Here we are. The entirety of USAID’s, the biggest bilateral aid donor on earth, programmes were suddenly frozen last week by US President Trump. The organisation’s website is now offline, and the Trump administration is moving to put the free-standing agency under the umbrella of the State Department. Elon Musk, who now holds a key position in Trump’s government, has called the USAID ‘criminal’ and said it’s ‘time for it to die’.
Though the aid freeze is meant to be temporary, there is little doubt that vast portions of this work will never restart. For a huge number of organisations, including some members of the WINGS global philanthropy network, the implications are existential as we enter what many are already calling a ‘post-aid’ world.
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