United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is a de jure agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government. USAID was the world's largest foreign aid agency, but it received major cutbacks in 2025, with its remaining functions being transferred to the United States Department of State.

United States Agency for International Development

Seal of USAID
Flag of USAID
Wordmark of USAID
Agency overview
Formed	1961
Preceding agency	International Cooperation Administration
Dissolved	2025, de facto (The remaining 17% of USAID programs were rolled into the State Department, but USAID legally exists as an independent agency.)
Headquarters	Ronald Reagan Building Washington, D.C., U.S.
Motto	"From the American people"
Annual budget	$34 billion (FY 2025 total budgetary resources)
Agency executive	Eric Ueland, Administrator (acting)
Website	usaid.gov

USAID was established in 1961 to compete with the Soviet Union during the Cold War through the use of soft power. In 2025, the Trump administration ended 83% of overall projects. However, USAID had been reorganized by the United States Congress as an independent agency in 1998 and can only be closed down by an act of Congress. As such, it legally still exists.

From 2001 to 2024, USAID had an average budget of $23 billion a year and missions in over 100 countries in areas as diverse as education, global health, environmental protection, and democratic governance. In the twenty years from 2001 to 2021, USAID saved a yearly estimated range of between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives, with an estimated subset of between 1.2 and 1.7 million children under five saved.

History

In August 1953, President Eisenhower reorganized country offices as "United States Operations Missions" (USOMs). Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic aid. The goal of this agency was to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War and to advance U.S. soft power through socioeconomic development. USAID's predecessor agency was already substantial, with 6,400 U.S. staff in developing-country field missions in 1961. Except for the peak years of the Vietnam War, 1965–70, that was more U.S. field staff than USAID would have in the future, and triple the number USAID has had in field missions in the years since 2000.

After his inauguration as president on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps by Executive Order on March 1, 1961. On March 22, he sent a special message to Congress on foreign aid, asserting that the 1960s should be a "Decade of Development" and proposing to unify U.S. development assistance administration into a single agency. He sent a proposed "Act for International Development" to Congress in May and the resulting "Foreign Assistance Act" was approved in September, repealing the Mutual Security Act. In November, Kennedy signed the act and issued an Executive Order tasking the Secretary of State to create, within the State Department, the "Agency for International Development" (or A.I.D.: subsequently re-branded as USAID), as the successor to both ICA and the Development Loan Fund. With these actions, the U.S. created a permanent agency working with administrative autonomy under the policy guidance of the State Department to implement, through resident field missions, a global program of both technical and financial development assistance for low-income countries. After this transition, USOMs continued to exist for a time as an element of USAID.

In 1998, Congress established USAID as a functionally independent executive agency with the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, which gave the president 60 days to abolish or reorganize USAID. President Bill Clinton chose the second option and reorganized USAID, which retained its independence from the U.S. Department of State, although its administrator must "report to and be under the direct authority and foreign policy guidance of the Secretary of State".

In the 21 years from 2001 to 2021 inclusive, USAID funding saved an estimated 92 million persons, with a range between 86 and 98 million. This is an estimated range of between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives saved per year. Among these lives saved were an estimated 30 million children younger than five, with a range between 26 and 35 million. This is an estimated range of between 1.2 and 1.7 million per year in the subset of children under five saved.

Trump cuts

On January 24, 2025, during the second Trump administration, President Donald Trump ordered a near-total freeze on all foreign aid. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration alleging that these actions were not within its powers without congressional authorization.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for humanitarian aid, and a key issue developed over whether this waiver was actually translating into aid flowing. On March 10, 2025, Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration had concluded its review, and 83% of USAID's programs would be cancelled, involving approximately 5,200 contracts.

The impact of the actions taken by the USAID on global health is wide-reaching. A study published in June 2025 estimated that funding cuts and the abolition of the agency could result in at least 14 million preventable deaths by 2030, 4.5 million of which could be among children under 5 years old.

Absorption by State Department

On March 28, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio notified Congress that USAID would be dissolved and absorbed into the U.S. State Department. Since July 1, 2025, USAID's operations have ceased and U.S. foreign assistance has now been administered by the U.S. State Department.

USAID employees were not automatically transferred. Instead, the State Department is engaging in a "separate and independent hiring process".

Competition with China

Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said, "I have felt for a long time that USAID is our way to combat the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's effort to really gain influence around the world, including Africa and South America in the Western Hemisphere." In addition, China often completes such projects on the basis of loans, not grants.

Michael Sobolik, a China analyst at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank and a former aide to Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has stated, "Sure, USAID was doing some highly questionable stuff that's worthy of review. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Beijing is hoping we do exactly that."

Disaster response

Regarding the March 28 Myanmar earthquake, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated that the United States is working through local partners in Myanmar, and said, "The success in the work and our impact will still be there." However, a former USAID mission head in Myanmar said, "This is the new normal. This is what it looks like when the United States sits on the international sidelines, when the United States is a weaker international player, when it cedes the space to other global players like China."

Purposes

USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions was drawn on to manage U.S. government programs in low-income countries for various purposes.

• Disaster relief
• Poverty relief
• Technical cooperation on global issues, including the environment
• U.S. bilateral interests
• Socioeconomic development

Disaster relief

Some of the U.S. government's earliest foreign aid programs provided relief in war-created crises. In 1915, U.S. government assistance through the Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion. After 1945, the European Recovery Program championed by Secretary of State George Marshall (the "Marshall Plan") helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe.

Poverty relief

After 1945, many newly independent countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies have continuously provided poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has also helped manage food aid provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also, USAID provides funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty.

Global issues

Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues, trade and investment cooperation, safety standards for traded products, money laundering, and so forth. The United States has specialized federal agencies dealing with such areas, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency. USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries supported these and other U.S. government agencies' international work on global concerns.

Environment

Among these global interests, environmental issues attracted high attention. USAID assisted projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water, forests, and wildlife. USAID also assists projects in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to the risks associated with global climate change. U.S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable.

U.S. national interests

Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies to support U.S. geopolitical interests, mainly in the form of "Economic Support Funds" (ESF). USAID is called on to administer the bulk (90%) of ESF and is instructed: "To the maximum extent feasible, [to] provide [ESF] assistance ... consistent with the policy directions, purposes, and programs of [development assistance]."

Also, when U.S. troops were in the field, USAID could supplement the "Civil Affairs" programs that the U.S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of the State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda.

U.S. commercial interests were served by U.S. law's requirement that most goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U.S. vendors. American farms supplied about 41 percent of the food aid according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service.

Socioeconomic development

To help low-income nations achieve self-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assisted them in improving the management of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development mainly provides technical advice, training, scholarships, commodities, and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilized the technical resources of the private sector and other U.S. government agencies, universities, and NGOs to participate in this assistance.

Programs of the various types above frequently reinforced one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act required USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes ("Economic Support Funds") to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible.

Modes of assistance

USAID delivered both technical and financial assistance:

Technical assistance

Technical assistance included technical advice, training, scholarships, construction, and commodities. USAID contracts or procures technical assistance and provides it in-kind to recipients. For technical advisory services, USAID draws on experts from the private sector, mainly from the assisted country's pool of expertise and from specialized U.S. government agencies. Many host-government leaders have drawn on USAID's technical assistance to develop IT systems and procure computer hardware to strengthen their institutions.

To build indigenous expertise and leadership, USAID financed scholarships to U.S. universities and assists in the strengthening of developing countries' universities. Local universities' programs in developmentally important sectors were assisted directly and through USAID support for forming partnerships with U.S. universities.

The various forms of technical assistance were frequently coordinated as capacity-building packages for the development of local institutions.

Financial assistance

Financial assistance supplied cash to developing country organizations to supplement their budgets. USAID also provided financial assistance to local and international NGOs who in turn give technical assistance in developing countries. Although USAID formerly provided loans, all financial assistance is now provided in the form of non-reimbursable grants.

In recent years, the United States had increased its emphasis on financial rather than technical assistance. In 2004, the Bush administration created the Millennium Challenge Corporation as a new foreign aid agency that is mainly restricted to providing financial assistance. In 2009, the Obama administration initiated a major realignment of USAID's own programs to emphasize financial assistance, referring to it as "government-to-government" or "G2G" assistance.

Public–private partnerships

In April 2023, USAID and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve food safety and sustainable food systems in Africa. GFSI's work in benchmarking and standard harmonisation aims to foster mutual acceptance of GFSI-recognized certification programmes for the food industry.

Organization

USAID is organized around country development programs managed by resident USAID offices in developing countries ("USAID missions"), supported by USAID's global headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Country development programs

USAID planned its work in each country around an individual country development program managed by a resident office called a "mission". The USAID mission and its U.S. staff were guests in the country, with a status that is usually defined by a "framework bilateral agreement" between the government of the United States and the host government. Framework bilaterals give the mission and its U.S. staff privileges similar to (but not necessarily the same as) those accorded to the U.S. embassy and diplomats by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

USAID missions work in over fifty countries, consulting with their governments and non-governmental organizations to identify programs that will receive USAID's assistance. As part of this process, USAID missions conduct socio-economic analysis, discuss projects with host-country leaders, design assistance to those projects, award contracts and grants, administer assistance (including evaluation and reporting), and manage flows of funds.

As countries develop and need less assistance, USAID shrunk and ultimately closed its resident missions. USAID had closed missions in a number of countries that had achieved a substantial level of prosperity, including South Korea, Turkey, and Costa Rica.

USAID also closed missions when requested by host countries for political reasons. In September 2012, the U.S. closed USAID/Russia at that country's request. Its mission in Moscow had been in operation for two decades. On May 1, 2013, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, asked USAID to close its mission, which had worked in the country for 49 years. The closure was completed on September 20, 2013.

USAID missions were led by mission directors and were staffed both by USAID Foreign Service officers and by development professionals from the country itself, with the host-country professionals forming the majority of the staff. The length of a Foreign service officer's "tour" in most countries is four years, to provide enough time to develop in-depth knowledge about the country. (Shorter tours of one or two years were usual in countries of exceptional hardship or danger.)

The mission director was a member of the U.S. Embassy's "Country Team" under the direction of the U.S. ambassador. As a USAID mission works in an unclassified environment with relative frequent public interaction, most missions were initially located in independent offices in the business districts of capital cities. Since the passage of the Foreign Affairs Agencies Consolidation Act in 1998 and the bombings of U.S. Embassy chanceries in East Africa in the same year, missions have gradually been moved into U.S. Embassy chancery compounds.

USAID/Washington

The country programs were supported by USAID's headquarters in Washington, D.C., "USAID/Washington", where about half of USAID's Foreign Service officers work on rotation from foreign assignments, alongside USAID's Civil Service staff and top leadership.

USAID is headed by an administrator. Under the Biden administration, the administrator became a regular attendee of the National Security Council.

USAID/Washington helped define overall federal civilian foreign assistance policy and budgets, working with the State Department, Congress, and other U.S. government agencies. It was organized into "Bureaus" covering geographical areas, development subject areas, and administrative functions. Each bureau is headed by an assistant administrator appointed by the president.

(Some tasks similar to those of USAID's Bureaus were performed by what were termed "Independent Offices".)

• Geographic bureaus
  • AFR – Africa
  • ASIA – Asia
  • LAC – Latin America & the Caribbean
  • E&E – Europe and Eurasia
  • ME – the Middle East
• Subject-area bureaus
  • GH – Global Health
    • Every year, the Global Health Bureau reported to the U.S. Congress through its Global Health Report to Congress. The Global Health Bureau also submits a yearly report on the Call to Action: ending preventable child and maternal deaths. This is part of USAID's follow-up to the 2012, where it committed to ending preventable child and maternal deaths in a generation with A Promise Renewed.
  • E3 – Economic Growth, Education, and the Environment
    • Economic Growth offices in E3 defined Agency policy and provide technical support to Mission assistance activities in the areas of economic policy formulation, international trade, sectoral regulation, capital markets, microfinance, energy, infrastructure, land tenure, urban planning and property rights, gender equality and women's empowerment. The Engineering Division, in particular, draws on licensed professional engineers to support USAID Missions in a multibillion-dollar portfolio of construction projects, including medical facilities, schools, universities, roads, power plants, and water and sanitation plants.
    • The Education Office in E3 defines Agency policy and provides technical support to Mission assistance activities for both basic and tertiary education.
    • Environment offices in E3 define Agency policy and provide technical support to Mission assistance activities in the areas of climate change and biodiversity.
  • Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance
  • Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance
    • The mission of the DRG Bureau was to lead USAID's efforts to invigorate democracy, enhance human rights and justice, and bolster governance that advances the public interest and delivers inclusive development.
  • LAB – U.S. Global Development Lab
    • The Lab serves as an innovation hub, taking smart risks to test new ideas and partner within the Agency and with other actors to harness the power of innovative tools and approaches that accelerate development impact.
  • RFS – Resilience and Food Security
• Headquarters bureaus
  • M – Management
  • OHCTM – Office of Human Capital and Talent Management
  • LPA – Legislative and Public Affairs
  • PPL – Policy, Planning, and Learning
  • BRM – Office of Budget and Resource Management

Independent oversight of USAID activities was provided by its Office of Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International Development, which conducted criminal and civil investigations, financial and performance audits, reviews, and inspections of USAID activities around the world.

Staffing

USAID's staffing reported to Congress in June 2016 totaled 10,235, including both field missions "overseas" (7,176) and the Washington, D.C. headquarters (3,059). Of this total, 1,850 were USAID Foreign Service officers who spend their careers mostly residing overseas (1,586 overseas in June 2016) and partly on rotation in Washington, D.C. (264). The Foreign Service officers stationed overseas worked alongside the 4,935 local staff of USAID's field missions.^{[citation needed]}

Host-country staff normally worked under one-year contracts that were renewed annually.^{[citation needed]} Formerly, host-country staff could be recruited as "direct hires" in career positions and at present many host-country staff continue working with USAID missions for full careers on a series of one-year contracts.^{[citation needed]} In USAID's management approach, local staff may fill highly responsible, professional roles in program design and management.

U.S. citizens can apply to become USAID Foreign Service officers by competing for specific job openings based on academic qualifications and experience in development programs. Within five years of recruitment, most Foreign Service officers receive tenure for an additional 20+ years of employment before mandatory retirement. Some were promoted to the Senior Foreign Service with extended tenure, subject to the Foreign Service's mandatory retirement age of 65. (This recruitment system differs from the State Department's use of the "Foreign Service Officer Test" to identify potential U.S. diplomats. Individuals who pass the test become candidates for the State Department's selection process, which emphasizes personal qualities in thirteen dimensions such as "Composure" and "Resourcefulness". No specific education level is required.)

In 2008, USAID launched the "Development Leadership Initiative" to reverse the decline in USAID's Foreign Service officer staffing, which had fallen to a total of about 1,200 worldwide. Although USAID's goal was to double the number of Foreign Service officers to about 2,400 in 2012, actual recruitment net of attrition reached only 820 by the end of 2012. USAID's 2016 total of 1,850 Foreign Service officers compared with 13,000 in the State Department.

Field missions

While USAID can have as little presence in a country as a single person assigned to the U.S. embassy, a full USAID mission in a larger country may have twenty or more USAID Foreign Service officers and a hundred or more professional and administrative employees from the country itself.

The USAID mission's staff is divided into specialized offices in three groups: (1) assistance management offices; (2) the mission director's and the Program office; and (3) the contracting, financial management, and facilities offices.

Assistance management offices

Called "technical" offices by USAID staff, these offices designed and managed the technical and financial assistance that USAID provides to their local counterparts' projects. The technical offices that were frequently found in USAID missions include Health and Family Planning, Education, Environment, Democracy, and Economic Growth.

Health and Family Planning

Examples of projects assisted by missions' Health and Family Planning offices were projects for the eradication of communicable diseases, strengthening of public health systems focusing on maternal-child health including family planning services, HIV-AIDS monitoring, delivery of medical supplies including contraceptives, and coordination of Demographic and Health Surveys. This assistance is primarily targeted to the poor majority of the population and corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as strengthening the basis for socio-economic development.

Education

USAID's Education offices mainly assisted the national school system, emphasizing broadening the coverage of quality basic education to reach the entire population. Examples of projects often assisted^{[citation needed]} by Education offices were projects for curriculum development, teacher training, and provision of improved textbooks and materials. Larger programs have included school construction. Education offices often manage scholarship programs for training in the U.S., while assistance to the country's universities and professional education institutions may be provided by Economic Growth and Health offices. The Education office's emphasis on school access for the poor majority of the population corresponds to USAID's poverty relief objective, as well as to the socioeconomic development objective in the long term.

Environment

Examples of projects assisted by environmental offices were projects for tropical forest conservation, protection of indigenous people's lands, regulation of marine fishing industries, pollution control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and helping communities adapt to climate change. Environment assistance corresponds to USAID's objective of technical cooperation on global issues, as well as laying a sustainable basis for USAID's socioeconomic development objective in the long term.

USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has recently initiated the HEARTH (Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies) program, which operated in 10 countries with 15 activities aimed at promoting conservation of threatened landscapes and enhancing community well-being by partnering with the private sector to align business goals with development objectives. Through HEARTH, USAID implements One Health principles to achieve sustainable benefits for both people and the environment through projects focused on livelihoods, well-being, conservation, biodiversity, and governance.

Democracy

Examples of projects assisted by Democracy offices were projects for the country's political institutions, including elections, political parties, legislatures, and human rights organizations. Counterparts include the judicial sector and civil society organizations that monitor government performance. Democracy assistance received its greatest impetus at the time of the creation of the successor states to the USSR starting in about 1990, corresponding both to USAID's objective of supporting U.S. bilateral interests and to USAID's socioeconomic development objective.

Economic Growth

Examples of projects often assisted by Economic Growth offices were projects for improvements in agricultural techniques and marketing (the mission may have had a specialized "Agriculture" office), development of microfinance industries, streamlining of Customs administrations (to accelerate the growth of exporting industries), and modernization of government regulatory frameworks for the industry in various sectors (telecommunications, agriculture, and so forth). In USAID's early years and some larger programs, Economic Growth offices have financed economic infrastructure like roads and electrical power plants. Economic Growth assistance was thus quite diverse in terms of the range of sectors where it may work. It corresponded to USAID's socioeconomic development objective and is the source of sustainable poverty reduction. Economic Growth offices also occasionally manage assistance to poverty relief projects, such as to government programs that provide "cash transfer" payments to low-income families.

Special assistance

Some USAID missions had specialized technical offices for areas like counter-narcotics assistance or assistance in conflict zones.

Disaster assistance on a large scale is provided through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. Rather than having a permanent presence in country missions, this office has supplies pre-positioned in strategic locations to respond quickly to disasters when and where they occur.

The Office of the Mission Director and the Program Office

The mission director's signature authorized technical offices to assist according to the designs and budgets they propose. With the help of the Program Office, the mission director ensures that designs were consistent with USAID policy for the country, including budgetary earmarks by which Washington directs that funds be used for certain general purposes such as public health or environmental conservation. The Program Office compiles combined reports to Washington to support budget requests to Congress and to verify that budgets were used as planned.

Contracting, financial management and management offices

While the mission director was the public face and key decision-maker for an impressive array of USAID technical capabilities, arguably the offices that made USAID preeminent among U.S. government agencies in the ability to follow through on assistance agreements in low-income countries were the "support" offices.

Contracting

Commitments of U.S. government funds to NGOs and firms that implemented USAID's assistance programs can only be made in compliance with carefully designed contracts and grant agreements executed by warranted Contracting and agreement officers. The mission director is authorized to commit financial assistance directly to the country's government agencies.

Financial management

Funds can be committed only when the Mission's Controller certifies their availability for the stated purpose. "FM" offices assisted technical offices in financial analysis and in developing detailed budgets for inputs needed by projects assisted. They evaluate potential recipients' management abilities before financial assistance can be authorized and then review implementers' expenditure reports with great care. This office often had the largest number of staff of any office in the mission.

Management

Called the "Executive Office" in USAID (sometimes leading to confusion with the Embassy's Executive Office, which is the office of the Ambassador), "EXO" provided operational support for mission offices, including human resources, information systems management, transportation, property, and procurement services. Increasing integration into Embassies' chancery complexes, and the State Department's recently increased role in providing support services to USAID, is expanding the importance of coordination between USAID's EXO and the embassy's Management section.

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