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Employees of the United States Agency of International Development discussed the future of humanitarian aid after the Trump administration dissolved the agency at the Elliott School of International Affairs Wednesday.
Warren Acuncius, the civil military operations disaster team lead at the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, conversed with retired USAID counselor Thomas Staal and USAID Institutional Support Services contractor Christopher Gomes about how USAID’s closure will exacerbate humanitarian aid shortages. The Students for Humanitarian Action Initiative hosted the event.
President Donald Trump implemented a 90-day pause on all foreign aid through an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office. The order froze nearly all of USAID’s funds, the primary federal agency that provides assistance to countries that are impoverished or recovering from disaster.
In March, the U.S. Department of State formally announced it was dissolving the agency and absorbing some of its responsibilities, placing almost all of its employees on leave, according to the agency.
Staal said since it was founded in 1961, USAID has expanded its focus from its original purpose of natural disaster relief in developing countries to providing complex humanitarian aid like providing elementary education and agricultural products. He said many USAID employees worked “out in the field” directly with people in the countries aided by the U.S. and built personal relationships with them.
“I really thought of it and myself as a person who is out there in other countries expressing American values and sharing them with the world because we think they’re good, things like justice and equality, humanity, democracy,” Staal said.
Staal said USAID has led global humanitarian efforts as one of the world’s largest aid programs funded by a single government. He said other humanitarian aid organizations looked to the agency for guidance because it developed new methods for foreign aid, like off-grid energy solutions and techniques for providing low-budget health care.
He said it is unlikely that other large providers of foreign aid, like China, Russia and the United Kingdom, will compensate for the loss of USAID because they do not invest as heavily as the U.S.
“Not only were you not there physically to provide assistance, but that leadership role and I don’t really see the Chinese doing that,” Staal said. “They can provide stuff, but I don’t think they’ll take that leadership role.”
Staal said merging the State Department and USAID will likely be unsuccessful because the two organizations’ goals and methods are too different, despite discussions of doing so in the 1990s. He said countries like Australia and the U.K. have combined foreign aid with other departments, but that those systems have been less successful because the lack of a dedicated agency diminishes expertise and funding.
In 1995, then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher proposed that the State Department should absorb USAID and two other U.S. international agencies into a new “Department of International Relations.” The plan partially failed as USAID agreed to funding cuts and remained independent of the State Department, but Congress placed its director under Christopher’s authority and dismantled the other two agencies, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Staal said he is “pessimistic” about USAID being reinstated as its own agency under the current presidential administration, but he hopes the State Department will retain humanitarian aid employees to work directly for the department. He said because of the cuts, “capacity building” programs, like training doctors and nurses in low-income countries to sustain their own health care systems in the future, will likely no longer happen.
Acuncius said in general in humanitarian aid there needs to focus spending on what beneficiaries — recipients of aid — need rather than spending large sums without specific goals. He said that without USAID, there will be no one to reach out to beneficiaries directly and understand their actual needs.
“We have this hero’s mentality of going in and sort of like saving the day,” Acuncius said. “I think a lot of failure and a lot of lessons learned, which will be lost with the loss of USAID, will have to be relearned, and we’ll have to teach people how to remind themselves about what’s important to the people we’re trying to help.”
Acuncius said there is still demand for humanitarian aid in developing countries, like health and nutrition programs, and without USAID, beneficiaries will have to continue living in poor conditions. He said global humanitarian aid agencies have only been able to provide aid for around half of expressed need in the past, according to annual reports released by the United Nations, which he said will get worse without USAID.
Acuncius said foreign aid adds value to U.S. international relations because it boosts a country’s global influence by maintaining strong ties with nations that rely on its support. He said beyond political benefits, the government has a moral motivation to provide humanitarian aid to disadvantaged people in developing countries to help prevent unnecessary suffering.
“They’re out there trying to do the right thing for the right reasons,” Acuncius said. “But we didn’t come with big contractors. We didn’t come with politicians in our back pocket.”
Gomes said it is “fiscally impossible” for the European Union to match the U.S.’s humanitarian aid because of how much money the United States supplied, which will cause developing countries to rely more on China and Russia for foreign aid and loans.
Gomes said people interested in humanitarian aid can get involved in the private sector with nonprofit organizations to continue USAID’s work, like health and education initiatives, in some capacity.
“It’s very difficult, especially if you’re trying to get into this space right now, you know, it’s taken a hit,” Gomes said. “I think now we’re starting to see a little bit of the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Former USAID employees discuss future of humanitarian aid after agency’s closing – The GW Hatchet
