Some are taking an apocalyptic view of what U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will do to the country’s foreign aid. Others see silver linings, especially in regard to localization.
Also in today’s edition: We break down USAID’s top grantees, and the U.S. House of Representatives delivers some bad news to the State Department.
+ Last chance today: Test your knowledge of last year's most-read global development stories by taking the Newswire 2024 wrap-up quiz, and get a chance to win a free one-year Devex Pro membership.
Trump’s toolbox
This is a preview of Newswire
Sign up to this newsletter for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development, in your inbox daily.
Could Trump actually be good for the development and humanitarian community? Color me a tad skeptical — at least when it comes to the money. Some form of aid cuts are all but inevitable from the world’s preeminent donor.
But maybe not all is lost. Beyond the fact that we don’t 100% know what the upcoming budget will look like, some Republicans have voiced support for locally led development, echoing long-standing calls in our community to shift the power dynamics of aid.
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, who leads Mercy Corps’ global policy and advocacy, is among the optimists. In a Devex opinion piece, she argues that advancing locally led solutions will not only lead to cost-effective, inclusive, and lasting benefits, but also reinforce global stability and U.S. national interests.
“Localization is increasingly critical in the face of shrinking global funding and growing humanitarian needs driven by climate change, conflict, economic instability, and health crises,” she writes. Despite that importance though, progress has been lackluster.
So she lays out five recommendations for the second Trump administration. Among them: reaffirm USAID’s commitment to directing at least 25% of its funding to local organizations and ensuring that at least 50% of its programs are locally led.
Phillips-Barrasso also recommends expanding considerations of who is a “local partner” beyond well-established NGOs to include nontraditional partners, such as the local private sector, and channeling direct funding to local and national entities during humanitarian crises, given that they are often the first responders during emergencies.
“While increasing resources for and removing barriers to direct local funding is vital, a comprehensive shift in power and ownership to partner countries and communities requires a diverse set of tools,” she writes.
“The U.S. must lead by example to create, improve, and deploy all potential approaches in the policy and practice toolbox to foster greater local leadership and power through foreign assistance, even when funding isn’t directly allocated to local and national entities.”
Opinion: The Trump administration can boost aid impact with localization
+ Explore our coverage of the sector’s drive toward localization.
Musical chairs?
For all the discussions about localization, money still talks, and on that front, USAID is trying to put its money where its mouth is.
The portion of the money that went to local organizations improved in the last four years and different initiatives were implemented to help the agency reach its goal — albeit slowly — of allocating a quarter of its funding to local partners.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our analysis by Miguel Antonio Tamonan identified the top 10 bilateral and multilateral recipients of funding. The findings show that while the placements differed from 2023, the same 10 bilateral grantees topped the 2024 list.
For instance, the number one and number two spots did a switcheroo, with Catholic Relief Services earning the top spot this year, dislodging FHI 360, which moved down to the second slot.
Together, these two top 10 lists of grantees accounted for 57.3% of USAID’s total grants and cooperative agreements in fiscal year 2024. And while most recipients saw funding drop, the largest recipients saw big gains.
Read: Who were USAID’s top grantees in 2024? (Pro)
+ Not yet a Devex Pro member? Start your 15-day free trial today to access all our expert analyses, insider insights, funding data, exclusive events, and more. Check out all the exclusive content available to you.
Mast destruction
Speaking of money, the U.S. State Department is slated to get less of it under the new Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (I won’t say I told you so, but I did tell you so in the first section).
On Wednesday, Rep. Brian Mast told Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power that he was putting the brakes on hundreds of millions of dollars set to be disbursed for social initiatives ahead of the end of the Biden administration, my colleague Adva Saldinger tells me.
Mast called it a “last minute woke spending spree” in a press statement, adding that U.S. President Joe Biden was rushing to fund programs before he left office and that hundreds of millions were sent to be spent on initiatives that don’t have a clear national security benefit.
“The American people sent a clear message in November that they will no longer tolerate uncontrolled spending on programs that are incompatible with the United States’ interests abroad,” he said in the letter sent to the officials.
Among the spending he has put a hold on: millions of dollars to combat climate change in the Middle East and funds to support LGBTQ+ awareness in Zimbabwe.
+ Check out our page dedicated to the future of U.S. aid.
Subsidy spree
We often hear the refrain that the costs to contain climate change — trillions of dollars — are too astronomical to be feasible. But the ONE Campaign is trying to put those figures into perspective.
Between 2010 and 2022, rich countries spent six times more on fossil fuel subsidies ($2.7 trillion) than on international climate finance commitments ($437 billion), according to a report by the organization.
Subsidies for fossil fuel companies in rich nations average $208 billion per year compared to $34 billion for international climate finance, my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz tells me. The report’s authors wrote that there’s enough money to support low- and middle-income countries’ climate needs, but instead it’s being spent on the climate’s greatest threat: fossil fuels.
Italy came out with the highest disparity among G7 countries, spending 36 times more on fossil fuel subsidies than climate finance between 2010 and 2022. The United Kingdom spent nine times more, the U.S. five times more, and Canada four times more.
Azerbaijan, the host of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, was the world's worst offender, spending over 1,800 times more on fossil fuel subsidies than on climate finance between 2014 and 2022.
Wealthier countries have repeatedly pledged to cut fossil fuels, to little avail. At COP29, they also committed to provide $300 billion annually by 2035 to help lower-income countries cope with climate change — an overall disappointing number for climate advocates who wanted to see something closer to $1.3 trillion.
“Bloated spending on domestic fossil fuel subsidies sharply contrasts with the unmet climate needs of low- and middle-income countries, which are massive,” the report says.
🎧 ICYMI: After COP29, Jesse sat down with The Nature Conservancy's Clare Shakya and our own David Ainsworth to discuss whether the climate conference delivered on its promises.
Mideast moves
The Middle East is a cauldron of contradictions, from rampant oil wealth to bloody conflict and political turmoil. But the region also attracts a range of international organizations and local agencies — from multilateral development banks and government agencies such as the Islamic Development Bank and the Saudi Fund for Development, to United Nations agencies such as UNRWA — the U.N. main agency for Palestinian refugees — and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon,
It also offers numerous opportunities for skilled professionals dedicated to driving progress, writes our Kristiana Louise Ortega. Over the past 12 months, 7,321 jobs in the Middle East were advertised on Devex’s job board — with Jordan and Egypt ranking among the top locations for job postings.
As part of our ongoing exploration of global development opportunities, we take a closer look at the leading development hubs in the Middle East that are actively hiring.
Read: Top development hubs in the Middle East (Career)
+ Start your 15-day free trial of a Devex Career Account membership today to get full access to the world’s largest global development job board and unlock all our exclusive career events and resources, including our latest special report on the top global development employers of 2024.
In other news
The U.N. Security Council convened to address Syria’s political transition and critical humanitarian crisis, as nearly 15 million Syrians require health services, 13 million face acute food insecurity, and over 620,000 are displaced amid winter conditions. [UN News]
Indonesia has been approved as a full member of the BRICS group of developing economies, the bloc's presiding country, Brazil, announced on Monday. [AP]
Germany and France have cautioned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump against threatening Greenland after he declined to rule out the use of military force to claim Denmark’s autonomous territory. [BBC]
Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
