Over the past week, Devex has published several analyses into the sweeping cancellation of U.S. foreign assistance awards, using the latest data submitted to the U.S Congress.
The pieces focused on the organizations that lost the most future funding — one covered for-profit contractors, another focused on nonprofit organizations, and a third dived into multilaterals. We aim to keep looking into the data and cross-checking it with official databases to provide more insights into the effects of these cuts.
For those not familiar with U.S. government jargon, the underlying data and language are not exactly beginner-friendly. Phrases like “total estimated cost” and “unobligated awards” are flying around, and multiple methodologies are emerging across the development space to analyze the impact of the cancellations. So we thought it would be helpful to share a breakdown of what we really mean when we say an organization “lost” millions.