The U.S. Agency for International Development, facing unprecedented humanitarian crises from Somalia to Ukraine, is confronting a major workforce problem as increasing numbers of disaster response experts head for the doors and efforts to replace them fall short.
USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance — created just two years ago by merging two offices to streamline USAID’s responses to humanitarian emergencies — is losing staff, struggling to hire, and seeing morale decline, sources tell Devex. Those inside or close to the bureau describe a combination of slow-moving bureaucracy, overstretched employees, and a rocky reorganization process that is causing as many problems as it was meant to solve.
“It's like everything is sort of held together with duct tape right now,” a current USAID official told Devex.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
