Reports & Briefs
Humanitarian Action Brief
August 2026
The Trump administration's restructuring of U.S. foreign assistance fundamentally altered how the world's largest humanitarian donor responds to crises. The months following the aid freeze have brought a smaller humanitarian footprint, a narrower definition of lifesaving assistance, and difficult choices about who receives help and who does not.
Download the brief for a look at additional impacts and hardest hit countries
July 2026
Over the past year, The Aid Report followed the human consequences of the Trump administration's dismantling of U.S. foreign assistance, documenting how a single policy decision reshaped lives across 13 countries. Through 22 deeply reported stories, this collection traces impacts through clinics, classrooms, farms, refugee camps, forests, and conflict zones. Together, they reveal one global story told through vastly different human experiences.
Download the full collection of feature stories
Peacebuilding and Stabilization Brief
May 2026
In 2025, far-reaching U.S. foreign assistance cuts disrupted programs designed to prevent conflict, strengthen social cohesion, and support communities navigating political instability. Programs that supported mediation, youth engagement, and violence monitoring, for example, have been scaled back or terminated. These shifts coincide with the termination of the U.S. government’s core peacebuilding and stabilization capacities.
Download the brief for a look at notable trends and under examined areas.
DRG Brief
January 2026
For decades after World War II, the U.S. invested heavily in democracy, rights, and governance — known as DRG — programs. But, in early 2025, the Trump administration cut an estimated 97% of USAID’s DRG portfolio, while just over half of related State Department programs survived the initial cull.
Download the brief for more on how these disruptions are playing out now.
Environment, Energy, and Climate Brief
July 2026
Among the flurry of executive orders issued on the first day of the second Trump administration, “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements” marked a sharp break with previous policy. The months since have seen disrupted livelihoods and conservation programs, stagnated data and evidence, and increaed risk of crime and conflict.
Download the brief for a look at additional impacts and notable trends.
Food and Farming Brief
April 2026
The U.S. approach to food aid has evolved over decades, shifting fromsurplus commodity distribution to include resilience and research. But in 2025, the entire framework was abruptly upended by sweeping foreign assistance cuts under the Trump administration.
Download the brief for more on how these disruptions are playing out now.
Global Health Report
May 2026
The abrupt freeze and rollback of U.S. foreign assistance in early 2025 disrupted far more than clinics and medical supply chains. Across dozens of countries, the systems that connected people to care — community health workers, peer educators, mobile outreach teams, referral networks, and psychosocial support programs — were weakened or dismantled, reshaping access to health services in ways that are only now becoming fully visible.
Download the report for a look at additional impacts and notable trends.
Emerging Findings
February 2026
After the dismantling of large parts of U.S. foreign assistance architecture, many downstream effects are just coming into view. This brief draws on The Aid Report’s aggregated dataset — spanning health, food & farming, refugees & displacement, governance, livelihoods, and more — to identify cross-cutting patterns that are difficult to see in isolation.
Download the full report for a look at notable trends and under examined areas.
