The Impact Feed

NPR reports that years of progress against neglected tropical diseases — driven largely by U.S.-backed mass drug distribution and surveillance programs — are now at risk as funding cuts disrupt treatment campaigns.

ProPublica traces how abrupt U.S. policy decisions, including aid freezes and program terminations, triggered food shortages across fragile regions, compounding conflict and displacement. Internal documents and interviews show the crisis was widely anticipated but allowed to unfold anyway.

Reductions to humanitarian aid in Rohingya refugee camps have stripped away protection services, leaving children more vulnerable to trafficking, forced labor, and early marriage, reports the AP.

ProPublica reveals how U.S. officials marked major aid cuts even as warnings mounted about disease outbreaks. In the weeks that followed, cholera spread in vulnerable communities, underscoring the deadly consequences of dismantling public health systems mid-crisis.

Bill Gates tells Politico that projected increases in child mortality are closely tied to recent foreign aid cuts by the U.S. and other wealthy countries, following decades of steady progress. While the Trump administration disputes the link, Gates argues the scale and speed of the cuts have had deadly consequences.

Facing severe funding shortages following U.S. aid cuts, Uganda has stopped granting asylum to new arrivals from Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia, The Guardian reports. The shift leaves thousands in legal limbo, heightens protection risks, and signals how quickly global displacement systems can unravel when donors pull back.

Foreign Policy details how the termination of U.S.-supported HIV programs in Malawi — including testing, treatment literacy, and community adherence networks — has left clinics overwhelmed and patients without care.

The Guardian reports that U.S. funding cuts have shuttered HIV clinics, disrupted PrEP and ART supply chains, and ended community-led outreach across multiple countries. Health workers warn that prevention gains made over two decades are collapsing, with global agencies now projecting a surge in new infections and treatment interruptions that could undo years of progress toward epidemic control.

Cuts to food assistance and the freeze of key U.S. agricultural programs have exacerbated hunger while driving large-scale food waste, The Conversation reports. With fewer resources for distribution networks and labor shortages across the supply chain, farmers are leaving crops unharvested and food is spoiling in storage.

The halt of U.S.-supported livelihood, governance, and stabilization programs in Cabo Delgado has widened the vacuum exploited by ISIS-aligned militants, CNN reports. As community development projects, youth employment initiatives, and local conflict-mitigation efforts collapse, insurgents are expanding recruitment and territory — a reversal that underscores how aid cuts can destabilize fragile regions and raise long-term security costs.

U.S. cuts to early-warning, stabilization, and police-accountability programs have eroded Nigeria’s ability to prevent violence — unrest now cited to justify harsher security measures, an LA Times contributor writes.

The analysis concludes that the shutdown weakened coordination structures, reduced partner capacity, and led to significant staff losses. Researchers argue that humanitarian systems cannot be paused without lasting damage—and that rebuilding them requires more resources than maintaining them.

New modeling suggests that simultaneous U.S. and European aid drawdowns would erase decades of gains against infectious disease. The findings point to a geopolitical vacuum, with no major donor prepared to offset the scale of withdrawn support.

The research warns that reductions in U.S. TB funding could trigger major spikes in pediatric infections. The projections underscore how cuts undermine global outbreak control and shift long-term treatment costs back onto lower-income countries.

Expired contraceptives show how abruptly pausing U.S. funds can freeze global supply chains midstream. Beyond wasted commodities, the stall drives up procurement costs and disrupts access to family planning programs that depend on predictable U.S. financing, NPR reports.

New domestic spending in Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia signals resilience, but the move also exposes how heavily the region relied on U.S. support, reports The Guardian. Governments are now filling emergency gaps rather than following planned transition timelines, raising questions about sustainability and equity.

U.S. cuts disrupted HIV treatment continuity, leaving patients vulnerable. Now the U.K.’s proposed reductions threaten to deepen those losses, underscoring how global health systems built over decades can unravel quickly when major donors step back simultaneously.

The investigation links the U.S. retreat to failures across disease surveillance, supply chains, and basic health services. The estimated death toll highlights how dismantling USAID’s global health infrastructure weakens pandemic preparedness and undercuts long-standing U.S. commitments abroad, The New Yorker reports.

In northern Uganda, the U.S. canceled a $15 million program that would have helped refugees start small businesses. Thousands of South Sudanese families have been left with no path to self-reliance beyond emergency aid.

In Madagascar, the loss of a USAID-funded health program has left remote communities without care, driving up maternal deaths, malaria, and disease outbreaks.

Syrian families who once counted on U.S.-funded cash and food assistance are now facing hunger and eviction as humanitarian support dries up, Foreign Policy reports.

Somalia’s health system is collapsing under the weight of U.S. withdrawal. Clinics once supported by American aid are now turning away malnourished children.

U.S. funding cuts have derailed once-successful HIV programs in Lesotho, the AP reports. The move has forced clinics to scale back services and threatened hard-won gains in treatment and prevention

The decline of U.S. foreign aid could open space for smarter, locally led models, argues former USAID administrator Raj Shah in this opinion for The New York Times.

Across Africa, The Washington Post maps where U.S. aid cuts are being felt most—from shuttered health clinics to food shortages. The fallout spans dozens of countries

The humanitarian situation in Myanmar is deteriorating rapidly. The Associated Press reports starvation and death in a country that once counted the U.S. as its largest humanitarian donor.

Babies are dying in Cameroon after malaria programs lost U.S. backing. Health officials say the cuts have crippled prevention efforts.

In Kenya’s Turkana County, one in three children screened by Save the Children are acutely malnourished amid overlapping impacts of U.S. and U.K. aid cuts, drought, and climate shocks.

Five-year-old Suza Kenyaba died of malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo after U.S.-funded medication sat in a regional warehouse due to a suspension of foreign aid. The Washington Post reports that across dozens of countries, USAID shipments of antimalarial and HIV supplies were late or never arrived.

U.S. aid cuts have forced girls out of school and left women facing rising hunger, early marriage, and health risks in Uganda’s Rwamwanja refugee settlement, Nicholas Kristof writes.