The 90-day USAID funding freeze is wreaking havoc on Afghanistan, a country that relied on the U.S. for approximately 62% of its basic services in the early-to-mid 2000s.
The U.S. is still by far the largest donor to Afghanistan, making almost $21 billion available to the country since it withdrew its military forces in 2021. In 2024 alone, the U.S. aid agency pledged $280 million to the World Food Programme in the country.
Now — as a result of the stop-work order and funding freeze on USAID — Afghanistan is struggling to keep hospitals running and schools open. Its currency has risen from 70 Afghanis against the US dollar to 81.5 since the stop-work order was issued last week.
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About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
