If, on January 19, 2025, a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, you had asked foreign aid experts, “does the US Agency for International Development (USAID) need reform?” most would have readily said “yes.” Not enough programs are evaluated for effectiveness; too much is run through a small number of private contractors; the foreign aid mission is fragmented across too many different departments, only some of which are under USAID’s purview.
If, on January 19, 2025, a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, you had asked foreign aid experts, “does the US Agency for International Development (USAID) need reform?” most would have readily said “yes.” Not enough programs are evaluated for effectiveness; too much is run through a small number of private contractors; the foreign aid mission is fragmented across too many different departments, only some of which are under USAID’s purview.
