It’s been six months since the sector was irrevocably changed by a slew of aid cuts. Now, leaders across the countries receiving the most foreign aid are facing a reckoning: What comes next?
Also in this edition: Cuts and restructuring in the global health sector, and details on the Ford Foundation’s lucky BUILD grantees.
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‘A wake-up call’
Six months ago, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta stood before a crowd in Mombasa. He was speaking at a regional health summit, and doing so at the same time that the Trump administration was taking a sledgehammer to USAID.
Kenyatta had seen people crying about aid cuts, he said — and his reaction to the scene was blunt.
“Why are you crying? It’s not your government, it's not your country,” Kenyatta said. “[U.S. President Donald Trump] has no reason to give you anything. You don’t pay taxes in America! He is appealing to his people. This is a wake-up call for you to say: ‘OK, what are we going to do to help ourselves?’”
In the months that followed, that question is something African leaders across the continent have been forced to answer, my colleague Ayenat Mersie reports. Abdihakim Ainte, a senior adviser to Somalia’s interior minister, spoke of a perpetual “aid trap” that’s stifled his country for decades; Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, gave the example of Malawi — a country that gets more than half its health care budget from foreign donors.
“There’ll be pain. But we think it’s a necessary pain,” January Makamba, a Tanzanian member of Parliament, tells Ayenat. “I think it’s a pain, not death pain, but birth pain.”
Read: From ‘aid trap’ to ‘brutal’ cuts — African leaders confront a new reality (Pro)
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Funding activity
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are some of those viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The Asian Development Bank has approved a $65.8 million financing package to support agrifood systems transformation in Laos.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has signed a $100 million facility to improve financial access to affordable housing in India.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition has released a grant for the development of a strategy to improve the air quality in the city of Monterrey in Mexico.
The Global Innovation Fund has announced a risk capital investment in a supply chain company that has created a smart distribution platform in Kenya.
The International Finance Corporation has announced an equity investment to accelerate job creation and enhance the competitive sports and entertainment sector in Africa.
The United Nations Development Programme is inviting companies to submit quotations for a project that aims to renovate and upgrade schools across the earthquake-prone zone in Turkey.
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Speaking of cuts …
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is slashing $1.43 billion already allocated for its current funding cycle — an 11% drop in funds for programs running until 2026.
The cuts have sent the Global Fund scrambling, Devex contributing reporter Andrew Green writes, with countless lifesaving services on the line.
“This is the largest and fastest reprogramming the Global Fund has ever had to do,” says Fionnuala Murphy, the head of global advocacy for Frontline AIDS.
The decision was made after donors failed to meet their pledged contributions, with sources telling Andrew that there has been particular worry about the United States — a country that previously pledged up to $6 billion for the latest funding cycle, but failed to include an explicit allocation to the Global Fund in Trump’s latest budget request.
Read: Global Fund plans to cut $1.4 billion from grants it has already awarded
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… and consequences
UNAIDS is digging into its rainy day fund — or rather, its operating reserve fund — to radically shrink the agency down.
The agency’s board has authorized a withdrawal of $15 million to bankroll an ongoing restructuring effort aimed at downsizing its staff by more than half, shuttering country offices, and streamlining operations. Devex Senior Reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo looked into the details: The restructuring is estimated to cost $32.8 million across both 2025 and 2026, and drawing from the operating reserve fund is meant to be a “last resort” when there isn’t enough cash to implement UNAIDS’ activities.
The move comes amid steep donor funding cuts — particularly from the U.S. — and growing calls for reform within the U.N. system. Without the reserve funds, UNAIDS faced an $8.7 million shortfall by 2026. A final decision on whether to sunset the secretariat entirely by 2030 is expected by the end of 2027.
Read: Board agrees for UNAIDS to use its reserves for restructuring
ICYMI: Will UNAIDS sunset by 2030?
BUILDing other options
But don’t forget: There are still places where aid money is flowing from. One of those is the Ford Foundation, the second-largest private foundation in the United States.
With an endowment of $16 billion, the Ford Foundation focuses on organizations centered on social justice and equality, and in 2016, it launched the Building Institutions and Networks initiative, or BUILD, to accelerate support organizations’ core funding. Devex data analyst Alecsondra Kieren Si took a closer look at the BUILD initiative’s numbers and broke down the details on what it funds.
Here’s what she found: The top BUILD grantees were the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute that focuses on how policy affects budgets, taxes, and public programs; and Family Values at Work, a network of grassroots organizers focused on economic, racial, and gender justice. The two organizations received awards worth a collective $21 million and $20.6 million, respectively. Find out who the rest are.
Read: The Ford Foundation's top BUILD grantees (Pro)
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Problem-solving mode
Another is the Segal Family Foundation, a New Jersey-based foundation dedicated to “trust-based philanthropy.” In a recent Devex Pro event, the foundation’s programs director, Patricia Malila Pinheiro, shared how Segal has been able to keep their funding flows steady — and continued to channel flexible, long-term support to local organizations across sub-Saharan Africa.
“Our approach has always been anchored in the belief that locally led development is more sustainable, just, and efficient,” Pinheiro said. “So I think that during times like this, it really has enforced the importance of funding local organizations that have the staying power in communities and are resilient.”
Devex Pro Funding Editor Raquel Alcega broke down the key takeaways from the Segal Family Foundation’s approach: listen first, and fund flexibly; center philanthropic giving on trust; find grantees in-country; practice “active partnership”; and connect grantees to other funders.
Watch the event recording: Inside Segal Family Foundation’s trust-based giving strategy in Africa (Pro)
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
