Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 01/Mar 00:26

Commemorating USAID – OpEd

On February 5, the story of the most successful U.S. foreign policy project of all time officially ended with a terse message on the USAID website. The United States Agency for International Development was established in November 1961 by John F. Kennedy as part of restructuring U.S. foreign aid programs in the context of the confrontation with the Soviet Union. Remarkably, USAID was the first U.S. organization provided long-term social and economic support to other countries, and some programs have been in operation for decades. The agency's average annual budget - more than $50 billion - was larger than the GDP of 90 countries around the world. This made USAID the world's leading official aid agency, both in relative and absolute monetary terms. Approximately 1% of the U.S. federal budget was allocated to fund the programs of this organization. To date, more than 100 countries around the world received humanitarian aid from USAID. In 2023 alone, the agency disbursed more than $72 billion, more than 16 of which were sent to Ukraine. Jordan, Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Jordan, Ethiopia, and Somalia have also received significant payments. USAID provided considerable development assistance to Ukraine, where, according to various sources, there were between 40 and 115 programs with about 11,000 employees and a total budget of about 2.5 percent of the country's GDP. The agency's activities were varied: USAID ensured much of the country's energy and food security, supported democracy, human rights, legal, anti-corruption, social, medical, and educational projects, and promoted media development in Ukraine. Despite all its social and public importance around the world, the agency has been heavily criticized. In fact, the biggest and most vicious blow to the organization was delivered by Elon Musk as part of Donald Trump's fight against Democratic influence. Musk, who was appointed to head the Office of Government Efficiency, made USAID one of his main targets, accusing the agency of inefficient spending and working in close collaboration with the CIA. Both allegations are difficult to prove or deny without evidence. However, misuse of funds in such a large organization with a serious budget is unfortunately not surprising and certainly has its place. But in light of the overall performance of the agency, it would make more sense to conduct a serious audit of the company's operations and identify mismanaged spending than to shut down the organization entirely. Washington also promotes its own agenda with humanitarian aid. Some would call this a conspiracy theory, but it's naive to believe that foreign policy is not controlled by intelligence agencies. By suspending the agency, Trump is not only depriving Ukraine of aid, but also the most vulnerable poorest countries in Africa and the Middle East. Trump isn't the first to try to rationalize government spending. In 1982, the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, initiated the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, better known as the Grace Commission. The goal of the commission was to analyze the efficiency of government spending and find ways to reduce the budget deficit. More than 2,000 volunteers from the private sector, including top executives from major U.S. corporations, were part of the commission. They examined 2,000 federal programs and focused on eliminating inefficiencies and duplication, adopting private sector management techniques, reducing bureaucracy and simplifying processes, and increasing transparency and accountability. However, the results of the Commission's work were disappointing: out of 2,478 recommendations, the vast majority were not implemented. In particular, the state was not ready for such large-scale reforms. Officials were concerned about the excessive focus on privatization of state functions. As a consequence, current efforts to reduce government spending, which has been on the rise around the world, could have an impact on key aspects of U.S. domestic and foreign policy According to the commissioners' plan, if all the recommendations were implemented (which, according to some economists and officials, seemed unrealistic), it was planned to save 1.9 trillion dollars by the year 2000, while Musk, without much thought, declared his ability to reduce budget expenditures by 2 trillion dollars. In addition to blatant populism, Musk's statements reveal overt lobbying for big business. Unfortunately, the political challenges of 2025 did not allow USAID to operate in the same way. Undoubtedly, the United States will not abandon such a large and effective soft power tool. However, the concept and principles of its work, as well as the scale of its assistance, will certainly be reviewed. It has already been announced that the agency's activities will be taken over by the US Department of State. Due to Trump's desire for isolationism, and in an effort to increse his own power, hundreds of millions of people around the world are at risk of being deprived of support, which will affect the state of their civil rights and freedoms, the volume and quality of consumer baskets, as well as access to information.  Born out of the reforms of the 1960s, USAID fell victim to similar reforms in 2025. Unable to withstand the pressures of the political environment, the agency faded into oblivion, ending an era of foreign policy prosperity that lasted more than 60 years.