The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been facing some major changes. As of early February, the Trump administration placed all direct-hire staff on leave as of Friday, the 7th of February. This was done in an Email titled, “The Path Forward”. Later on, another message was sent by the USAID office of inspector general stating, “…all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally.”Many people are surprised by this development as this will result in only 294 workers remaining while around 10,000 people will lose their position. USAID which works to promote economic growth, global environmental initiatives, giving humanitarian aid, and helping reach US foreign policy goals will still have some of the original staff.
Though some people wonder how all these causes will be affected by the recent developments. Especially many of the former workers of the organization. For instance, Gillian Caldwell, USAID’s chief climate officer under the Biden administration says, “This is taking a torch to development programs that the American people have paid for. Many commitments under the Paris Agreement are funding-contingent, and that’s very much in peril” With a minimization of what the agency was previously there may be an effect on the outcome of the global events that were mentioned. But there are others that believe that not much will be negativity effected by these alterations. Their prospective is that those couple hundred people can do just as much or that many other government agencies act in similar ways.
A few days after the original cut of the majority of the Agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) closed out the agency’s website and that of their Washington office. According to Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” The sudden and drastic nature of these actions has left many wondering whether the decision to minimize USAID was made in good faith or because of prior beliefs about the morality of the situation.
Only time will reveal how the stark changes to USAID will affect people’s lives. Also, it is unclear how USAID will continue to develop from this point on. But there will likely be more alterations to the agency as a whole.
