As the U.S. President Donald Trump administration dismantles USAID, major questions remain about which of its programs will survive, which will be eliminated, and who will be responsible for what.
The list of USAID programs and resources that have been gutted or gone offline is long: Feed the Future, which boosted agricultural production and market access; FEWS Net, an early warning system tool for predicting famine, to name just two. As those programs await answers as to whether they even have a future after the State Department’s 90-day review, USAID’s flagship in-kind food aid initiative, Food for Peace, has been thrown a lifeline.
Earlier this month, a pair of Kansas Republicans sponsored legislation in Congress that could preserve the program by transferring it from USAID to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA. Food for Peace has fed more than 4 billion people since it was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, himself a Republican and Kansan, in the aftermath of World War II. The program purchases surplus food commodities grown by American farmers and distributes them to those in need abroad, primarily in emergency settings such as conflicts or natural disasters.
About the author
Ayenat Mersie
Ayenat Mersie is a Global Development Reporter for Devex. Previously, she worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as National Geographic and Foreign Policy and as an East Africa correspondent for Reuters.
