24 weeks, $4.7 billion spent: How aid has slowed under Trump
Once paralyzed by upheaval, U.S. foreign aid is now trickling back out the door, totaling $4.7 billion since July as the State Department races to regain lost ground.
It’s been eleven months since Donald Trump reclaimed the U.S. presidency — and eleven months since his administration upended U.S. foreign aid. The first half of the year saw programs blocked, suspended, and canceled, while the second half saw the beginnings of a slow, faltering recovery. In the third quarter of the year, the U.S. State Department obligated only around $500 million in new foreign aid — but with the recent launch of a series of global health compacts, aid money is beginning to hit countries in larger sums across the world. Even so, during the second half of 2025, the State Department obligated just around $4.7 billion in new foreign aid. That’s only around a fifth of the foreign aid money spent by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development during equivalent periods in prior years. Over the last several months, U.S. foreign aid has been centered around two main pillars of assistance: humanitarian response and global health. While the majority of the humanitarian aid came in the form of small, quick-hit responses to natural disasters, most of the country’s health funding consisted of five-year bilateral agreements with African nations, all of which were announced during the first two weeks of December. “Money is not just going to be spent to provide medicine and care,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking on Dec. 4. “It’s going to be spent to improve the domestic infrastructure, health care infrastructure, so that in five or six or seven or eight years countries will say: We no longer need this much assistance, if any, because we have our own system.” We pulled publicly available information, data, and announcements to paint a picture of the past year’s foreign aid commitments. The State Department did not respond to a request for comments on this story, so in light of that, this list reflects only what we could verify — and may not include the full list of nonpublic commitments from the State Department. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1765807140131' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='How much has the U.S. committed on aid so far? 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On a trip to the country, Rubio said that $15 million of that cash would go toward the Luzon Economic Corridor, a Biden-era initiative involving the U.S., the Philippines, and Japan. If approved by Congress, that cash would support Filipino private sector investment, according to the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. Date: Aug. 1, 2025 Location: Multicountry Price tag: $52 million In early August, the State Department announced it would be providing $52 million of emergency food assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Haiti, with a target reach of 1.9 million people. That money, the State Department said, would flow through the Food for Peace program — the flagship hunger initiative once spearheaded by USAID — to the World Food Programme, which would then channel more than 12,700 metric tons of split peas, rice, and vegetable oil to the four target countries. Date: Aug. 7, 2025 Location: Multicountry Price tag: $93 million Days later, the State Department announced it would be providing $93 million worth of ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTF — the nutrient-rich peanut paste used to treat children with severe malnutrition, to 13 countries: Haiti, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, and Chad. For months, the supply chains of those RUTFs had been in flux, with the Trump administration canceling, uncanceling, and delaying contracts for the U.S.-based organizations that make those products. Those that programmed the RUTFs experienced the same, leading to a flip-flop that only stabilized once this announcement was made. The $93 million was channeled to UNICEF, which was tasked with transporting and distributing the U.S. government’s “entire prepositioned stock” of RUTF — some 1,209 metric tons. It would also go toward the production and delivery of another 11,285 metric tons of RUTFs, which would be distributed until June of 2026. Date: Aug. 12, 2025 Location: Philippines Price tag: $500,000 In mid-August, the State Department announced the government had contributed $500,000 to respond to monsoon flooding in the Philippines, which hit the nation one month earlier. That money, the department said, went toward emergency shelter assistance, household relief items, hygiene kits, and food packages. Date: Sept. 3, 2025 Location: Nigeria Price tag: $32.5 million In early September, the U.S. contributed $32.5 million to the World Food Programme’s operations in Nigeria. The money was earmarked for food assistance in the northeastern and northwestern regions of the country, and aimed to reach just over 760,000 people displaced by conflict. That included more than 41,500 pregnant women and new mothers, and over 43,200 children, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. Date: September 4, 2025 Location: Multicountry Price tag: Unknown In September, the government announced it would be purchasing lenacapavir — a new HIV prevention drug — from Gilead Sciences, an American pharmaceutical company based in the San Francisco Bay area. The State Department said the purchase would be done as a partnership between the U.S. and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The two agreed to provide up to 2 million doses by 2028 — and by November, lenacapavir began hitting the shelves. The dollar amount was never made public, but experts estimate that generic lenacapavir could cost somewhere between $25 and $46 per person, per year. This puts the State Department’s total contribution at around $25 million to $46 million — assuming the cost is equally split with the Global Fund. On Nov. 17, the senior bureau official at the State Department’s foreign assistance office, Jeremy Lewin, said that the first doses were being delivered in Eswatini and Zambia. Five hundred “initial” doses went to each country, Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands explained, with both officials speaking at a press briefing on that day. Regulatory submissions are now underway in several other African countries, including Rwanda, Tanzania, and Botswana. As official numbers have not yet been released, we’ve left this commitment off the total U.S. foreign aid spend for 2025. Date: Sept. 11, 2025 Location: Philippines Price tag: $250 million By mid-September, the Philippines won out again: The State Department announced that it was planning to allocate $250 million to address the country’s “acute public health challenges,” noting the U.S. and the Philippines would be working together on addressing tuberculosis and maternal health, along with disease preparedness, detection, and response. “Today’s announcement is yet another demonstration of the comprehensive bond between the United States and the Philippines,” the department wrote in a press release. “It also demonstrates the efficient, time-limited, and narrowly targeted approach of this new era of America First foreign assistance.” Date: Oct. 27, 2025 Location: Syria Price tag: Unknown At the end of October, the State Department announced it would be supporting 60,000 people in the Druze, Christian, and Bedouin communities in Suwayda, a southern Syrian city. All three are minorities in the country, and throughout the year, the Druze have made headlines: In August, the United Nations sounded the alarm about the abduction, rape, and killing of Druze civilians, and consistently, Israel has supported the Druze community — with the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stating he’d deployed Israeli military to Syria to defend the population. The Trump administration’s assistance to the communities includes food, water, and hygiene items, a press release stated, along with “the rehabilitation of houses and water systems” for tens of thousands of individuals displaced from their homes. As official numbers have not yet been released, we’ve left this commitment off the total U.S. foreign aid spend for 2025. Date: Nov. 4 and 10, 2025 Location: Multicountry Price tag: $37 million Hurricane Melissa struck countries across the Caribbean in late October. It was one of the strongest storms to hit Jamaica in the nation’s history, leaving 45 people dead on that island alone by Nov. 11. On Oct. 30, the State Department sent a disaster response team, or DART, to the region; five days later, the agency announced an initial $24 million in emergency aid to Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas, and Cuba. That money was allocated toward shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene, food assistance, and emergency health care, and was followed up by another $12.6 million to Jamaica and Haiti days later. It also paid for the DART response and those by search-and-rescue teams from Los Angeles and Fairfax counties, the State Department said. Date: Nov. 7, 2025 Location: Philippines Price tag: $1 million In the aftermath of Typhoon Kalmaegi — a storm that killed nearly 200 people across the Philippines — the United States gave $1 million in “immediate life-saving assistance,” with a press release stating the support would go toward “Philippine-led efforts.” That included emergency shelter, logistics services, and safe water and sanitation, the department said. Date: Nov. 25, 2025 Location: Multicountry Price tag: $150 million The State Department emerged from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history with an announcement: On Nov. 25, the agency committed to providing up to $150 million to Zipline International Inc., an American drone delivery company. Since 2016, Zipline has delivered health products on the African continent — first in Rwanda, and eventually Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire. The State Department grant will help the company expand access to health supplies, such as blood and medicines, to 15,000 facilities in those target countries, an agency press release said. “This partnership is an example of the innovative, results-driven partnership at the core of the America First foreign assistance agenda,” said Lewin, in a press release. Read more about the State Department’s investment in Zipline. Date: Dec. 3, 2025 Location: Sri Lanka Price tag: $2 million Tropical Cyclone Ditwah slammed into Sri Lanka on Nov. 28, triggering landslides and devastation across the island nation’s 25 districts. By early December, 474 had been reported dead and 356 were still missing, while more than 200,000 people were sheltering in government-run safety centers. On Dec. 3, the State Department announced it would be providing $2 million assistance — and that the newly branded Department of War would be providing “strategic airlift capabilities” to support disaster response efforts. Date: Dec. 5, 2025 Location: Kenya Price tag: $1.6 billion The largest award came nearly a year after the Trump administration’s takeover of foreign aid began: On Dec. 5, Rubio signed the government’s first bilateral health deal with Kenyan President William Ruto, which committed the U.S. to providing up to $1.6 billion for the East African country’s health assistance over the next five years. As part of the deal, Kenya would match that U.S. contribution with $850 million. The point of these bilateral aid deals is for countries to gradually take over more of their own health expenditure, helping them “move toward more resilient and durable health systems,” according to the State Department. Key to that process is engaging the private sector and faith-based organizations, the agency said, while integrating American-funded programming in local health care systems. In a press release the day before the Kenya deal was announced, the State Department said these agreements will be signed with “dozens of countries” currently receiving U.S. health assistance over the next several weeks. Read more about the U.S. and Kenya’s bilateral health agreement. Date: Dec. 5, 2025 Location: Rwanda Price tag: $158 million The same day, the State Department announced its second bilateral health agreement: Over the next five years, the U.S. would provide $158 million to support Rwanda’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, which the East African government would match with its own contribution of $70 million. The U.S. funding includes support for several American companies focused on HIV medication, artificial intelligence-powered health care, and disease outbreak surveillance, according to a State Department press release, while the Rwandan funding would go toward its own domestic health spend. Date: Dec. 9, 2025 Location: Liberia Price tag: $125 million The State Department’s third bilateral health agreement came just days later, with the U.S. committing to providing up to $125 million in health assistance to Liberia over the next five years, matched by $51 million by the West African nation. The focus of the U.S. assistance is to support HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child health needs. Date: Dec. 10, 2025 Location: Uganda Price tag: $1.7 billion The fourth agreement came on Wednesday, with the U.S. committing to providing $1.7 billion in health assistance to Uganda over the next five years — cash that would be focused on surveillance and outbreak response; reducing HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; strengthening front-line health care workers; improving health security and laboratory systems; and more. In return, Uganda pledged to increase its public health expenditure by $50 million per year, totaling more than $500 million by 2031. The country also will be taking on procurement of most HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria commodities, a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Uganda said, and provide stipends for 14,000 community health workers that the U.S. trains for the next five years. Date: Dec. 10, 2025 Location: Lesotho Price tag: $232 million The Uganda agreement was followed by one with Lesotho, in which the U.S. committed to providing up to $232 million in HIV/AIDS support over the next five years. Lesotho would invest $132 million in its own domestic response to the virus, according to a State Department press statement. The focus of the agreement is on bolstering the country’s health workforce, data systems, and disease surveillance abilities. Date: Dec. 12, 2025 Location: Eswatini Price tag: $205 million On Friday, Eswatini joined the roster of African countries that have entered bilateral health agreements with the U.S. The two countries signed a memorandum of agreement to improve the southern African country's public health data systems, disease surveillance, and outbreak response. The deal also includes the provision of HIV antiretrovirals and increased access to HIV prevention measures, including the delivery of lenacapavir. The State Department is committing $205 million, matched by a $37 million contribution from Eswatini. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.
It’s been eleven months since Donald Trump reclaimed the U.S. presidency — and eleven months since his administration upended U.S. foreign aid.
The first half of the year saw programs blocked, suspended, and canceled, while the second half saw the beginnings of a slow, faltering recovery.
In the third quarter of the year, the U.S. State Department obligated only around $500 million in new foreign aid — but with the recent launch of a series of global health compacts, aid money is beginning to hit countries in larger sums across the world. Even so, during the second half of 2025, the State Department obligated just around $4.7 billion in new foreign aid.
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Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
