International aid groups are dealing with the pain of slashed USAID funding by cutting staff, localizing and coordinating better

Doing more with less may not be sustainable for an exhausted workforce over the long term.

By: Sarah Stroup, Middlebury College and Jennifer Hadden, Brown University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: January 16, 2026

Words: 1,404

Last Updated: 2 months ago

By Sarah Stroup, Middlebury College and Jennifer Hadden, Brown University

Since Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term in office, President Donald Trump has slashed U.S. foreign aid spending. It began with a stop-work order that paused spending on everything from treating tropical diseases in Mali to providing nutrition support in Nepal.

By early February 2025, billionaire Elon Musk announced that the U.S. Agency for International Development, the lead …

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