Devex Newswire: USAID retirees still waiting for their money

It’s a double insult: First, the ax-grinding Department of Government Efficiency forces legions of USAID workers to retire as their agency is dismantled. Then, the government lacks the efficiency to pay their retirement benefits, leaving many in precarious positions.

Also in today’s edition: Afghans endure a deadly winter while Gazans receive a temporary reprieve.

+ The dismantling of USAID and deep bilateral aid cuts have forced development organizations to rethink their funding strategies. Many are looking to philanthropy. But how realistic is that pivot? Join us on March 5 for a Devex Pro Funding Briefing, where we’ll unpack new data from our latest reports on the world’s largest philanthropic funders and their top grantees, drawing on OECD figures and foundation disclosures. Register now.

Pension tension

Some USAID workers thrust into retirement by the agency’s purge were “lucky” in the sense that they at least had pensions coming their way, as opposed to those who were fired outright without any sort of financial cushion. Some missed retirement by mere months.

But “lucky” is a relative term in this new era of development.

Many retirees have yet to see a dime and are gasping for financial air. That includes Blake Chrystal, a former USAID foreign service officer who was forced into retirement in July after nearly 20 years at the agency.

“After the career that I’ve had, how hard I’ve worked and the sacrifices I’ve made, to find myself without any income, without being able to pay for the upfront medical costs for my kids, and not knowing if I’m going to be able to pay my rent next month — I just never thought I’d be in this situation,” he tells my colleague Michael Igoe. The widower and father of three estimates he’s owed delayed annuity payments of $60,000 to $70,000.

The delays are mostly because the U.S. government was unprepared for the mass exodus. What was already a multistep bureaucratic process has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of people forced into retirement, Michael writes. The agency office in charge of retirement benefits went from handling roughly 15 to 30 retirements a year to a sudden influx of over 700 in 2025, according to Randy Chester of the American Foreign Service Association.

“It’s just one insult after another insult,” he says. “They just had no clue as to what they were doing other than living up to their dream of causing and inflicting pain to everyone they could, and that’s what they were successful at, but nothing else.”

Some retirees who talked to Michael are hesitant to even bring up their situations. As one official put it: “I don’t even talk about it as an issue, because I feel very lucky that someday I will get money.”

But it’s an emotional waiting game for many. While Chrystal says he feels fortunate to at least be getting some source of income, the wallop of losing a job that was central to his identity is now coupled with not being able to cover his children’s basic expenses.

“That just makes me feel like I’m not a good father,” he says.

Read: Forced into retirement, ex-USAID staffers face long pension delays (Pro)

+ Michael also leads the Saturday edition of our Devex Pro Insider newsletter — exclusive to Pro members — that breaks down the future of U.S. foreign aid with insider analysis and exclusive insights. Not a Pro member yet? Unlock it with a free 15-day trial.

Frozen out

Chrystal — who served as USAID’s deputy mission director in Kabul during the COVID-19 pandemic — also tells us that at least he’s “not going to be as bad off as so many people in this world.” Indeed, some are now in the grips of a life-or-death predicament.

A brutal subzero winter has descended on parts of Afghanistan, and aid workers say many will die because of the lack of food and cash stemming from Western cuts to foreign assistance.

The World Food Programme and other NGOs have typically delivered food aid ahead of the colder weather, but this year, a lack of resources has prevented WFP from reaching some snowbound mountain communities. The United Nations food agency only has money to support 2 million people a month out of the 17 million people in need this winter. It frequently turns people away, including 3 out of 4 children.

Faced with the prospect of malnutrition and starvation, some Afghans are selling their livestock, fleeing to Iran or Turkey, or forcing their children into work, WFP Afghanistan Country Director John Aylieff tells Devex contributing reporter Rebecca Root.

In addition, with no more heirlooms and jewelry to trade, some people are selling what they have left: their organs.

Aylieff described a father who, too embarrassed to tell his children that he couldn’t feed them, sold his kidney for $1,850.

With stories like these multiplying, aid agencies face wrenching decisions about who to help with dwindling resources. WFP is doing what Aylieff referred to as “hyperprioritizing,” and some highland communities are being left behind.

“We are going to see a massive spike in child mortality this winter,” he says. Some “3.7 million children’s lives are in peril on account of acute malnutrition.”

The true death toll, he adds, will only be known once the frost thaws, villages can be accessed, and graves can be counted.

Read: Afghans ‘desperate’ as aid cuts bring mass hunger crisis

+ This story is part of The Aid Report, a Gates Foundation-funded, editorially independent initiative to track and document the on-the-ground impacts of the U.S. aid cuts with firsthand reporting and a verified, contributor-based data collection system. For more information and to read the stories, go to https://www.theaidreport.us.

Kyiv what you can

It’s been four years since Russia invaded Ukraine, thrusting the country into war. Untold numbers of soldiers have died, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and Russian electrical grid attacks have plunged the country into frigid darkness.

Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis, opportunities to help have gone backward. Data from Devex’s job board shows that 1,244 Ukraine-based jobs were posted in 2025 — a 42% decrease from the 2,146 positions posted in 2024. This drop is likely due to the loss of USAID funding in 2025, my colleague Genevieve Gregorio writes. Previously, Ukraine was one of the largest recipients of funding by the United States.

But help is still in desperate demand. Genevieve offers up a list detailing international organizations that are hiring mainly for their offices in Kyiv as well as operational hubs throughout the country, and providing services in refugee crises, emergency relief, and reconstruction.

Read more: The top global development employers hiring in Ukraine in 2025 (Career)

+ Layoffs are reshaping global development, and senior titles no longer guarantee security. Join us tomorrow, March 3, for an exclusive session on how to strategically pivot and stand out in a competitive field. Hear from Alder Bartlett, former USAID senior program director and current COO at Oregon Housing and Community Services, as she shares her journey from a 16-year agency career to executive leadership. Register now. This event is exclusively for Career Account members. Not yet a member? Start your 15-day free trial.

NGO ahead

Israel’s High Court of Justice has allowed some of the world’s largest aid groups to continue operating in the Gaza Strip, a decision that affects Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council, and 34 other organizations in the territory, my colleague Elissa Miolene writes.

The move followed a petition challenging an earlier Israeli government decision to bar aid groups that refuse to comply with the country’s new registration rules. Those rules would have required organizations to provide the government with detailed information about their staff, funding, and operations, and would also have disqualified those that denied the existence of Israel, expressed support for legal proceedings against Israelis, or called for boycotts of the country itself.

“Although this news is positive, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains critical and we don’t yet know what effect this ruling will have,” says Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead based in Ramallah. “When the court issues its final decision on the petition submitted by Oxfam and others, we hope it recognizes the very real threat to civilian lives and upholds humanitarian principles and international law.”

Despite a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. in October last year, shelling and gunfire continue to tear through the Gaza Strip. From October 2023 until mid-February of this year, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports the death toll from the war now tops 72,000.

Read: Aid groups win court reprieve from Gaza ban

ICYMI: Aid groups petition Israel High Court to halt Gaza aid shutdown

Held together with spit and glue

In many ways, it’s an ideal combo: The World Health Organization issued new recommendations that experts say will help expand testing for tuberculosis while also helping governments save money when fighting the world’s number one infectious disease killer.

Among the advances: Molecular tests for diagnosing TB, replacing smear microscopy — which can miss TB cases and be time-consuming. Another recommendation: the use of pooled testing for resource-constrained settings, where sputum samples from several individuals are mixed in one vial and tested together. According to WHO, this strategy has been used for other infectious diseases.

Read: WHO backs pooled TB testing to expand diagnosis and cut costs

+ Enjoyed this content? Devex CheckUp — our free weekly newsletter — delivers more insights on global health straight to your inbox. Sign up today.

In other news

Aid to Gaza is being cut off further — and residents are attempting to stockpile food and water — as border crossings close amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. The war has also left over a hundred children killed after a school strike in Minab, Iran, which UNESCO denounced as a “grave violation of international humanitarian law.” [Al Jazeera and Time]

Humanitarian operations in northern Yemen are collapsing as Houthi rebels reportedly seize aid assets, detain staff, and impose restrictions. [BBC]

February in review

Know the answer? Take the rest of our five-item news quiz!