The decision to terminate thousands of USAID and State Department foreign assistance grants is a tragedy of historic proportions. With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. government has gutted decades of progress in global health, development, and humanitarian aid — without due process, transparency, or good faith consideration of the consequences.
This reckless and unilateral move will cost millions of lives around the world. From life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment to maternal and child health programs, from pandemic preparedness to humanitarian assistance in conflict zones, these grants provided essential support to some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Cutting 92% of USAID’s awards and thousands more from the State Department is not just an abdication of responsibility — it is a deliberate, calculated act that will cause irreparable harm.
Despite repeated assurances that programs would be reviewed fairly and that critical assistance would continue, the administration has broken its word. The sheer scale and speed of these terminations make it clear: this was never about strategic review or fiscal responsibility. It was about dismantling America’s leadership in global health and development, with no regard for the suffering left in its wake.
The human toll will be immediate and devastating. Some of the projects terminated include:
- A significant amount of HIV care and treatment work that received waivers in Lesotho, Tanzania and Eswatini. These projects were supporting more than 350,000 people on HIV treatment, including nearly 10,000 children and more than 10,000 HIV positive pregnant women.
- The vast majority (very likely all) of malaria contracts that had already been approved for a waiver. One was for lifesaving essential commodities that would have protected 53M people, mostly young children and pregnant women, in Africa. Commitments for commodities including nets, diagnostics, treatment, and seasonal malaria chemoprevention to protect children from malaria before the rainy season were also cancelled.
- Contracts with U.S. factories in Georgia and Rhode Island that produce a vital treatment for the most malnourished children in the world, including for emergency response in Gaza and Syria.
- A project in the Democratic Republic of Congo that operates the only source of water for 250,000 people in camps for displaced people located in the center of current fighting.
- Almost all of the Global Health Supply Chain project, which helps lifesaving medical supplies reach countries and health facilities all around the world.
- A project in Sudan that runs the only operational health clinics in one of the biggest areas of the Kordofan region, cutting off all health services.
- A nutrition program in Nigeria, requiring 77 health facilities across three states to completely stop treating children with severe acute malnutrition. This puts 60,000 children under 5 at immediate risk of death from preventable causes. In another state in Nigeria, around 140,000 children under 5, and more than 430,000 women and their families, will no longer be supported with nutrition, agriculture, and livelihood support to prevent malnutrition and provide healthier lives. Training for 10,000 health workers who were set to provide nutrition services to more than 5.6 million children and 1.7 million women in Nigeria will also not move forward.
- Lifesaving nutrition and maternal health services in Nepal for over 1.7 million children under 5 and 5.7 million women. This leaves vulnerable children without access to critical wasting treatment and pregnant women without the support needed for safe pregnancies. Approximately 500,000 food-insecure families remain trapped in hunger because critical support to reach them never even began. Without intervention, the cycle of malnutrition and poverty will deepen across generations.
- Maternal and child nutrition programs in Bangladesh, impacting over 144,000 people in one district, including 76,388 women and 12,888 children under 5 whose livelihood support and market linkages are now terminated.
- A neglected tropical disease program in six countries, putting more than 100 million people at risk because they will miss life saving treatments for diseases like trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. For schistosomiasis alone, 28 million school age children will be at risk of this disease that stunts growth, causes chronic pain, and leads to organ damage.
- Projects dedicated to strengthening local health systems in Benin, Uganda, Liberia, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Global Health Council condemns this decision in the strongest terms. We call on Congress, the courts, and all who believe in the value of U.S. global engagement to act — before even more lives are lost.
Global Health Council (February 27, 2025)
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