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.