cite web |last1=Kearney |first1=Audrey |last2=Schumacher |first2=Shannon |last3=Kirzinger |first3=Ashley |last4=Montalvo III |first4=Julian |date=2025-03-04 |title=The Public's Views on Global Health and USAID |url=https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-february-2025-the-publics-views-on-global-health-and-usaid/ |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=KFF |language=en-US}}

A February 2025 poll by the University of Maryland's Program for Public Consultation found that, after presented with arguments for and against closure, 58% of Americans supported continuing USAID compared to 41% supporting abolition.{{Cite web |title=Foreign Aid 2025 |url=https://publicconsultation.org/foreign-aid-2025/ |access-date=2025-07-02 |language=en}} Another poll by Ipsos found that just 37% supported Trump's efforts to dismantle the agency while 58% opposed the efforts.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-25 |title=Few support the latest round of executive orders {{!}} Ipsos |url=https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/few-support-latest-round-executive-orders |access-date=2025-07-02 |website=www.ipsos.com |language=en-us}}

Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, USAID helped provide safer housing for almost 200,000 displaced Haitians; supported vaccinations for more than 1 million people; cleared more than 1.3 million cubic meters of the approximately 10 million cubic meters of rubble generated; helped more than 10,000 farmers double the yields of staples like corn, beans, and sorghum; and provided short-term employment to more than 350,000 Haitians, injecting more than $19 million into the local economy. USAID has provided nearly $42 million to help combat cholera, helping to decrease the number of cases requiring hospitalization and reduce the case fatality rate.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

With American entry into Afghanistan in 2001, USAID worked with the Department of State and Department of Defense to coordinate reconstruction efforts.{{cite journal |last1=Sopko |first1=John F. |title=Afghanistan Reconstruction: Lessons from the Long War |journal=PRISM |date=2019 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=26–39 |jstor=26803228 }}

{{Main|Reconstruction of Iraq}}

The interactions between USAID and other U.S. government agencies in the period of planning the Iraq operation of 2003 are described by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in its book Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience.{{cite web | title = Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience | publisher = US Special Inspector General – Iraq Reconstruction | url = http://www.sigir.mil/files/HardLessons/Hard_Lessons_Report.pdf | access-date = 2014-08-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130516012407/http://www.sigir.mil/files/HardLessons/Hard_Lessons_Report.pdf | archive-date = 2013-05-16 }}

Subsequently, USAID played a major role in the U.S. reconstruction and development effort in Iraq. {{as of|2009|June}}, USAID had invested approximately $6.6 billion on programs designed to stabilize communities; foster economic and agricultural growth; and build the capacity of the national, local, and provincial governments to represent and respond to the needs of the Iraqi people.{{cite web | title = Assistance for Iraq | publisher = USAID | url = http://usaid.gov/iraq/accomplishments/ | access-date = 2014-08-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111114202247/http://usaid.gov/iraq/accomplishments/ | archive-date = 2011-11-14 }}

In June 2003, C-SPAN followed USAID administrator Andrew Natsios as he toured Iraq. The special program C-SPAN produced aired over four nights.{{cite news | title = Rebuilding Iraq | publisher = C-SPAN | url = http://www.c-span.org/iraq/iraq_rebuild.asp | access-date = 2014-08-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080517044150/http://www.c-span.org/iraq/iraq_rebuild.asp | archive-date = 2008-05-17 }}

USAID has periodically supported the Lebanese American University and the American University of Beirut financially, with major contributions to the Lebanese American University's Campaign for Excellence.{{cite web|title=donor list |website=The Legacy and the Promise {{!}} LAU Campaign for Excellence |publisher=Lebanese American University |url=http://campaign.lau.edu.lb/donor_list.php |access-date=2025-02-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324093134/http://campaign.lau.edu.lb/donor_list.php|archive-date=2012-03-24}}

In the twenty years prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine USAID dispersed modest funds, averaging $115 million, in Ukraine. Following the invasion Congress enacted large sums for Ukraine through USAID to support the operation of its government and civil society. In fiscal year 2022 nearly $9 billion was disbursed, and $16 billion in 2023 causing that year to be the highest total spending year for USAID with 36.6% of its managed funds being disbursed to Ukraine.

USAID has donated funds to international charity BBC Media Action, with approximately $3.23 million (£2.6 million) given in 2024. This funding supports media development, journalism training, and public education initiatives in over 30 countries.{{Cite web |title=Our statement on USAID funding |date=2025-02-04 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/press-release/4-feb-25 |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=Media Action |publisher=BBC |language=en}}{{Cite web | author1=Sean Seddon |date=7 February 2025 |title=What is USAID and why is Trump poised to 'close it down'? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyezjwnx5ko |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

A USAID subcontractor was arrested in Cuba in 2009 for distributing satellite equipment to provide Cubans with internet access. The subcontractor was released during Obama's second presidential term as part of the measures to improve relations between the two countries.{{cite web |last1=Augustin |first1=Ed |last2=Montero |first2=Daniel |title=Why the internet in Cuba has become a US political hot potato |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/03/why-the-internet-in-cuba-has-become-a-us-political-hot-potato |website=the Guardian |access-date=15 September 2021 |language=en |date=3 August 2021}}

USAID has been used as a mechanism for "hastening transition", i.e., regime change in Cuba.{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/122217408/USAID-DAI-Contract |title=USAID DAI Contract - United States Agency For International Development{{snd}}Cuba|website=Scribd}} Between 2009 and 2012, USAID ran a multimillion-dollar program, disguised as humanitarian aid and aimed at inciting rebellion in Cuba. The program consisted of two operations: one to establish an anti-regime social network called ZunZuneo, and the other to attract potential dissidents contacted by undercover operatives posing as tourists and aid workers.{{cite news|title=USAID programme used young Latin Americans to incite Cuba rebellion |work=The Guardian|date=4 August 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/04/usaid-latin-americans-cuba-rebellion-hiv-workshops|access-date=5 August 2014}}

USAID engineered a subversive program using social media aimed at fueling political unrest in Cuba to overthrow the Cuban government. On 3 April 2014 the Associated Press published an investigative report that revealed USAID was behind the creation of a social networking text messaging service aimed at creating political dissent and triggering an uprising against the Cuban government.{{cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Desmond |last2=Gillum |first2=Jack |last3=Arce |first3=Alberto |date=April 3, 2014 |title=US secretly created 'Cuban Twitter' to stir unrest |url=https://apnews.com/article/technology-cuba-united-states-government-904a9a6a1bcd46cebfc14bea2ee30fdf|access-date=16 February 2023}} The name of the messaging network was ZunZuneo, a Cuban slang term for a hummingbird's tweet and a play on "Twitter". According to the AP's report, the plan was to build an audience by initially presenting non-controversial content like sports, music and weather. Once a critical mass of users was reached the US government operators would change the content to spark political dissent and mobilize the users into organized political gatherings called "smart mobs" that would trigger an uprising against the Cuban government.

The messaging service was launched in 2010 and gained 40,000 followers at its peak. Extensive efforts were made to conceal the USAID involvement in the program, using offshore bank accounts, front companies and servers based overseas.{{cite news|first1=Paul |last1=Lewis |first2=Dan |last2=Roberts |title=White House denies 'Cuban Twitter' ZunZuneo programme was covert |newspaper=The Guardian|date=April 3, 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/03/white-house-cuban-twitter-zunzuneo-covert|access-date=April 5, 2014}} According to a memo from one of the project's contractors, Mobile Accord: "There will be absolutely no mention of United States government involvement," "This is absolutely crucial for the long-term success of the service and to ensure the success of the Mission."

ZunZuneo's subscribers were never aware that it was created by the US government or that USAID was gathering their private data to gain useful demographics that would gauge their levels of dissent and help USAID "maximize our possibilities to extend our reach".

USAID officials realized they needed an exit strategy to conceal their involvement in the program, at one point seeking funding from Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey as part of a plan for it to go independent. The service was abruptly closed down around mid-2012, which USAID said was due to the program running out of money.{{cite web|first=Amar|last=Toor|title=US government harassed Castro with a fake Twitter service|url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/4/3/5577254/us-created-cuban-twitter-to-fuel-anti-castro-dissidence-ap|website=The Verge|date=April 3, 2014|access-date=5 April 2014}}

The ZunZuneo operation was part of a program that included a second operation which started in October 2009 and was financed jointly with ZunZuneo. In the second operation, USAID sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian children to Cuba to recruit Cubans into anti-regime political activities. The operatives posed as traveling aid workers and tourists. In one of the covert operations, the workers formed a HIV prevention workshop, which leaked memos called "the perfect excuse" for the programme's political goals. The Guardian said the operation could undermine US efforts to work toward improving health globally.

The operation was also criticized for putting the undercover operatives themselves at risk. The covert operatives were given limited training about evading Cuban authorities suspicious of their actions. After Alan Gross, a development specialist and USAID subcontractor, was arrested in Cuba, the US government warned USAID about the safety of covert operatives. Regardless of safety concerns, USAID refused to end the operation.

In light of the AP's report, Rajiv Shah, the head of USAID, testified before the Senate Appropriations State Department and Foreign Operations Subcommittee on 8 April 2014.{{cite web |title=US agency that created 'Cuban Twitter' faces political firestorm |last=Silver |first=Joe |date=April 4, 2014 |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/us-agency-that-created-cuban-twitter-faces-political-firestorm |website=Ars Technica|access-date=5 April 2014}}{{cite web |last=Nixon |first=Ron |date=April 8, 2014 |title=Cuba Social Media Project Was No Plot, Agency Says |website=The New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/world/americas/us-agency-defends-social-media-project-in-cuba.html?ref=americas |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417051018/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/world/americas/us-agency-defends-social-media-project-in-cuba.html?ref=americas|archive-date=2014-04-17}}

{{see also|Bolivia–United States relations|Coca in Bolivia}}

USAID operated in the coca-growing Chapare region, including under a 1983 agreement to support crop-substitution programs to encourage other crops.{{cite journal |last1=Rasnake |first1=Roger |last2=Painter |first2=Michael |title=Rural development and crop substitution in Bolivia : USAID and the Chapare Regional Development Project |journal=Institute for Development Anthropology Papers |date=1989 |url=https://orb.binghamton.edu/ida/65/ }} No later than 1998, this funding was conditional on farmers eradicating all their coca plants.{{Cite news |last=Partlow |first=Joshua |date=2008-09-04 |title=Ecuador Giving U.S. Air Base the Boot |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/national/2008/09/04/ecuador-giving-us-air-base-the-boot/1501dffa-c06c-4c45-8ad8-578a4cd3bf62/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |url-access=subscription}} In 2008, the coca growers union affiliated with Bolivian President Evo Morales ejected the 100 employees and contractors from USAID working in the Chapare region, citing frustration with U.S. efforts to persuade them to switch to growing unviable alternatives.{{cite web |website=Andean Information Network |date=27 June 2008 |url=http://ain-bolivia.org/2008/06/bolivian-coca-growers-cut-ties-with-usaid/ |title=Bolivian coca growers cut ties with USAID}} Other rules, such as the requirement that participating communities declare themselves "terrorist-free zones" as required by U.S. law irritated people, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network. "Eradicate all your coca and then you grow an orange tree that will get fruit in eight years but you don't have anything to eat in the meantime? A bad idea. The thing about kicking out USAID, I don't think it's an anti-American sentiment overall but rather a rejection of bad programs."

Also in 2008, USAID's Bolivian programs under the Office of Transitional Initiatives and the Democracy Program, as well as separate funding by the National Endowment for Democracy, were the subject of critical investigative reports{{Cite web |last=Golinger |first=Eva |date=May 20, 2009 |title=USAID's Silent Invasion in Bolivia |website=NACLA |url=https://nacla.org/news/usaids-silent-invasion-bolivia |access-date=2025-02-03 |language=en}} that documented them supporting political initiatives in regions governed by separatist movements. During the September 2008 political crisis, President Evo Morales expelled US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg and spoke out against USAID interference.{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=2008-09-27 |title=Fears of Turmoil Persist as Powerful President Reshapes Bitterly Divided Bolivia |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/world/americas/28bolivia.html |access-date=2025-02-03 |work=The New York Times}} The US government had previously ended OTI spending in Bolivia and subsequently redirected Democracy Program funds to other purposes, while denying USAID had interfered in Bolivian politics.{{cite journal |last1=Wolff |first1=Jonas |date=2017 |title=Negotiating interference: US democracy promotion, Bolivia and the tale of a failed agreement |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=882–899 |doi=10.1080/01436597.2016.1153418 |jstor=26156150 }}

President Evo Morales expelled USAID from Bolivia on May 1, 2013, for allegedly seeking to undermine his government following ten years of operations within the country.{{cite web |title=Bolivian President Evo Morales expels USAID |website=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22371275 |date=May 1, 2013 |access-date=January 29, 2020}} At the time, the USAID had seven American staffers and 37 Bolivian staffers in the country, with an annual budget of $26.7 million.{{Cite web |title=Bolivia and USAID (Taken Question) |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/05/208818.htm |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=U.S. Department of State}} President Morales explained that the expulsion was because USAID's objectives in Bolivia were to advance American interests, not to advance the interests of the Bolivian people. More specifically, President Morales noted the American "counter-narcotic" programs that harms the interests of Bolivian coca farmers who get caught in the middle of American operations.

Following the 2019 Bolivian political crisis that saw Jeanine Áñez's assumption of power, President Áñez invited USAID to return to Bolivia to provide "technical aid to the electoral process in Bolivia".{{cite web|last=Bender |first=Albert |title=Interim Bolivian president Añez calls Indigenous citizens 'savages' |publisher=People's World |url=https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/interim-bolivian-president-anez-calls-indigenous-citizens-savages/|date=January 28, 2020|access-date=January 29, 2020}} In October 2020, USAID provided $700,000 in emergency assistance in fighting wildfires to the government of Luis Arce.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-14 |title=Bolivia |website=Archived Content |publisher=USAID |url=https://2017-2020.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/bolivia |access-date=2025-02-03 |url-status=dead |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802151401/https://2017-2020.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/bolivia |archive-date=2022-08-02}}

During the Brazilian military dictatorship, the organization launched {{interlanguage link|MEC-USAID Agreements|pt|Acordos MEC-USAID}}, responsible for transforming the Brazilian education policies closer to the USA.{{cite journal |journal=Encounters in Theory and History of Education |volume=21 |title=Brazilian Higher Education in the 1960s and 1970s of the 20th Century: International Agreements and the Reform of the Brazilian University |last1=Vechia |first1=A. |last2=Gomes Ferreira |first2=A. |pages=134–155 |year=2020 |publisher=Universidade de Coimbra |url=https://baes.uc.pt/bitstream/10316/112430/1/Brazilian%2BHigher%2BEducation.pdf |access-date=2025-02-08 |issn=2560-8371 |doi=10.24908/encounters.v21i0.14267}} USAID also acted in the countries public security. Between 1960 and 1972, USAID trained cops that were involved in political repression in Brazil.{{cite web |last=Ferreira |first=Yuri |date=8 February 2025 |url=https://revistaforum.com.br/global/2025/2/6/que-usaid-agncia-fechada-por-trump-tem-envolvimento-em-golpes-de-estado-173623.html |access-date=2025-02-08 |title=O que é a USAID? Agência fechada por Trump tem envolvimento em golpes de estado |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208032908/https://revistaforum.com.br/global/2025/2/6/que-usaid-agncia-fechada-por-trump-tem-envolvimento-em-golpes-de-estado-173623.html |archive-date=2025-02-08 |url-status=live |website=Fórum |language=pt-BR}}

Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, accused USAID of trying to influence political reform in Brazil in a way that would have purposely benefited right-wing parties. USAID spent $95,000 US in 2005 on a seminar in the Brazilian Congress to promote a reform aimed at pushing for legislation punishing party infidelity. According to USAID papers acquired by Folha under the Freedom of Information Act, the seminar was planned to coincide with the eve of talks in that country's Congress on a broad political reform. The papers read that although the "pattern of weak party discipline is found across the political spectrum, it is somewhat less true of parties on the liberal left, such as the [ruling] Worker's Party." The papers also expressed a concern about the "'indigenization' of the conference so that it is not viewed as providing a U.S. perspective." The event's main sponsor was the International Republican Institute.{{cite web |date=22 July 2008 |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u424786.shtml |title=EUA tentaram influenciar reforma política do Brasil |website=Folha de S.Paulo |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011214923/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2008/07/424786-eua-tentaram-influenciar-reforma-politica-do-brasil.shtml |archive-date=11 October 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=2 May 2013|language=pt-BR}}

In February 2025, Michael Benz, a former state department official, affirmed in an interview with Steve Bannon on The War Room that Bolsonaro was seen in USAID as "Tropical Trump" and "if USAID didn't exist, Bolsonaro would still be the president of Brazil". In February 3, Eduardo Bolsonaro, federal deputy and son of Jair Bolsonaro, answered Benz in his social media by, accusing USAID of financing institutions involved with fighting against fake news during the presidential elections in 2022, such as the International Center for Journalists, Sleeping Giants Brazil and Vero Institute, created by the YouTuber Felipe Neto, with the objective of "manipulating narratives and interfering with Brazilian democracy". He and Gustavo Gayer also began to collect signatures to open a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission to investigate the supposed interference. His accusations are largely considered as fake news and many of the accused institutions affirmed that they never received money from USAID.{{cite web |date=6 February 2025 |last1=Pacheco|first1=Vitória|last2=Caseff|first2=Gabriela |url=https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-congresso/bolsonaro-era-visto-como-trump-tropical-pela-usaid/ |access-date=8 February 2025 |title=Bolsonaro era visto como "Trump tropical" pela USaid |website=Poder360|language=pt-BR|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208042300/https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-congresso/bolsonaro-era-visto-como-trump-tropical-pela-usaid/ |archive-date=8 February 2025 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |date=6 February 2025|access-date=8 February 2025 |url=https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha-social-mais/2025/02/eduardo-bolsonaro-acusa-sem-provas-ongs-e-usaid-de-interferir-em-eleicao-e-defende-cpi.shtml |title=Eduardo Bolsonaro acusa sem provas ONGs e Usaid de interferir em eleição e defende CPI |website=Folha de S.Paulo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208041555/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha-social-mais/2025/02/eduardo-bolsonaro-acusa-sem-provas-ongs-e-usaid-de-interferir-em-eleicao-e-defende-cpi.shtml |archive-date=8 February 2025 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription|language=pt-BR}} Shortly after, in a speech for the Ação Política Conservadora, president of Argentina Javier Milei alleged without evidence that USAID used millions of dollars to falsify the 2022 election.{{cite web |last1=Andrade |first1= Mariana |date=22 February 2025 |url=https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/milei-diz-sem-provas-que-usaid-financiou-fraude-eleitoral-no-brasil |access-date=25 February 2025 |title=Milei diz, sem provas, que USAID financiou fraude eleitoral no Brasil |website=Metrópoles |language=pt-BR|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250226001310/https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/milei-diz-sem-provas-que-usaid-financiou-fraude-eleitoral-no-brasil |archive-date=26 February 2025 |url-status=live}}

On September 19, 2011, USAID and the Ad Council launched the "Famine, War, and Drought" (FWD) campaign to raise awareness about that year's severe drought in East Africa. Through TV and internet ads as well as social media initiatives, FWD encouraged Americans to spread awareness about the crisis, support the humanitarian organizations that were conducting relief operations, and consult the Feed the Future global initiative for broader solutions. Celebrities Geena Davis, Uma Thurman, Josh Hartnett and Chanel Iman took part in the campaign via a series of Public Service Announcements. Corporations like Cargill, General Mills, and PepsiCo also signed on to support FWD.{{cite web |url=http://adage.com/article/goodworks/psas-fwd-awareness-horn-africa-crisis/230640/ |url-access=subscription |title=New PSAs: 'FWD' Awareness About the Horn of Africa Crisis |website=Ad Age |date=October 26, 2011}}

After the Trump administration's closure of most of USAID's programs in early 2025, during an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, USAID-funded research efforts into Ebola treatment and prevention were halted in Uganda.{{Cite web |date=2025-04-13 |title=Loss of US Aid Highlights Africa's Slow Progress on Medical Research Goals |url=https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/uganda/loss-us-aid-highlights-africas-slow-progress-medical-research-goals/ |access-date=2025-06-15 |website=Global Press Journal |language=en-US}} During the previous Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2022, USAID had funded contact tracing efforts, the supply of protective equipment, safe burials, etc.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-04 |title=Ebola Breaks Out in Uganda as US Halts Foreign Aid |url=https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/uganda/ebola-breaks-uganda-us-halts-foreign-aid/ |access-date=2025-06-15 |website=Global Press Journal |language=en-US}}

USAID halted its assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip on January 31, 2019, reportedly at the request of the Palestinian Authority.{{Cite news |last=Farrell |first=Stephen |date=February 1, 2019 |title=USAID assistance in the West Bank and Gaza has ceased - U.S. official |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/world/usaid-assistance-in-the-west-bank-and-gaza-has-ceased-us-official-idUSKCN1PQ412/ |access-date=February 9, 2025 |work=Reuters}}{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/USAID-to-end-all-Palestinian-projects-on-Jan-31-former-director-says-577797 |title='USAID to end all Palestinian projects on Jan. 31,' former director says |website=Jerusalem Post |author=Khaled Abu Toameh |date=January 17, 2019}} The request was related to new U.S. legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018, that exposed foreign aid recipients to anti-terrorism lawsuits. USAID restarted assistance to Palestinians in April 2021 under President Biden.{{Cite news |date=2021-04-07 |title=Biden administration to restore $235m in US aid to Palestinians |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56665199 |access-date=2025-02-10 |language=en-GB}} The agency increased assistance during the Israel–Gaza war that began in October 2023. Since October 7, 2023, USAID gave more than $2.1 billion in assistance to Palestinians.{{Cite web |last=Kekatos |first=Mary |date=February 3, 2025 |title=Why shutting down USAID could have major impacts on Gaza aid |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/shutting-usaid-major-impacts-gaza-aid/story?id=118393336#:~:text=USAID%20has%20been%20contributing%20aid,the%20West%20Bank%20and%20Gaza.%22 |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=ABC News |language=en}} On November 10, 2023, more than 1,000 USAID employees signed an open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war.{{cite news |last1=Pamuk |first1=Humeyra |last2=Lewis |first2=Simon |title=Over 1,000 USAID officials call for Gaza ceasefire in letter |publisher=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/over-1000-usaid-officials-call-gaza-ceasefire-letter-2023-11-10/ |date=10 November 2023}}

USAID, alongside the Department of State and Defence, has supported NGOs to removing UXO and landmines, and remediating soil contaminated by Agent Orange from multiple regions in Vietnam,{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2021-07-28 |title=Fact Sheets: UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE (UXO) REMOVAL |url=https://vn.usembassy.gov/fact-sheets-unexploded-ordnance-uxo-removal/ |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Vietnam |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last1=Mai |first1=Lauren |last2=Poling |first2=Gregory B. |last3=Quitzon |first3=Japhet |date=19 August 2024 |title=An Indispensable Upgrade: The U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership |url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/indispensable-upgrade-us-vietnam-comprehensive-strategic-partnership |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=CSIS.org}}{{Cite web |date=18 January 2025 |title=US adds $130M to dioxin cleanup project at Vietnam airport, one of world's most contaminated regions |url=https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/environment/us-adds-130m-to-dioxin-cleanup-project-at-vietnam-airport-one-of-world-s-most-contaminated-regions-4840322.html |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=VNexpress}} as well as supporting victims of Agent Orange.{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-08-15 |title=USAID-funded project improves livelihood for AO victims |url=https://en.vietnamplus.vn/usaid-funded-project-improves-livelihood-for-ao-victims-post266295.vnp |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=VietnamPlus |language=}}{{Cite web |date=15 January 2021 |title=U.S. Agent Orange/Dioxin Assistance to Vietnam |url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R44268.pdf |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=sgp.fas.org}}

File:USAID_memorial_Sudan.jpg. Several executed by a military tribunal, two killed in a drive-by-shooting, one killed in a traffic collision.]]{{Excerpt|List of fallen USAID personnel|paragraphs=1-2|files=0}}

U.S. foreign economic assistance has been the subject of debate and criticism since at least the 1950s.

USAID frequently contracts with private firms or individuals for specialist services lasting from a few weeks to several years. It has long been asked{{by whom|date=February 2025}} whether USAID should more often assign such tasks to career U.S. government employees instead. United States government staff directly performed technical assistance in the earliest days of the program in the 1940s. It soon became necessary for the federal government technical experts to plan and manage larger assistance programs than they could perform by themselves. The global expansion of technical assistance in the early 1950s reinforced the need to draw on outside experts, which was also accelerated by Congress's requirement of major reductions of U.S. government staffing in 1953. By 1955, observers commented on a perceived shift toward re use of shorter-term contracts (rather than using employees with career-length contracts).{{cite book|last1=Richardson|first1=John M. Jr.|date=1969 |title=Partners in Development: An Analysis of AID-University Relations 1950–1966 |publisher=Michigan State University Press |location=East Lansing, MI |pages=13–14, 37 |url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnabt529.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428125832/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnabt529.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 28, 2017|access-date=13 June 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Butterfield|first1=Samuel Hale|date=2004 |title=U.S. Development Aid – An Historic First: Achievements and Failures in the Twentieth Century |publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, CN |isbn=0-313-31910-3 |pages=25–26}}

USAID states that "U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world." In 2008, a report found that approximately 40% of aid money spent in Afghanistan had returned to donor countries through corporate profits, consultants' salaries, and other costs.{{cite web |last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |date=25 March 2008 |title=40% of Afghan aid returns to donor countries, says report |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/25/afghanistan.internationalaidanddevelopment1 |work=The Guardian}}

Although USAID officially selects contractors on a competitive and objective basis, watchdog groups, politicians, foreign governments, and corporations have occasionally accused the agency of allowing its bidding process to be unduly influenced by the political and financial interests of its current presidential administration. Under the Bush administration, for instance, it emerged that all five implementing partners selected to bid on a $600 million Iraq reconstruction contract enjoyed close ties to the administration.{{cite web |first=Barbara |last=Slavin |date=2003-04-17 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/world/iraq/2003-04-17-iraqdeal_x.htm |title=Another Iraq deal rewards company with connections |website=USA Today}}{{cite web |first1=Mark |last1=Tran |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/mar/31/iraq.usnews |title=Halliburton misses $600m Iraq contract |work=The Guardian |date=31 March 2003}}

In 2020, one of the contractors for USAID, DAI Global, was sued by families of soldiers who had died in Afghanistan.{{Cite web |last=Igoe |first=Michael |date=5 May 2020 |title=Aid contractors not liable for US foreign policy, lawyers argue in terror-financing case |url=https://www.devex.com/news/aid-contractors-not-liable-for-us-foreign-policy-lawyers-argue-in-terror-financing-case-97164 |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=Devex |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Larson |first=Erik |title=Families of US Afghan war dead say contractors bribed Taliban |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/27/families-us-afghan-war-dead-say-contractors-bribed-taliban/40895189/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=The Detroit News |language=en-US}}

File:USAID We dont need your aid criticism.jpg on a USAID advertisement saying "We dont need your aid", West Bank, January 2007]]

William Blum has said that in the 1960s and early 1970s, USAID has maintained "a close working relationship with the CIA, and Agency officers often operated abroad under USAID cover."{{cite book |first=William |last=Blum |url=https://archive.org/details/pdfy-q0ULBH2DJICRS3Vg |title=Killing hope : U.S. military and CIA interventions since World War II |publisher=Zed Books |date=2003 |isbn=978-1-84277-369-7 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC/page/n141 142], [https://books.google.com/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC/page/n199 200], [https://books.google.com/books?id=-IbQvd13uToC/page/n233 234]}} The 1960s-era Office of Public Safety, a now-disbanded division of USAID, has been mentioned as an example of this, having served as a front for training foreign police in counterinsurgency methods (including torture techniques).{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Otterman |title=American torture: from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and beyond |location=Carlton, Vic. |publisher=Melbourne University Press |date=2007 |page=60}}

In 2008, Benjamin Dangl wrote in The Progressive that the Bush administration was using USAID to fund efforts in Bolivia to "undermine the Morales government and coopt the country’s dynamic social movements{{snd}}just as it has tried to do recently in Venezuela and traditionally throughout Latin America".{{cite web |last1=Dangl |first1=Benjamin |title=Undermining Bolivia |url=http://www.progressive.org/mag_dangl0208 |website=Progressive.org |access-date=1 April 2024 |language=en-us |date=1 February 2008}}

From 2010 to 2012, the agency operated ZunZuneo, a social media site similar to Twitter in an attempt to instigate uprisings against the Cuban government. Its involvement was concealed in order to ensure mission success. The plan was to draw in users with non-controversial content until a critical mass is reached, after which more political messaging would be introduced. At its peak, more than 40,000 unsuspecting Cubans interacted on the platform.{{Cite web |last=Traywick |first=Catherine A. |date=2025-02-11 |title='Cuban Twitter' and Other Times USAID Pretended To Be an Intelligence Agency |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/04/03/cuban-twitter-and-other-times-usaid-pretended-to-be-an-intelligence-agency/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US |quote=Foreign governments have long accused the U.S. Agency for International Development of being a front for the CIA or other groups dedicated to their collapse.}}

In the summer of 2012, ALBA countries (Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda) called on its members to expel USAID from their countries.{{cite web | title=After More Than 50 Years, USAID Is Leaving Ecuador | website=NBC News | date=2014-10-01 | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/after-more-50-years-usaid-leaving-ecuador-n215621 | access-date=2021-10-11}}

Critics have accused USAID of being a tool for US interventionism.{{Cite web |title=What is USAID, and how central is it to US foreign policy? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/3/what-is-usaid-and-how-central-is-it-to-us-foreign-policy |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en |quote=In 2023, Mexico’s president asked his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to stop USAID from funding groups hostile to his government, according to a letter presented to journalists, echoing previous Mexican criticism of US interventionism.}}

Additionally, the agency has been accused of covert political operations abroad, allegedly collaborating with the CIA on regime-change efforts and controversial funding decisions, leading to strained relations with some foreign governments.

Studies have found correlations between U.S. foreign aid levels and nations' membership on the United Nations Security Council, suggesting the use of aid to influence council votes.{{cite news |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/electedmembers/2006/1101aid.htm |last=Lynch |first=Colum |date=2006-11-01 |title=Security Council Seat Tied to Aid |newspaper=Washington Post |via=Globalpolicy.org |access-date=2011-03-12}}

In 1990, after Yemen voted against a resolution for a U.S.-led coalition to use force against Iraq, U.S. ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering told Yemen's UN Ambassador Abdullah Saleh al-Ashtal, "That's the most expensive No vote you ever cast." Within days, USAID ceased operations and funding in Yemen.{{cite web |last=Hornberger |first=Jacob |date=September 26, 2003 |title=But Foreign Aid Is Bribery! And Blackmail, Extortion, and Theft Too! |work=The Future of Freedom Foundation |url=https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/foreign-aid-bribery-blackmail-extortion-theft/ }}

USAID requires NGOs to sign a document renouncing terrorism, as a condition of funding. Issam Abdul Rahman, media coordinator for the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations' Network, a body representing 135 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said his organization "takes issue with politically conditioned funding". Also, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, listed as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State, said that the USAID condition was nothing more than an attempt "to impose political solutions prepared in the kitchens of Western intelligence agencies to weaken the rights and principles of Palestinians, especially the right of return."{{cite web|last=Miller |first=Elhanan |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-ngos-slam-eu-for-conditioning-funding-on-normalization/ |title=How dare you make us cooperate with Israel, Palestinian NGOs protest to EU |website=The Times of Israel |date=2013-01-31 |access-date=2013-05-27}}

In 2003, Congress passed a law providing U.S. government funds to private groups to help fight AIDS and other diseases all over the world through USAID grants. One of the conditions imposed by the law on grant recipients was a requirement to have "a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking".{{cite news|author-link=Adam Liptak |last=Liptak |first=Adam |title=Justices Say U.S. Cannot Impose Antiprostitution Condition on AIDS Grants |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/court-finds-aids-programs-rules-violate-free-speech.html |access-date=25 June 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=20 June 2013}} In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. that the requirement violated the First Amendment's prohibition against compelled speech.{{cite web|author-link=John Roberts|last=Roberts |first=John |date=20 June 2013|title=Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/12-10#writing-12-10_OPINION_3|work=Legal Information Institute|publisher=Cornell Law School|access-date=17 July 2013}}

{{Main|Forced sterilization in Peru#USAID}}

For three decades, USAID has been the principal foreign donor to family planning in Peru. Until the 1990s, the Peruvian government's commitment to providing family planning services was limited.{{Cite journal |last1=Chávez |first1=Susana |last2=Coe |first2=Anna-Britt |date=2007 |title=Emergency Contraception in Peru: Shifting Government and Donor Policies and Influences |journal=Reproductive Health Matters |language=en |volume=15 |issue=29 |pages=139–148 |doi=10.1016/S0968-8080(07)29296-1 |doi-access=free |pmid=17512385 |issn=0968-8080}} In 1998, concerns arose regarding the involvement of USAID in forced sterilization campaigns in Peru. Some far-right politicians in Washington opposed USAID's funding of family planning initiatives in the country. In January 1998, David Morrison, from the U.S.-based NGO Population Research Institute (PRI), traveled to Peru to investigate claims of human rights abuses related to these programs. During his visit, Morrison gathered testimony from Peruvian politicians and other figures opposed to family planning but did not meet with USAID officials in Peru. Upon his return to the United States, the PRI submitted its findings to U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, a member of the Republican Party, urging for the suspension of USAID's family planning efforts in Peru. Smith subsequently dispatched a member of his staff to Peru for further investigation.

In February 1998, another far-right U.S. organization, the Latin American Alliance for the Family, sent its director to Peru to examine the situation, again without consulting USAID officials. On February 25, 1998, a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, chaired by Smith, held a hearing on "the Peruvian population control program". Allegations that USAID was funding forced sterilizations in Peru prompted Congressman Todd Tiahrt to introduce the "Tiahrt Amendment" in 1998. However, the subcommittee concluded that USAID's funding had not supported the abuses committed by the Peruvian government.{{Cite journal |date=August 21, 2020 |title=Abortion and Family Planning Related Provisions in U.S. Foreign Assistance Law and Policy |journal=Congressional Research Service |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41360.pdf}}

According to a February 2024 report, the USAID's Office of Inspector General launched an investigation in 2023 into the agency for awarding $110,000 in 2021 to Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), a charity in Michigan that Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee have accused in recent years of sharing ties to terrorism organizations in South Asia.{{Cite web |last=Kaminsky |first=Gabe |date=2024-02-28 |title=USAID watchdog began investigating tax dollars to a terrorism-tied NGO. Then Biden sent it more cash |website=Washington Examiner |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign-policy/2865305/usaid-watchdog-tax-dollars-terrorism-tied-ngo-biden-sent-more-cash/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |url-access=subscription |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=McCaul Demands Answers From USAID on Alarming Failure to Address $110K Grant to Terrorist-Linked Nonprofit |publisher=Foreign Affairs Committee GOP |date=2023-01-27 |url=https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-demands-answers-from-usaid-on-alarming-failure-to-address-110k-grant-to-terrorist-linked-nonprofit/ |access-date=2024-03-10 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Jackson |date=2024-02-28 |title=Biden admin sent cash to non-profit under investigation for terrorism links, report says |url=https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/biden-admin-sent-cash-to-nonprofit-under-investigation-for-terrorism-links-report-says-helping-hand-for-relief-and-development-us-agency-for-international-development-usaid |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=The National Desk |language=en}} In August 2023, USAID's Vetting Support Unit cleared HHRD to receive the grant.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-16 |title=Letter from USAID Vetting Support Unit to Helping Hand for Relief and Development |url=https://perma.cc/9MLL-U3A6 |access-date=2024-03-28 |language=en-US |via=Perma.cc}} In 2024, researchers at George Mason University reported that allegations against HHRD were part of a campaign targeting large American Muslim charities based on the manipulation of poorly-sourced information.{{Cite web |last=FitzGerald |first=Gerald |date=2024 |title=Mapping Anti-Muslim Discrimination and Information Manipulation, and its Impact on Humanitarian Aid and Development |publisher=Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities |url=https://jliflc.com/resources/fitzgerald-mapping-anti-muslim-discrimination/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |language=en-US}}

File:USAID final Message.jpg

In 2025, the Trump administration accused USAID of "wasting massive sums of taxpayer money" over several decades, including during Trump's first presidency from 2017 to 2021. The administration cited a number of projects, including $1.5 million for LGBT workplace inclusion in Serbia, $2.5 million to build electric vehicle chargers in Vietnam, $6 million for tourism promotion in Egypt, and "hundreds of millions of dollars" (the largest item) purportedly allocated to discourage Afghanistan farmers from growing poppies for opium, which allegedly ended up supporting poppy cultivation and benefiting the Taliban.{{Cite web |url=https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/marco-rubio-takes-over-usaid-how-it-spent-millions-foreign-lgbtq-programmes-1730715|last=Tan |first=Sarah |date=4 February 2025 |title=Marco Rubio Takes Over USAID: How It Spent Millions on Foreign LGBTQ Programmes |website=International Business Times}}{{Cite web |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/70000-for-transgender-comic-in-peru-1-5-million-for-dei-in-serbia-trump-press-secretary-slams-usaid-amid-doge-scrutiny/articleshow/117907246.cms|date=Feb 4, 2025 |title=$70,000 for transgender comic in Peru, $1.5 million for DEI in Serbia: Trump press secretary slams USAID amid DOGE scrutiny |website=Times of India}} Fact checkers found that these claims were largely false or "highly misleading".{{cite news |author=Kessler |first=Glenn |date=February 7, 2025 |title=The White House's wildly inaccurate claims about USAID spending: Eleven out of 12 claims about the agency's work are misleading, wrong or lack context. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/usaid-trump-fact-checker |access-date=February 7, 2025 |newspaper=The Washington Post |publisher= |location= |quote=
"$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam" This is wrong. This was for more than electric vehicles. USAID launched a $2.5 million fund that provided awards up to $100,000 to organizations with promising new products, business models, or financing models in Danang or Ho Chi Minh cities. The fund was part of a larger effort to bring green energy to a country that is one of the world’s fastest-growing per capita greenhouse gas emitters. China has a head start on green energy, but the United States has sought to keep Vietnam out of China’s orbit, so the program was intended to boost the U.S. brand in green energy.
“$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt” This is wrong. This initiative was launched in the first Trump administration to “increase educational opportunities and strengthen the livelihoods of the people of North Sinai,” according to the citation provided by the White House. The money would “provide access to transportation for rural communities and economic livelihood programming for families.” There is no mention of funding tourism.
“[H]eroin production in Afghanistan,’ benefiting the Taliban” This is false. USAID never intended to support opium poppy cultivation or the Taliban, and in fact the United States sought to stem it. The White House cites a right-wing news site’s account of a 2018 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) — whom President Donald Trump recently fired — that found that USAID efforts to fund alternative development projects during the George W. Bush administration (2005 to 2008) had failed. The Taliban before 2001 had successfully banned poppy cultivation, but the U.S. invasion led to a power vacuum that was exploited by poppy growers. USAID was the lead U.S. agency for implementing alternative development projects, modeled after a more successful effort in Colombia, but the report documented how conflicts among agencies and with allies hampered the effort. It’s a stretch to now, years later, accuse USAID of helping the Taliban.}} According to the World Health Organization, the closure of health clinics in 31 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan{{cite web |title=Afghanistan: Suspended/Closed Health Facilities due to the U.S. Government Work-Stop Ban (Update as of 8 April 2025) |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-suspendedclosed-health-facilities-due-us-government-work-stop-ban-update-8-april-2025 |website=ReliefWeb |date=2025-04-08 |access-date=2025-04-13}} has contributed to a growing humanitarian crisis.{{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=Ruchi |last2=Ahad |first2=Zuhal |title=Millions of Afghans lose access to healthcare services as USAID cuts shut clinics |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/apr/03/millions-afghans-left-without-healthcare-usaid-cuts-shut-clinics-malnutrition-measles-malaria-polio-world-health-organization |work=The Guardian |date=2025-04-03 |access-date=2025-04-13}} The situation is further compounded by widespread poverty and the continued presence of infectious diseases such as measles, malaria, and polio.

On February 3, 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized four expenditures putatively uncovered by DOGE.{{Cite web| last = Hale Spencer| first = Saranac | title = Sorting Out the Facts on 'Waste and Abuse' at USAID| work = FactCheck.org| access-date = 2025-02-14| date = 2025-02-08| url = https://www.factcheck.org/2025/02/sorting-out-the-facts-on-waste-and-abuse-at-usaid/}} Fact-checkers found that several of the alleged wasteful grants were actually administered by the State Department, not USAID.{{cite news |last1=Heddles |first1=Claire |last2=Swartz |first2=Katherine |date=February 5, 2025 |title=The White House Keeps Pointing Out 'Insane' USAID Spending That Isn't USAID|url=https://www.notus.org/foreign-policy/white-house-keeps-insane-usaid-spending-not-usaid|work=NOTUS}}{{Cite web|last=Mitchell|first=Hilary|date=Feb 5, 2025 |url=https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/02/05/usaid-spending-list-transgender-opera/|title=No, the US Agency for International Development didn't fund a transgender opera in Colombia |website=Pink News}}{{Cite web |date=2025-02-04 |title=Chairman Mast Exposes Outrageous USAID and State Department Grants |publisher=Foreign Affairs Committee GOP |url=https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/chairman-mast-exposes-outrageous-usaid-and-state-department-grants/}} U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, in his February 2025 order blocking the Trump administration from placing certain USAID employees on leave, "noted that despite Trump's claim of massive 'corruption and fraud' in the agency, government lawyers had no support for that argument in court."{{Cite web |last=Cheney |first=Kyle |date=2025-02-07 |title=Judge blocks Trump administration from putting 2,200 USAID workers on leave |website=Politico |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/07/judge-blocks-trump-administration-plan-usaid-workers-leave-00203205}}

During Trump's first term, his daughter Ivanka Trump, who served as Advisor to the President, used over $11,000 from USAID in 2019 to purchase video recording and reproducing equipment for a White House event.{{Cite web |last=McHardy |first=Martha |date=Feb 6, 2025 |title=Ivanka Trump Used USAID Money for Events, Records Show |website=Newsweek |url=https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-usaid-money-white-house-event-2027132}} Both Ivanka and then-First Lady Melania Trump had publicly praised USAID's work during the first Trump administration. Melania Trump visited Africa in 2018, speaking about USAID's efforts and stating, "We care, and we want to show the world that we care, and I’ve partnered and am working with USAID." Ivanka Trump also toured Africa on behalf of USAID, lauding her father's creation of the "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" initiative and emphasizing its alignment with U.S. national security interests.{{Cite web |last1=Bruggeman |first1=Lucien |last2=Travers |first2=Karen |last3=Smith |first3=Cindy |date=Feb 6, 2025 |title=Trump calls USAID a 'tremendous fraud.' His wife and daughter promoted its work |website=ABC News |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-calls-usaid-tremendous-fraud-wife-daughter-promoted/story?id=118547473}}

In February 2025, following the allegations of fraud, the White House announced a plan to reduce USAID's staff from over 10,000 employees to fewer than 300.{{cite web |last1=Landay |first1=Jonathan |last2=Zengerle |first2=Patricia |last3=Banco |first3=Erin |date=February 6, 2025 |title=Trump administration to keep only 294 USAID staff out of over 10,000 globally, sources say |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-keeping-only-294-usaid-staff-out-over-10000-globally-2025-02-06/ |access-date=February 7, 2025 |work=Reuters}} Critics, including former USAID administrators, decried this move, calling it "one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in U.S. history", and have argued that the cuts will result in job losses, damage to American businesses, and harm to vulnerable populations worldwide.{{cite news |last=Power |first=Samantha |date=February 6, 2025 |title=I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/opinion/usaid-trump-samantha-power.html}} The Inspector General for USAID issued a report on the spending pause and staff furloughs noting that these actions limited USAID's efforts to assure that its distributed funds "do not benefit terrorists and their supporters".{{cite news |last=Pamuk |first=Humeyra |date=February 10, 2025 |title=Watchdog warns Trump's gutting of USAID leaves $8.2 billion unspent aid with no oversight |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/watchdog-warns-trumps-gutting-usaid-leaves-82-bln-unspent-aid-with-no-oversight-2025-02-11/ }}{{cite news |last=Hansler |first=Jennifer | website=CNN |date=February 10, 2025 |title=Watchdog warns Trump's dismantling of vetting at USAID means US money could reach terror groups |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/usaid-watchdog-warning-money-terror-groups/index.html}} The Inspector General also warned that $489 million in humanitarian food aid was at risk of spoiling due to staff furloughs and unclear guidance.{{Cite web |last=Baio |first=Ariana |date=2025-02-12 |title=USAID inspector fired after revealing nearly $500m in food aid was about to spoil |url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/usaid-inspector-fired-trump-freeze-b2696917.html |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=The Independent |language=en}} The Office of Presidential Personnel fired the Inspector General the next day, despite a law requiring 30 days notice to Congress before firing an Inspector General.{{Cite web |last=Hansler |first=Jennifer |date=2025-02-11 |title=USAID IG fired day after report critical of impacts of Trump administration's dismantling of the agency {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/politics/usaid-inspector-general-fired-trump/index.html |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=CNN |language=en}}

In June 2025, a former USAID officer plead guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for manipulating the contracting process. Three executives of two separate companies, Apprio and Vistant, also plead guilty. The bribes began in 2013 and included such items as cash, laptops, NBA suite tickets, a country club wedding, mortgage down payments, phones, and jobs for relatives. These allegedly totaled more than $1 million. In exchange, the USAID officer used his position to recommend Apprio and Vistant for non-competitive awards, leaked sensitive information, provided favorable evaluations, and approved contract decisions. The total value of these contracts was approximately $550 million.{{cite web |title=USAID Official, Three Executives Plead Guilty In $550M Bribery Scheme |website=Yahoo! News, from The Dallas Express |date=June 13, 2025 |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/usaid-official-three-executives-plead-210526072.html}}{{cite web |date=June 12, 2025 |title=Office of Public Affairs | USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty to Decade-Long Bribery Scheme Involving over $550 Million in Contracts; Two Companies Admit Criminal Liability for Bribery Scheme and Securities Fraud | United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/usaid-official-and-three-corporate-executives-plead-guilty-decade-long-bribery-scheme}}

{{Portal|United States}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=25em|

• African Development Foundation
• Chemonics International
• Development Alternatives Inc.
• Development Experience Clearinghouse
• Feed the Future Initiative
• Food for Peace
• Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
• Hard Choices
• John Granville
• List of development aid agencies
• Office of Transition Initiatives
• POPLINE
• Strengthening Emergency Response Abilities (SERA) Project
• The INFO Project
• U.S. International Development Finance Corporation
• United States foreign aid
• United States military aid

}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite web|last1=Andrews|first1=Stanley|title=Oral History Interview with Stanley Andrews |url=https://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/andrewss.htm|publisher=Harry S. Truman Library|access-date=15 June 2017|date=1970}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Bollen |first1=Kenneth |last2=Paxton |first2=Pamela |last3=Morishima |first3=Rumi |title=Assessing International Evaluations: An Example From USAID's Democracy and Governance Program |journal=American Journal of Evaluation |date=June 2005 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=189–203 |doi=10.1177/1098214005275640 }}
• {{cite web|last1=Center for American Progress |date=August 14, 2008|title=U.S. Aid to Afghanistan by the Numbers |url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2008/08/14/4774/u-s-aid-to-afghanistan-by-the-numbers/|access-date=13 June 2017}}
• {{cite web|last1=Center for American Progress |date=August 21, 2008|title=U.S. Aid to Pakistan by the Numbers |url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2008/08/21/4821/u-s-aid-to-pakistan-by-the-numbers/|access-date=13 June 2017}}
• {{cite web|last1=Dwight D. Eisenhower Library|date=August 2001 |title=Documents relating to foreign aid, 1948–90: Deposited by Albert H. Huntington Jr. |url=https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/pdf/Huntington_Albert_Documents.pdf|access-date=13 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412082932/https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/pdf/Huntington_Albert_Documents.pdf |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web |last=Hessmiller |first=Rose |date=Jan 10, 2013 |title=White Paper: U.S. Foreign Aid Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century |website=Natural Resources Management and Development Portal |publisher=USAID |url= https://rmportal.net/library/content/highlevel_whitepaper/view |access-date=2019-02-25 |archive-date=2020-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306161805/https://rmportal.net/library/content/highlevel_whitepaper/view |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web|last1=Johnston|first1=Jake|last2=Main |first2=Alexander|title=Breaking Open the Black Box: Increasing Aid Transparency and Accountability in Haiti|date=April 2013 |url=http://cepr.net/documents/publications/haiti-aid-accountability-2013-04.pdf |website=cepr.net |publisher=Center for Economic and Policy Research|access-date=13 June 2017}}
• {{cite book|last1=Millikan |first1=M. F. |last2=Rostow |first2=W. W. |date=1957 |title=A proposal : key to an effective foreign policy |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Bros.}}
• {{cite news|last1=Moseley|first1=William G.|date=August 8, 2006 |title=America's lost vision: The demise of development |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/opinion/08iht-edmoseley.2420617.html|access-date=13 June 2017}}
• {{cite book|last1=National Research Council|title=Improving Democracy Assistance: Building Knowledge Through Evaluations and Research |date=2008 |publisher=The National Academies Press |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0-309-11736-4|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/improvingdemocra0000unse}}
• {{cite web|last1=Shah|first1=Arup|date=September 28, 2014 |title=Foreign Aid for Development Assistance |url= http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/foreign-aid-development-assistance|website=Global Issues|access-date=13 June 2017}}
• {{cite report |last1=Tarnoff |first1=Curt |title=U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): Background, Operations, and Issues |date=21 July 2015 |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R44117 }}
• {{cite web|last1=USAID|title=Historical Bibliography of the United States Agency for International Development |url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABU368.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004002754/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABU368.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 4, 2006|access-date=13 June 2017|id=PN-ABU-368|date=April 1995}}
• {{cite web |last1=USAID |title=Policy Framework for Bilateral Foreign Aid – Mandatory Reference for ADS Chapter 101 and 201 |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/201mam.pdf |access-date=25 February 2019 |date=2011-08-04 |archive-date=2019-04-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412083154/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/201mam.pdf |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite web|last1=USAID|title=The Automated Directives System (ADS) |website=Operational Policy (ADS) |url=https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/agency-policy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611085210/http://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/agency-policy|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 11, 2012|access-date=21 June 2017}}
• {{cite web|last1=USAID|title=USAID Primer: What We Do and How We Do It|url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACG100.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923140448/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACG100.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 23, 2006|access-date=13 June 2017 |id=PD-ACG-100|date=January 2006}}
• {{cite report|last1=USAID|date=2016|title=U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants: Obligations and Loan Authorizations, July 1, 1945 – September 30, 2015 |url=https://explorer.usaid.gov/reports.html |access-date=13 June 2017|archive-date=June 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627180644/https://explorer.usaid.gov/reports.html|url-status=dead |id=PB-AAF-100}}
• {{cite book|last1=U.S. Department of State|title=Highlights of President Kennedy's New Act for International Development |date=June 1961 |url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB618.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926124017/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB618.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 26, 2007 |id=PC-AAB-618|access-date=13 June 2017}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=Jonathan Brewster |author-link=Jonathan B. Bingham|title=Shirt-Sleeve Diplomacy: Point 4 in Action |date=1953 |publisher=John Day & Co}}
• {{cite report |title=Fiscal Year 2024 Agency Financial Report |url=https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/USAID_2024AFR_508.pdf |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Agency for International Development |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101012720/https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/USAID_2024AFR_508.pdf |archive-date=2025-01-01}}

{{Commons category|United States Agency for International Development}}

• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129033101/https://www.usaid.gov/ |date=January 29, 2025 |title=United States Agency for International Development}}
• {{Official website|https://www.usaid.gov/}}
• [https://oig.usaid.gov/ Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development]
• [https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/agency-for-international-development Agency for International Development] in the Federal Register
• [https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/agency-for-international-development Agency for International Development] on USAspending.gov
• [https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/286.html Records of the Agency for International Development (1935–89)] in the National Archives

{{International development agencies|state=expanded}}

{{John F. Kennedy}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Agency For International Development}}

Category:United States Agency for International Development

Category:1961 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:Civil affairs

Category:Foreign relations agencies of the United States

Category:Government agencies established in 1961

Category:Independent agencies of the United States government

Category:International development agencies

Category:Organizations based in Washington, D.C.

Category:Presidency of John F. Kennedy