On 20 January 2025, the incoming US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to freeze almost all US foreign relief and development funding. The unexpected move upended the aid sector, as organisations and programmes funded through USAID abruptly ceased operations, affecting millions of aid recipients around the world. Over the ensuing months, the administration cancelled over 80% of USAID-funded aid projects, as the 63-year-old institution was effectively dissolved and its staff dismissed, with the small remainder absorbed into the US State Department. By far the largest humanitarian donor, representing over a third of all humanitarian contributions in most years, the US historically served as the backbone of the international humanitarian aid system. The slashing of this mainstay funding, followed by cuts from other large humanitarian donors such as Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands, has begun to unravel global response capacity, and will leave millions withou...
