The U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze: What It Means for our Grassroots Movement

From the beginning, One Day’s Wages has defined itself as a grassroots movement: all of our donations come from ordinary donors, and all of our program funding goes directly to local partners. We come alongside partners that design their own poverty-alleviation projects and self-determine what progress looks like in their communities.

So why are we concerned about the recent U.S. foreign aid freeze, and what does it mean for our partners?

This conversation is rooted in our commitment to locally led development. Despite local organizations’  efficient use of limited resources and deep understanding of the communities they serve, they tend to be the most underfunded. Persistent biases deem local organizations less skilled, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. In 2023, a mere 1.2% of humanitarian funding went to local actors, and from 2016-2019 only 13% of U.S. foundations’ grant funding went to locally registered organizations. 

Steps are now being made to shift funding and decision-making power to those directly impacted: at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, donor and aid agencies made an agreement called the Grand Bargain to direct 25% of humanitarian funding to local actors by 2020, and just last year USAID committed to having local actors lead 50% of their programs by 2030. We applaud these commitments, yet recognize the tremendous need for continued reform within the global development sector.

Despite the need for reform, we are very concerned by the events of the last few weeks. On January 20, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order pausing foreign development assistance funding for 90 days. Four days later, the U.S. State Department issued a stop-work order on almost all global development and humanitarian programs that receive U.S. foreign aid. 

While One Day’s Wages does not receive government funding, several of our partners are recipients of USAID grants, and many work within communities that rely on foreign aid for food assistance and medications like antiretrovirals for treating HIV and AIDS.

Berine’s story is one among thousands:

Berine is a tenacious Cameroonian woman who founded a nonprofit organization after surviving a harrowing childbirth, then losing her husband to cancer just two weeks after her baby was born. She is passionate about supporting other widowed and vulnerable women. Despite the challenges she faces leading a small nonprofit in a conflict-affected region of Cameroon, in 2024 Berine was able to secure a USAID-funded award to launch a new mobile clinic that provides prenatal care for pregnant women who do not live near or cannot afford to visit a clinic. Within the first 9 months of the program, 256 women received healthcare services and 100 were enrolled in the antenatal program.

Then, with no warning, the organization received the memo that their project funding was immediately frozen. Over the past three weeks, women on the cusp of giving birth were thrown into crisis. They simply could not understand why the midwives who had committed to walking alongside them were no longer permitted to work.

This is when our One Day’s Wages community stepped up. We launched a campaign to raise stopgap funding so that our partners who had been awarded USAID grants could continue providing critically needed services. Yesterday, we were able to wire funds to the Berine and Bokwe Foundation so that — at least for the next six weeks — their team of dedicated midwives can continue providing care.

As of this morning, a judge ordered a reversal of the foreign aid funding freeze; however, payment systems remain shut down. The context is changing rapidly by the day, and the needs can feel overwhelming: our small pool of ODW partners collectively anticipated receiving more than $3 million dollars in USAID funding this year to provide healthcare, malaria prevention, aftercare for trafficking survivors, and child protection services.

Because we care deeply about local leaders and communities, we will lean into the tension of advocating for critically needed U.S. foreign aid to resume, even while we continue advocating for broader reform. We’re holding on to hope. Will you join us?