USAID-funded famine early warning system goes offline due to aid freeze

A key USAID-funded early warning system for predicting famine that is widely used in the humanitarian sector has gone offline as of Thursday, joining other tools and programs that are unable to operate as the Trump administration freezes U.S. foreign aid for 90 days. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, is funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, or BHA. It is a critical and leading source of up-to-date data to predict and track food insecurity in nearly 30 countries in Africa, Central America, and Asia. The website contains a message stating that its tools — including its learning platform, data warehouse, and data explorer — are “currently unavailable,” and emails to staff are inactive. Devex’s attempts to reach the service were met with a one-line automated response that says: “​​FEWS NET is not accepting emails at the moment.” The American Institutes for Research, or AIR, which manages the site, confirmed to Devex on Thursday that it was taken down as part of the Trump administration’s stop-work order. Humanitarian and development organizations use FEWS NET to figure out the best way to deploy aid resources. It monitors food prices and agricultural production, weather conditions, and drought forecasts that help them decide, for example, whether vouchers or cash may be more effective in a specific location, or whether they can store food aid locally or somewhere else in a region. Aid workers are outraged that the resource has been paused. “Holy shit. FEWS NET is like the Bible. We rely on them for humanitarian planning, for help with funding advocacy,” one humanitarian official told Devex. “This tool has been at the heart of many of our lifesaving efforts, providing the early warnings and critical data we rely on to save lives,” said a second humanitarian official. Both requested anonymity to speak to the media, citing the general fear that has settled over the aid and development industry since the Trump administration issued an order last week to freeze spending on federal grants. The Trump administration has said it is pausing aid as it conducts a review to ensure all U.S. foreign assistance aligns with its “America First” agenda. Decisions on whether programs will be continued, modified, or terminated altogether will follow the review. USAID launched FEWS NET in the early 1980s around the time a severe drought hit Ethiopia. The drought, combined with war in the country, led to a mass exodus of around 300,000 people to Sudan. FEWS NET publishes special reports on food security issues and often works in collaboration with other groups such as the Famine Review Committee and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Last year, FEWS NET came under fire after it published a report warning that a “famine scenario” was unfolding in Gaza. The then-U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, said that FEWS NET had relied on “outdated and inaccurate” data to reach its conclusion — after which the organization withdrew its report. The U.S. later admitted to pushing for the retraction. The situation drew wide criticism from the aid and human rights sectors, as FEWS NET is meant to be an unbiased, data-driven source of information. “[FEWS NET] is not the only tool in the toolbox, but it’s an incredibly valuable one to help us make the most of U.S. and global resources,” said a third humanitarian official in response to the site’s pause. They added that there are no alternatives to FEWS NET. “It’s really one of a kind. It has brought together so many different data points and has refined its methodology,” the official said. “It has become such an authoritative voice in a really excellent way.” USAID did not respond by the time of publication. BHA furloughed 500 contractors, or nearly 40% of its workforce, in the last couple of days. “[FEWS NET’s shutdown] has made it, I would think, quite unclear who could even implement the work that is now subject to Rubio’s more defined/revised waiver,” another humanitarian official said, referring to a waiver that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s issued Tuesday for programs that deliver “lifesaving” emergency aid. The waiver defined that aid as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.” Another humanitarian official said that they still don’t have details on this waiver. “We have not gotten any guidance on what that waiver actually covers,” the third official told Devex. “While there are some that we would logically assume would be covered under that because of the way that it’s worded, we still cannot bring those programs back on, and so we are still stuck in this pause.” A fifth source said that FEWS NET helped their team to respond quickly to a 2021-2022 drought in the Horn of Africa, enabling them to prevent widespread hunger by allowing them to mobilize early responses. FEWS NET also does analyses of the food crises in Yemen and South Sudan. “Without FEWS NET, our ability to respond effectively will be severely impacted, and I fear the consequences could be devastating for vulnerable communities who depend on our timely support,” the fifth humanitarian official said.