The U.S. Agency for International Development is gone, its budget is in tatters, and grantees are in turmoil. But the agency’s sudden shuttering in February also imposed permanent and ongoing damage to organizations, projects, and services that never received a dollar of direct U.S. aid. Months later, one local leader said: “It feels like we’re going through another global pandemic, and we’re still recovering from the last one.” Another calls it “trickle-down demise.”
I had the opportunity to gather 15 leaders from sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. These are the leaders we don’t hear from. The ones whose front-line organizations assist survivors of sexual violence and trafficking, people with disabilities, and victims of Agent Orange.
They provide job training for jobless youth, keep girls in school, and help women launch small businesses. These kinds of initiatives often offer the best long-term hope for marginalized communities. Sophisticated and practical, some of these leaders are driven by faith, some by personal experience, and none have “radical” agendas.