World Politics Review reports that the withdrawal of U.S. humanitarian funding has hollowed out child protection systems at Malawi's Dzaleka refugee camp leaving girls exposed to trafficking and sexual exploitation.

U.S. foreign aid disbursements fell to $47.3 billion in 2025 — roughly $26 billion below the prior year and, adjusted for inflation, the lowest level since 2004. Pew's analysis of federal data shows aid dropped to 0.67% of total federal spending in 2025 and about 0.09% so far in 2026.

A new Pew Research Center survey of 16 middle-income countries finds that many residents are still unsure how the withdrawal will affect them, though those who do venture an opinion mostly expect a negative impact on their country.

A new report from amfAR finds that the dismantling of USAID and the cancellation of thousands of global health grants have forced PEPFAR-funded organizations across dozens of countries to close clinics, lay off staff, and cut services — with the sharpest damage falling on programs serving young women, orphans, and children, the AP reports.

New amfAR research finds that no part of PEPFAR has escaped Trump's funding cuts, despite administration pledges to protect lifesaving care. A survey of 166 organizations across 46 countries due to receive PEPFAR funding found more than half had at least one terminated award, resulting in over 1,700 closed clinics and service sites and more than 16,000 full-time staff losing their jobs, The Guardian reports.

CNN reports that the federal response to a growing cyclospora outbreak has been hobbled by the dismantling of USAID, which stripped nearly $30 million from the CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria and helped shrink its specialized parasite lab team from 11 staff to three. Former officials say the resulting delays show how cuts sold as savings on foreign aid have degraded domestic outbreak response.

Far less publicized than the dismantling of USAID, Europe has been quietly making cuts of its own: EU member states slashed development budgets by an average of nearly 10% and EU institutions by 13.8%. World Politics Review reports these are the steepest cuts to European ODA in more than a decade.

The United States joined Russia and six other countries in voting against the UN's new Political Declaration on AIDS. Writing in The Conversation, McGill political scientist Yolaine Frossard de Saugy argues the vote signals that U.S. support for the global AIDS response is now entirely conditional on political agenda.

The U.S. slashed its humanitarian aid to Yemen by $107 million in 2025 after having funded half of the international response plan the year before, deepening the ongoing crisis. Writing for Lawfare, the authors argue that the funding collapse compounds a war economy in which rival Houthi and Internationally Recognized Government authorities run parallel health systems and treat aid as patronage.

After Marco Rubio told Congress that "no children are dying on my watch" and Elon Musk claimed critics could not name a single victim of the USAID shutdown, NPR documented the deaths of three children in Nigeria and Kenya whose parents and health workers say lost access to previously free USAID-funded medication and community outreach.

One year after the State Department layoffs, former officials say the loss of expertise is now visible in the U.S. response to the Central Africa Ebola outbreak and in faltering Iran war diplomacy, Government Executive reports. The State Department disputes that the reductions have hurt its operational capacity.

After the U.S. abruptly withdrew most foreign aid and dismantled USAID, communities are building and staffing their own village health posts to keep basic care within reach, Science reports. But with additional cuts from other donors, it remains unclear whether such grassroots efforts can scale.

Newly disclosed emails obtained through a Center for Reproductive Rights FOIA lawsuit reveal that State Department officials could not determine what was inside the Belgian warehouse holding $9.7 million in USAID-purchased family planning supplies. The Washington Post reports the administration never destroyed the commodities, instead letting them expire.

In an interview with David Remnick, former USAID global health leader Atul Gawande estimates that the agency's dismantling by DOGE has already caused roughly 700,000 deaths.

A new U.N. Women report finds that at least one million women and girls have been cut off from life-saving support over the past 18 months as global aid funding has evaporated — a retreat led by the U.S.

Christianity Today visits four rural mission hospitals in East Africa to find that while the U.S. still funds antiretroviral drugs through PEPFAR, the "America First" strategy has stripped out nearly everything else — home visits, testing, health worker salaries, and community support groups.

At a Health Journalism 2026 panel, veteran reporters warned that as sweeping USAID cuts reshape global health programs, many of the resulting humanitarian stories may go unreported — and American audiences may never realize what they're missing. 

After the Trump administration froze foreign aid and shuttered USAID, farm-state lawmakers revived the flagship hunger program at the Department of Agriculture. But former Food for Peace director Dina Esposito warns USDA has no humanitarian mandate or expertise and is bypassing the worst hunger hotspots, according to this NPR reporting. 

Where the U.S. mounted a $3 billion relief effort with 7,000 troops after Haiti's 2010 earthquake, it has offered Venezuela just $300 million and roughly 900 personnel following June's twin quakes — a fraction of the estimated $8 billion in Venezuelan oil revenues Washington has collected since deposing Nicolás Maduro in January, the New York Times reports. 

After dismantling USAID, the Trump administration is offering African governments hundreds of millions in bilateral health funding — but with conditions attached, including cost-sharing requirements and demands for access to patient data and pathogen samples. The BBC reports that while 32 countries have signed the health MOUs, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia have refused over sovereignty concerns.