An exclusive breakdown for Pro members.
Are we at a turning point where USAID is officially gone and its reincarnation within the State Department has begun in earnest? Our reporting indicates that we’re at least on the cusp of the end of the beginning.
To wit, a plan has been circulating on how to reconfigure the roughly 17% of USAID programming that survived the guillotine of terminations this month. Critics say we’re simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but at least there are concrete ideas about how foreign aid can be absorbed into the State Department to, in theory, maximize efficiency while preserving the most lifesaving services — all under a potentially new moniker: the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance, or IHA. This newly minted IHA would have a “narrow mandate” focused on natural disasters, famines, disease outbreaks, and food security. We weigh the pros and cons in this must-read analysis.