Why USAID matters for travel

Good morning -

It’s been a long time since I’ve written. It’s hard to feel motivated with everything happening in the world. There are so many more important things to focus on than travel.

One of the first things the Trump administration did was freeze U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding. This was devastating to millions of people around the world who rely on USAID for food, shelter, and dozens of other kinds of assistance (and of course the people at USAID who lost their jobs). But I can understand how for many Americans, this was a blip in the flurry of executive orders, and one that doesn’t seem to impact people inside the country that much.

I’m biased, because many of my friends work in international development. Nathan, my husband, works for Norwegian Refugee Council, which until last month received about 20 percent of its funding from USAID. The job that first brought me to Italy more than a decade ago was working in communications for the International Development Law Organization, which relied on USAID funding for rule of law programs around the world.

But even if someone you know isn’t directly impacted by the agency’s eradication, here’s why you should care, and what it means for travel:

• U.S. foreign assistance supports everything from economic development to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, HIV/AIDS medication and other health programs, democracy-promotion, and more. Without U.S. funding, people will not receive life-saving medicine, children will go hungry, and thousands of women and girls will die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, for just a few examples. In Sudan, USAID was providing food and other humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of people during the ongoing civil war. “We’re just keeping everybody alive, and Sudan is on the verge of an outbreak of famine… A week of not finding food would actually mean a lot of death,” Hajooj Kuka, a communications officer for Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan told the New York Times. In Afghanistan, one of the last remaining options for higher education for women was funded by USAID. In Thailand, USAID funded forest fire management programs and wildfire prevention. Health experts are warning about a global monkeypox emergency. Malaria cases in Ethiopia and elsewhere are expected to surge. And of course, tens of thousands of people will lose, or already have lost, their jobs. I think/hope everyone reading this newsletter values human life and safety, and wants people around the world to thrive.

This Stephen Colbert interview gives a good overview:

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A post shared by @colbertlateshow

• While much of USAID’s work saves lives, other programs focus on building economic sustainability through tourism. USAID funding has created national parks and conservation programs around the world, including habitat restoration in Mozambique after a civil war wiped out nearly all of the country’s large mammals, and a program to turn former guerrillas into tour guides in Colombia. One project helped Jordan become a major tourist destination, another boosted adventure and cultural tourism in Georgia. Sri Lanka has been all over my Instagram feed lately. One reason it’s able to welcome tourists? USAID programs that helped with peacebuilding and restoring the tourism industry. Another helped preserve cultural heritage in Armenia. Other programs have supported sustainable tourism, promoting eco-tourism and training owners of homestays and guest houses. Tourism employs 1 in 10 people around the world. Everyone reading this newsletter theoretically likes to travel. These are just a handful of dozens of programs that likely benefited you, or at least benefited places you care about and want to visit.

• President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 as a counter to Soviet influence during the Cold War. The idea was soft power through socioeconomic development. The U.S. does or contributes to a lot of really bad things around the world. Americans are not always well-liked, often for good reason. USAID helped. The soft power worked, to a point. Now, American influence around the world will wane, opening windows for China and Russia. (While this is more about the military, Rachel Chason has an excellent series out this week on Russian influence in Africa as the U.S. fades away). “The Trump administration has just put America last, while handing a gift to our biggest adversaries, notably China,” wrote Michael Schiffer, former assistant administrator of the USAID Bureau for Asia in an opinion piece. “America’s alliances will suffer. U.S. partners will be at risk. And America’s enemies will rejoice,” he said. Maybe you don’t care about global politics. But as people who travel around the world with U.S. passports, it’s so much nicer to be viewed favorably.

• USAID made the world, and the U.S., safer. USAID programs help combat extremism and terrorism, while also providing education, economic and other assistance that keeps terrorism from flourishing. Other programs in danger due to cutting foreign assistance include those to “counter al-Shabab bombmakers, contain the spread of al-Qaeda across West Africa and secure Islamic State prisoners in the Middle East,” according to the Washington Post.

And here are some common misconceptions I’ve seen over the past few weeks, and some facts:

• When polled, Americans consistently think the U.S. spends about 25 percent of the annual budget on foreign aid. They say it should be about 10 percent. In reality it is about 1 percent. “The $71.9 billion in foreign aid that the government spent in fiscal 2023 works out to 1.2% of that year’s total federal outlays, which were more than $6.1 trillion,” according to Pew Research.

• The U.S. government is by far the single-largest aid donor in the world, according to the United Nations, accounting for more than 40% of all humanitarian aid the UN tracked in 2024. But many people think the U.S. is the only country providing aid. That’s not true. According to Brookings: “There is a broad international commitment that wealthy countries should provide annually 0.7 percent of GNP to assist poor countries. Five countries (Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the U.K.) exceed that benchmark. The average for all wealthy nations is around 0.4 percent. The U.S. ranks near the bottom at below 0.2 percent.” Now, Europe says it can’t fill the void. Does Trump have a point that other countries should step up? Yes. I’ve always thought it odd that the uber-wealthy Gulf countries don’t do more to provide aid in their own region, for example. China, India and Brazil are all huge economies that could give much, much more. But just because other places should also contribute more, doesn’t mean the U.S. should stop.

• Another myth, or more of a misunderstanding, is about how USAID works. USAID is the primary distributor of U.S. foreign aid, but they’re not necessarily doing the work themselves. This is the point Nathan has been most frustrated about over the past few weeks.

  “USAID has a limited reach in what it is able to do, so they rely on a lot of international and local NGOs to do the work. Usually, USAID is not the one actually distributing aid, or able to reach remote areas or work in areas that are dangerous. Losing USAID funding means that a lot of the infrastructure that supports the humanitarian aid system globally is no longer being funded. The way they went around that was really harsh. They could have done it more gradually, but they did it this way intentionally, to cause pain and break the system,” he said. USAID funds hundreds of organizations around the world, from major players like the World Food Program to small local NGOs. At NRC, USAID funded programs doing shelter rehabilitation for displaced people around the world, emergency food aid, and sanitation services for refugees in Myanmar, to name a few.

• Elon Musk has said that foreign aid is wasteful and inefficient (his numbers are wildly inaccurate), and has not provided concrete results. In fact, from Brookings:

  • Extreme poverty has fallen dramatically over the past 30 years—from 1.9 billion people (36 percent of the world’s population) in 1990 to 736 million (10 percent) in 2015Maternal, infant, and child mortality rates have been cut in half.

  • Life expectancy globally rose from 65 years in 1990 to 72 in 2017.

  • Smallpox has been basically eradicated and polio eliminated in all but two countries. Deaths from malaria cut in half from 2000 to 2017.

  • The U.S. PEPFAR program (part of USAID) has saved 17 million lives from HIV/AIDS and enabled 2.4 million babies to be born HIV-free.

This isn’t all because of USAID, but there is no question that it has been a huge driver.

Are there issues with how foreign aid in the U.S. works? Yes. I wrote about some of them, particularly around food and Congressional rules that require organizations to use U.S. commodities, for Devex last year. This PBS Newshour segment highlights issues around working with large, international contractors instead of local partners. But, overall, USAID saves lives, makes the world a better place, and benefits Americans.

Weekend Reading

How USAID cuts hurt American farmers

The Daily: The demise of USAID and American soft power

Council on Foreign Relations: What is USAID and why is it at risk?

Watchdog warns Trump’s dismantling of USAID means US money could reach terror groups

Lots more (lighter) articles to share, but I have to run for now. Looking forward to sharing travel news and Italy itineraries — the more joyful things in life — with you soon.

Thanks for reading!

–Rebecca 💛