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The Trump administration is hiring new contractors to shut down USAID — while explicitly banning anyone with prior USAID experience. Critics say it’s costly, inefficient, and proof that dismantling an agency is harder than its architects expected.
Also in today’s edition: Africa’s cervical cancer battle, and is the U.K.’s aid watchdog at risk?
Closeout, minus experts
The officials overseeing the shutdown of what remains of USAID are hiring more contractors to finish the job — just not anyone who’s actually worked there before.
An internal “activity memo” obtained by Devex explains the logic behind the ban, even as Trump administration officials continue to insist the agency is “dead and gone.” “By recruiting a fresh workforce, the Agency aims to avoid the risk of impaired objectivity,” the memo says, arguing that former staff might struggle to objectively dismantle the systems they once ran.
The memo came from Matthew Dickinson, the agency’s “chief terminations officer,” and was sent to Eric Ueland, who is “performing the duties of administrator and chief operating officer.” Dated Jan. 7, it asks to “preclud[e] the new contractor from hiring anyone with previous USAID experience.” Ueland signed off two days later, and a Jan. 16 “Request for Quote” restates the rule in black and white.
The resulting “Institutional Support for USAID Closeout Contract” comes with a $199 million ceiling and a $6.7 million initial obligation, with a base period running until March 7. That also happens to be around when the remaining several dozen foreign service and civil service officers are expected to be cut, according to Randy Chester, the USAID vice president at the American Foreign Service Association.
Chester was unimpressed. He calls the move “further proof of the incompetence of the people running the show now.”
“If you want people who are experts in the field to do something that’s required, you hire those experts,” he says, dismissing concerns about objectivity as “complete bunk.” “I can’t imagine being there and being told, ‘I don’t trust you.’”
A former senior USAID official was even blunter, saying the episode shows “it is harder to actually close an agency than Project 2025 and MAGA folks ever understood.”
“DOGE was a massive failure,” the official adds. “Spending will go on for years, and the worst part is that the spending won't accomplish anything.” The State Department declined to comment. USAID’s press office no longer exists.
Read: USAID bars its own experts from agency closeout jobs
Related: The race to salvage USAID's institutional memory (Pro)
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The last mile
Every day in Kenya, nine to 10 women die from cervical cancer — a disease that is almost entirely preventable. That reality reflects not a lack of medical tools, but how unevenly those tools reach the women who need them, writes Diana Njuguna, a nurse, researcher, and lecturer at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, in an opinion piece for Devex.
Across Africa, governments have committed to eliminating cervical cancer under the World Health Organization’s “90-70-90” targets. But eliminating cervical cancer will not happen through strategy documents alone, Njuguna argues. It will be won in kitchens, churches, schools, and markets — where prevention becomes personal.
Opinion: Africa has bold cervical cancer plans. Now we must deliver them
+ For the latest insider and behind-the-scenes coverage of global health, sign up for Devex CheckUp, a free, weekly newsletter.
The new rules for aid
This week, we reported on sweeping new rules that now tie U.S. foreign assistance to strict prohibitions on “gender ideology” and diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives — a policy that’s been expanded from abortion services with far-reaching implications for aid groups.
We also dug into a new report from the European Network on Debt and Development, which warns that modernized aid rules are increasingly shaped by the political and commercial priorities of wealthy donors, even as the world’s poorest countries remain buried in debt and excluded from private-capital markets.
To unpack it all, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and reporter Jesse Chase-Lubitz on the latest episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast.
Listen: US amps up aid restrictions, and those left behind in era of self-interest
ICYMI: New US funding rules tie aid to abortion, gender ideology, DEI bans (Pro)
+ You can also catch the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and YouTube, or search “Devex” in your favorite podcast app.
Back to the table
The U.S. State Department said it will resume food assistance to Somalia, reversing a pause announced three weeks ago over concerns that food aid had been looted.
“The United States acknowledges the Federal Government of Somalia for taking responsibility for its actions affecting World Food Program (WFP) operations, including U.S.-funded assistance,” read a post on X from the account of the State Department undersecretary for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs, and religious freedom.
“Following this statement, we will resume WFP food distribution while continuing to review our broader assistance posture in Somalia.” The statement added that the Trump administration maintains a “firm zero tolerance policy for waste, theft, or diversion of U.S. resources.”
Washington accused Somali officials on Jan. 7 of destroying a U.S.-funded WFP warehouse and seizing food aid, triggering a temporary suspension of assistance. The warehouse sits inside Mogadishu Port and was damaged during ongoing expansion works, though Somali officials said the food itself was not looted.
“The commodities removed from the warehouse affected by port expansion activities … have been fully returned to the World Food Program (WFP),” Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday. It added that the government “takes full responsibility for addressing this unfortunate situation and expresses its regret that it occurred,” and that WFP has since been provided with “a larger and more suitable warehouse within the Mogadishu Port area.”
The dispute comes as Somalia faces worsening drought-related food insecurity, with 4.4 million people projected to face acute hunger in the coming months.
Background: US freezes aid to Somalia over dispute on destroyed WFP warehouse
Accountability in limbo
Fears that the U.K. government is preparing to shut down its independent aid watchdog have rippled through the development sector after unusually blunt remarks from development minister Jenny Chapman raised questions about the future of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, or ICAI.
Those concerns were sparked during a House of Commons hearing last week, when Chapman described ICAI as a budgetary “prioritization situation,” telling members of Parliament: “I have to ask myself whether that is the right use of that money. Leaving things the same is not an option.” The tone marked a sharp shift from earlier statements backing the watchdog’s role.
But a letter Chapman later sent to ICAI’s chief commissioner, Jillian Popkins — seen by Devex — seeks to cool the speculation. “As you would expect, I take my Parliamentary responsibilities extremely seriously,” Chapman wrote, stressing that no final decision has been taken and that ICAI is being considered alongside other aid spending during upcoming budget planning. The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has also said there are “no concrete plans” to close the body.
Former ICAI Chief Commissioner Tamsyn Barton cautioned that while this is not a formal move toward closure, the language matters. “When ICAI faced a genuine existential threat in the past, there was a clearly announced review with terms of reference and a timetable,” she said. “None of that has happened here.”
“The danger isn’t just closure,” she added. “It’s gradual weakening.”
For many in the sector, the episode highlights a deeper tension: How much independent scrutiny ministers are willing to tolerate at a time when aid budgets are shrinking — and critical oversight is politically inconvenient.
Read: Ministerial rhetoric sparks fears over UK aid watchdog
In other news
The World Food Programme will shut down its operations in Houthi-held parts of northern Yemen and end contracts for 365 staffers, citing harassment from the rebel group and tough funding environment. [DW]
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to the Iranian authorities to halt its attacks on health facilities and workers amid the violent crackdown on protesters. [The Telegraph]
Sexual and gender-based violence is being used systematically by armed groups to terrorize civilians in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with cases nearly tripling since 2021, according to a report by Médecins Sans Frontières. [France 24]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
