US aid freezes; 50 NGOs seized operations in Afghanistan

Aimed at the flurry of executive actions, US president Donald Trump has issued an order which caused chaos in the poorest countries, including Afghanistan, a country that was occupied by the US forces for over two decades. The US forces entered Afghanistan in 2001 at the pretext of war on terror and faced a hasty withdrawal on 31 August 2021.

Anyways, the order effectively seized USAID-funded projects around the world, including Afghanistan. The order was followed by the State Department that says, the “United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.  They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”

It further says that “it is the policy of the United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”

The order also put a 90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.  

“All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority,” read the statements.

The order says that the responsible department and agency heads, in consultation with the Director of OMB, will make determinations within 90 days of this order on whether to continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program based upon the review recommendations, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State.

Uncertainty in Afghanistan aimed weaken economic condition

The “work pause” has also affected Afghanistan, a country where its 40 million population are in need of humanitarian support. The Taliban’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Abdul Latif Nazari said that around 50 national and international aid organizations had suspended their operations across Afghanistan due to (work pause) orders.    

Nazari said that these organizations have contributed to humanitarian aid. However, Nazari did not specify why these NGOs stopped activity, but a source told Harici that these aid organizations were receiving funds from USAID.

“These aid organizations also suspended their workers and told them to wait until the work pause order is removed,” said said requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media about the suspension to aid.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), about 15 million people of Afghanistan, mostly women and children, are malnourished or even starving in some cases. The WFP was able to help last year, but now the funding is seized. About 40 percent of the funding was coming from the US. Despite the statement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that life-saving humanitarian assistance would be exempted from the suspension, there is still no clarity how much the money can still be spent in this regard.

Amid aid suspension, the prices of items like flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, bread, and other essential daily needs have already risen.