Behold USAIHA - The “New” USAID

The US Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance will be the new foreign assistance organization for the USA Government

I usually don’t talk about USAID on Career Pivot. I want us to focus on the future, not dwell in the past. But today is a little different.

The State Department sent a USAID status memo to Congress on Tuesday evening. This is a key official step in the process that will finally end USAID as we know it, and replace it with USAIHA: the United States Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance - a new $2.5 billion account to fund disaster relief when it fulfills the President’s foreign policy aims.

My key question: would you want to work for USAIHA?

USAID Today: Not Much Left

The New York Times is reporting pretty grim numbers for USAID as it exists today:

• 5,341 foreign aid projects will be terminated, with 898 that will continue. That's only $8.3 billion of $40 billion usually spent per year.

• Only 869 USAID employees are on active duty. 1,602 are in the process of being laid off and 3,848 are on administrative leave - till April 12, when I expect they will be laid off too.

• 270 of 300 probationary employees who were initially fired have returned to work following a court order prohibiting their dismissal - for now.

Charles Kenny has a further breakdown of the cuts, which are pretty drastic. Close to 100% of awards are terminated in:

• Basic education

• Civil society

• Conflict mitigation

• Family planning

• Good governance

• Higher education

• Infrastructure

• Political competition & consensus building

• Private sector competitiveness

• Trade and investment

He also looked at country-level cuts, with nearly 100% of program funding eliminated for 47 countries.

US Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance

The State Department has a reorganization plan for USAID, which creates USAIHA to cover disaster response, global health, and food security. The plan merges MCC and TDA into the DFC to align their programs for private investment, technology, energy, and other infrastructure. All “politically oriented programming” would move under direct State Department control.

One surprising aspect of the plan is that it acknowledges legal constraints, possibly triggered by judicial and legislative setbacks. However, the plan does not really care about what Congress appropriated already.

Instead, the plan focuses on maximizing taxpayer dollar impact. As a great analysis by Gawain shows, “taxpayer” is mentioned at least 10 times, but “humanitarian” only 5 times. Poverty, hunger, and human rights do not appear.

There are three core pillars in the plan. Note that these are verbatim from the plan. I have serious reservations about these ideas and their effectiveness.

International Humanitarian Assistance

The first pillar re-designs USAID as IHA, with a mandate limited to the strategic delivery of humanitarian assistance, responding to disasters, enhancing global health security (including a modified PEPFAR), and promoting international food security.

This narrow mandate would empower IHA to engage in areas where the President and the Secretary of State determine engagement is in America's national security or strategic interest.

Development Finance Corporation

The second pillar would bring MCC and USTDA under the DFC with the sole focus of generating American jobs and returns to the U.S. via trade, investment, infrastructure (physical and digital), and projecting America's energy and technology dominance.

The new entity would create a powerful counterweight to China's Belt and Road Initiative, capable of delivering high-quality infrastructure and strategic development projects in advance both American geostrategic interests and commercial pursuits.

State Department

The third pillar would consolidate politically oriented programming the Trump Administration might want to pursue - including those aimed at promoting democracy, empowering women, combating human trafficking, safeguarding religious freedom and the persecuted Church - directly into the corresponding bureaus and offices in the State department.

This realignment would recognize these programs are inherently diplomatic or political and need direct command and control of the Secretary of State.

The New USAIHA Seal

A new Agency will require a new seal to showcase its impact on the world.

I asked ChatGPT to read the reorganization plan and create a new seal based on the themes that it found in the document. I love how it picked up the blockchain reference that most of us missed.

When I shared this hypothetical seal on LinkedIn, I received two great comments:

• I see a white person giving money to a more prosperous white person (prosperity symbolized by the suit jacket sleeve and crisp shirt). Yep, you’re aligned, says Melanie Wasserman

• Slightly more on the nose would be a drawing of a suited white hand placing a bitcoin in a stereotypical African child’s mouth while their home burns in the background, says Joshua Martin

What do you see?

In the memo to Congress, the reorganization plan, or as the new seal for IHA? What did I miss? What brings you hope, or dispair?