United States Agency for International Development

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created to provide foreign aid, disaster relief, and economic development. Established in 1961 during the Cold War by president John F. Kennedy, USAID was designed to counter the Soviet Union through the use of soft power across the world. In 1998, USAID was reorganized by Congress as an independent agency.

With average annual disbursements of about $23 billion from 2001 to 2024, USAID had missions in over 100 countries, in areas as diverse as education, global health, environmental protection, and democratic governance. An estimated 91.8 million deaths, including 30.4 million among children younger than five years old, were likely prevented by USAID funding between 2001 and 2021.

In the first half of 2025, the Trump administration terminated 83% of USAID's projects. Before this, USAID was the world's largest foreign aid agency. In July 2025, the administration announced that USAID programs had been integrated into the State Department, which now administers U.S. foreign assistance, with USAID in the process of closing. Nonetheless, budget requests, the Office of Inspector General, and court filings have continued to acknowledge USAID’s existence beyond that date. As an independent agency of the U.S. government, only an act of Congress can abolish USAID, despite it being effectively defunct. The defunding of USAID could result in at least 14 million preventable deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million children under five. Provided by Wikipedia