This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano

Mission accomplished. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday, the 10th of March, that the Trump administration had completed its purge of USAID, the US Agency for International Development, in six weeks—cutting 83% of its programmes and transferring the remainder under the State Department.

“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” wrote the Secretary of State on X.

Not even federal Judge Amir H. Ali’s ruling—which deemed the presidency’s authority excessive and effectively curtailed interference in the allocation of funds approved by Congress—was enough to halt this decision by Donald Trump. The ruling merely unblocked the disbursement of foreign aid payments approved before the 13th of February and refrained from completely reversing the massive cancellation of agency contracts ordered by the State Department. As a result, 1,600 officials were fired, while 4,200 were suspended indefinitely.

Thus, after 64 years, USAID—an independent agency for cooperation established by John F. Kennedy to oversee humanitarian aid and development assistance in more than 100 countries—shuts down in dramatic fashion.  A decision that has impacts yet to be fully understood.

To put it into perspective, in 2024 alone, USAID managed 72 billion dollars in official development assistance. With the current cuts, around 60 billion will not be granted, eliminated, or redirected to other DoS programmes.

The world of international cooperation has been thrown into turmoil. Confusing and often conflicting information travels from Washington DC, according to several professionals, including Italian NGOs.

The Washington Post reports that the agency’s executive secretary, Erica Y. Carr, allegedly sent an email on the 11th of March instructing employees to destroy and burn classified documents—a move that has sparked panic on Capitol Hill, as it directly violates document security protocols.

President Trump defended the decision to shut down USAID, describing it as an agency “run by a bunch of radical lunatics” and declaring that it’s time to “close it down”. Billionaire Elon Musk also backed the move, branding USAID “a criminal organisation” and saying that “it's beyond repair”. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk, has overseen the dismissal and suspension of thousands of employees.

An unprecedented impact

Providing the measure of the impact is UN spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric “Many of the programs are in fragile countries that are highly reliant on US aid to support health systems, nutrition programs and stave off starvation. Other major issues like fighting terrorism, human and drug trafficking, including fentanyl, and monitoring and aiding migrants also will suffer as a result of the US cuts.”

In South Africa, the suspension of funding has brought promising HIV vaccine trials to a halt, putting important research progress at risk. At the port of Houston, around 30,000 tonnes of food, destined for international aid, are blocked, at risk of spoilage due to the funding freeze.

An analysis by the Center for Global Development has highlighted several institutions vulnerable to funding cuts: the International Development Association (IDA), the African Development Fund (AfDF), the Asian Development Fund (AsDF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Global Fund, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. All are facing hundreds of layoffs, alongside cancelled or scaled-back programs.

The impact on Italian cooperation

Numerous projects run by Italian NGOs in partnership with USAID-funded international organisations will now be forced to seek alternative sources of funding. "For AVSI, the impact is quite substantial. USAID was our main donor, and for 2025, it was expected to contribute 17 million euros, or around 15% of our budget," explains Giampaolo Silvestri, secretary general of AVSI. "In early March, we received the termination letter for some of our projects in Uganda, Ecuador, Kenya, and Somalia. In total, this means closing activities for 675,000 beneficiaries who will no longer receive food aid, nor medical, educational, or training services."

These projects also include support for AIDS orphans, assistance for refugees to start small businesses, and aid for women. "But it also means 480 lost jobs for our local staff, whom we are trying to protect by every means possible," Silvestri adds.

The impact on the environment

A small yet significant portion of USAID funds has been allocated to nature conservation. According to a report presented to the US Congress last December, USAID earmarked 375.4 million dollars for biodiversity projects in 2023 alone, funding different activities from ranger patrols in protected areas to habitat restoration and community conservation efforts.

This funding has traditionally enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress, secured through an "earmark for biodiversity" in the annual appropriations bill for the State Department.

The situation is far worse when it comes to climate. Data from Carbon Brief reveals that the dismantling of USAID will decimate global climate funding from the developed world, with potentially catastrophic consequences for vulnerable nations.

In 2024, the United States was responsible for around 8 dollars out of every 100 contributed by wealthy nations to developing countries, to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of extreme weather.

In 2025, as much as 11 billion in climate finance will be missing—precisely the year when the scaling up of public climate finance was meant to be prioritised. A third of this funding was intended to flow through USAID.

What is the future of cooperation?

“We should be proud that Italy has a three-year cooperation planning document and that it continues to define development cooperation as part of its foreign policy and a key asset of this country,” Silvestri states. “Cooperation as a system can be improved, but it must not endorse the message coming from America, which portrays cooperation initiatives as futile and according to which all foreign affairs must follow a purely transactional logic.”

According to Borja Santos Porras, a professor at IE University, “the European Union could be one of the key players in mitigating the impact of USAID’s withdrawal. It has pledged 300 billion euros in investment through Global Gateway between 2021 and 2027 in key sectors such as health, infrastructure, and sustainability. This US shift presents a geostrategic opportunity for the EU to position itself as a reliable alternative. However, the complexity and bureaucracy involved in implementing large-scale partnership projects may not generate the same perceived impact as traditional development and humanitarian aid, potentially limiting its effectiveness in the short term.”

At present, however, EU countries and the UK seem more inclined to cut their cooperation spending, redirecting it towards military expenditure—a potentially catastrophic shift for cooperation projects, with far-reaching consequences for Europeans themselves, from the rise of new pandemics to increased migration from Africa. “It’s time to ask ourselves what kind of development we want,” Silvestri concludes.

Many are now looking to China, which has significantly increased its investments and presence, particularly in Africa and Latin America, through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). With USAID’s withdrawal, China could seize the opportunity to expand its soft power, further extending its influence in emerging and low-income countries, offering more funding and assistance to those previously reliant on the United States. The final move? To declare itself no longer a developing country and claim Washington’s long-occupied seat within the United Nations.

This article has been produced in collaboration with Oltremare - AICS

Cover: photo by cplbasilisk, via Flickr