 "White House survey asks foreign aid projects to justify their work: Report")
Staff involved in numerous foreign aid projects, which have been stalled due to the funding freeze imposed by the Trump administration, have received a survey asking them to justify their work based on an unusual set of criteria aligned with the White House’s new national security priorities.
According to The Guardian report, the survey asks foreign aid programme staff to explain how their efforts contribute to curbing illegal immigration, securing US borders, “combating Christian persecution,” and ensuring US access to rare earth minerals.
Moreover, it includes a litmus test on several contentious issues that were prohibited under the Trump administration.
“Can you confirm this is not a climate or ‘environmental justice’ project or include such elements? [yes/no],” The Guardian quoted the survey as asking.
It also asks, “Can you confirm that this is no DEI [diversity, equality and inclusion] project or DEI elements of the project? [yes /no].”
The questionnaire, distributed eight weeks after the US president announced a foreign aid funding freeze, comes as thousands of projects have already laid off staff and severed ties with local partners. This raises concerns that even if stop-work orders are lifted, many programmes may remain inactive, reported The Guardian.
While the administration claims it has restored funding for life-saving programmes and established a rigorous review process for foreign aid spending, staff report a chaotic process and poor communication with USAID and State Department officials responsible for reviewing their programmes.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAccording to ProPublica, an investigative website, current and former officials said that USAID’s acting head, Peter Marocco, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio cut critical programmes without consulting contract officers, who oversee individual projects and serve as primary contacts for aid groups.
This took place after the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s freeze on nearly $2 billion in foreign aid. Some stop-work orders from late January began to be lifted Thursday evening, indicating initial compliance with the court’s ruling.
However, programme administrators remain unclear about the criteria for future reviews.
“We might not file the questionnaire now [because] we’re worried it will be incriminating in some way,” The Guardian quoted head of one programme that had its stop-work order lifted on Thursday as saying. “Lots of (organisations) aren’t doing it anyway,” he added.
The questionnaire provides a stark view of the administration’s priorities for foreign aid under Trump’s “America First” mantra.
One question asks whether organisations work with “communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs?”
Another queries whether “this project reinforces US sovereignty by limiting reliance on international organizations or global governance structures (e.g., UN, WHO)?” It also inquires if organisations have received any funding from Russia, China, Cuba, or Iran.
Politico, which first reported on the survey, noted on Wednesday that the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor had initiated a review of its foreign assistance projects.
USAID had previously circulated a shorter version of the questionnaire that did not address DEI, transgender, or climate-related projects, added the outlet.
A series of memos from Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID, estimated that cutting foreign aid and dismantling USAID could result in 1 million children going untreated each year for severe acute malnutrition — often fatal — along with 18 million additional malaria cases and 200,000 children paralyzed by polio annually.
With inputs from agencies
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