The Trump administration’s order to stop the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development has sown widespread confusion across the sector on what partner organizations globally should do with their staff, their programming, and whether expenses incurred by their organization may or may not be considered legitimate according to opaque standards that the U.S. government is in the process of defining.
Receiving these orders — and awaiting receipt of them — has left many organizations who receive funding from USAID stunned and frantic, unsure about the fate of their programs and the staff that have worked to execute them.
According to documentation obtained by Devex, in at least one case, implementing partners in an African country were offered a follow-up call by USAID so that they could ask questions about what this order would mean for their work and staff, and how they could move forward.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
