WikipediaExtracts:United States Agency for International Development
Extracted from Wikipedia --
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is a statutory agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government. Founded in 1961, it was formerly the world's largest foreign aid agency. After major cutbacks, its remaining functions were transferred to the United States Department of State on July 1, 2025.
USAID was established to counter the influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War by means of soft power. In 2025, the second Trump administration ended 83% of overall projects, transferred the rest to the State Department, and planned to disband the agency. However, USAID had been reorganized by the United States Congress as an independent agency in 1998 and can only be formally abolished by an act of Congress. As such, it legally still exists.
From 2001 to 2024, USAID had an average budget of $23 billion a year and missions in over 100 countries in areas as diverse as global health, environmental protection, and democratic governance. In the twenty years from 2001 to 2021, USAID programs were estimated to save between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives each year.
