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The legal showdowns over President Donald Trump’s dismantling of U.S. foreign aid slog on, as do their pingpong verdicts.
Also in today’s edition: The signs are everywhere, and they point to a very different direction for U.K. aid.
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All eyes were on USAID in the beginning months of Trump’s presidency, but his administration also set its sights on three far smaller aid agencies: the Inter-American Foundation, U.S. African Development Foundation, and U.S. Institute of Peace, tearing them down in quick and dramatic fashion.
But their former leaders didn’t give up and just as quickly turned to the courts, where they’ve notched up some wins in recent months — the most recent being a decision to effectively restore IAF, which up until earlier this year had funded community-led development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan wrote that the government’s reasoning to commandeer it “essentially puts the Constitution at war with itself.”
“Granting the President unfettered discretion to appoint who he pleases at the expense of fundamental checks and balances would not be faithful to the Constitution — it would enable the very ‘eighteenth[-]century despotism’ the Framers [of the Constitution] worked so desperately to prevent,” she wrote.
Interestingly, the Constitution was cited in a different court case involving USAID implementing partners that had the opposite result: The judge in that case said the aid organizations lacked the legal standing to sue to unfreeze Trump’s aid cuts because the plaintiffs’ claims weren’t constitutional in nature.
AliKhan came to a different conclusion, declaring that the removal of IAF’s previous leader was “unlawful,” and as a result, “without legal effect.” The judge also blocked Peter Marocco — who was primarily responsible for that removal — from serving as an acting board member of IAF and from “carrying out any of the duties of that position in any way, shape, or form.”
If you recall, Marocco and officials from the Department of Government Efficiency were initially locked out of IAF’s office, so they conducted their meeting outside its doors.
Similar standoffs between Marocco and employees happened at the U.S. African Development Foundation and the U.S. Institute of Peace. And the drama is far from over. After firing 200 employees, the Trump administration installed a controversial academic — Darren Beattie — as acting president of USIP. During the first Trump administration, Beattie was fired from his job as a speechwriter after speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists.
The administration also hasn’t given up defanging IAF, USADF, and USIP, with all three included in the recent rescissions package that clawed back billions in foreign aid funding.
Read: Court rules Trump’s ousting of Inter-American Foundation head unlawful
+ Listen: For the latest episode of our podcast series, I join my colleagues Rumbi Chakamba and Ayenat Mersie to discuss the Trump administration’s priorities at next month’s U.N. General Assembly and other top global development stories from the week.
Trump hasn’t exactly been subtle about his opposition to the traditional aid system. There was hope that across the pond, the U.K.’s Labour Party would go the opposite way and restore the aid cuts spearheaded by Conservatives. Instead, Labour doubled down, further shrinking the aid budget from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3%.
Labour also hasn’t been subtle about the fact that it is abandoning traditional development, writes Susannah Birkwood for Devex.
The signs are glaring: For one thing, the country’s low-profile development minister ostensibly has no experience in international development. For another, Labour has yet to set out a vision for U.K. development policy after more than a year in power. And the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office plans to reduce its head count by 15%-25% by 2029.
But Labour has its defenders as well. Nick Dyer, the second permanent undersecretary at FCDO who recently outlined the government's recalibrated approach to international development, says it is “completely resetting” how it allocates official development assistance, with a sharpened focus on four areas: humanitarian aid, climate, global health, and economic development and jobs. He adds that the U.K. is “less a donor and more an investor,” and that it is doing “less grant allocation and more technical assistance and support.”
“I don’t see any indication that the present U.K. government is going to return to the version of aid and development that we’ve known for some decades now,” says Brendan Whitty, a former consultant for the defunct Department for International Development. “We seem to be at a point of a paradigm shift in the way we as a country engage with patterns of global poverty, inequality.”
Read: Beyond aid cuts, 3 major signs the UK is abandoning development (Pro)
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Another paradigm shift is taking place in the European Union with its “Global Gateway,” an ambitious (some say amorphous) €300 billion strategy to support sustainable infrastructure, energy, digital, health, and education systems around the world. Four years in, though, the Gateway is still a bit of a black box, as many in the global development community ask: What exactly is it, and how can we tap into it?
At a recent Devex Pro Funding briefing, Laura Atienza, team lead at the European Commission Directorate-General for International Partnerships, and María Garrón, managing director of DT Global Europe, helped answer those questions.
Announced in late 2021, the Global Gateway signals a shift in the EU’s development cooperation model, combining traditional aid with strategic investment priorities and structured efforts to crowd in private finance, my colleague Raquel Alcega writes.
And while the initiative is still maturing, its budget is set to grow: the European Commission has proposed a 75% increase for international cooperation funding in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034), including a potential doubling of the budget for Africa alone.
According to Garrón, early outreach is essential. EU delegations in partner countries are often the best entry point to identify project pipelines, propose ideas, and demonstrate commitment.
Another tip: Organizations should monitor EU flagship projects — a set of specific initiatives, listed publicly on the Global Gateway website, that have been highlighted as central to the strategy’s objectives.
And while the Global Gateway’s emphasis on private investment may seem like a shift away from traditional development partnerships, both Garrón and Atienza underscored the continued importance of NGOs and civil society organizations.
“Investment comes from private sector, and that’s a reality, but it’s true that when you have to translate the investments in the country, you also need the work of the of the NGOs and the civil society, because the priorities of the government are also linked to the priorities of the things that are highlighted by the civil society,” Garrón said.
Read: How to access the EU’s €300B Global Gateway — key tips from the experts (Pro)
+ Check out our lineup of upcoming briefings with sector leaders, influencers, and policymakers.
Yesterday, Trump announced the details of his trade deal with the European Union after slapping the bloc with various tariffs, many of which remain. But it’s not just the EU in the tariff firing line. Dozens of countries have been caught in the crosshairs, including some of the poorest in Africa.
In an opinion piece for Devex, Imran Khalid, a geostrategic analyst, focuses on the far-reaching effects the tariffs have had on two of those countries: Lesotho and Madagascar, where tens of thousands of jobs are in jeopardy. “And a U.S. trade program once hailed as a model of goodwill — the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA] — now lies in ruins,” he writes.
Enacted in 2000, AGOA granted 32 sub-Saharan nations duty-free access to American markets for textiles, cocoa, and automotives. It is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2025, and analysts predict it’s likely dead after that.
But there are fixes, he says, “if America cares.” The first order of business would be renewing AGOA, which has been proposed by some U.S. lawmakers.
“Second, invest in African industry — through joint ventures and tech transfers — to build resilience,” he adds. “Third, align AGOA with the African Continental Free Trade Area, boosting intra-African trade, which the World Bank says could lift 30 million people out of poverty by 2035.”
“These aren’t handouts,” he writes. “They’re strategic — securing U.S. influence while fostering equity.”
Opinion: Trump’s tariffs are gutting Africa — and America’s influence
Only $2.9 billion of the $6 billion approved by the U.S. Congress for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has been allotted by the Office of Management and Budget for 2025. [The New York Times]
Partnering with social media influencers can help bridge the funding gap left by donor aid cuts, according to WaterAid, which raised $30 million in its #TeamWater campaign that featured Youtuber MrBeast. [The Independent]
Nongovernmental organizations that support refugees and asylum-seekers in the U.K. have faced security threats and safety concerns since the riots of 2024. [The Guardian]
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