Aid in danger

There can no longer be any doubt that Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States has radically transformed the global landscape. His controversial initiatives and explosive statements are redrawing the geopolitical balance. The Western bloc is breaking apart with signs of rapprochement between the USA and Russia, and a weaker Europe.

What is not so well known, at least among the general public, is that international aid and development (and especially humanitarian action) is being particularly hard hit. The virtual dissolution of USAID, the US agency responsible for administering foreign aid, brought 92% of the projects it was supporting to an abrupt halt. This decision is part of a profound rethink of official development assistance. Europe is following – if not outpacing – this downward trend. In 2024, France announced a 35% reduction in its aid budget for 2025, and a number of countries in Europe – from Switzerland to the Netherlands via the UK and Belgium – are making similar reductions, often to underpin their rearmament programmes. The European Union itself may follow these national initiatives.

NGOs are now experiencing complete upheaval in the aid architecture on which they have been relying for decades. We are seeing a butterfly effect, with the abrupt decisions taken in Washington and elsewhere having consequences all over the world, bringing aid structures to the brink of collapse, and already prompting them to cut jobs and close programmes. At the end of this chain, the most vulnerable people on the planet are already being affected in terms of their access to healthcare, food, a more dignified life, and sometimes their survival.

Faced with this chaotic and unprecedented situation, Humanitarian Alternatives has decided to launch a special section on its website to document the facts, analyses and consequences of these measures. This initiative goes hand in hand with the preparation of our November 2025 special issue which, at some distance from these volatile events, will allow us to assess the effects of what is a general policy of endangering international aid.

 If you are a worker, researcher, analyst or observer in the humanitarian field and would like to submit an article on this subject, please send your text to the following email addresses: contact@alternatives-humanitaires.org; boris.martin@alternatives-humanitaires.org

Unless otherwise agreed, articles (which can be written in French or English) must be between 1,000 and 2,000 words long, including footnotes. Please consult the editorial guidelines (in English and French ) and follow them as closely as you can when writing your article. If you would like us to republish an article which has appeared in other media, please ensure that you have prior approval from the relevant body.

As with all articles published in our printed journal and on our website, the opinions expressed and the information provided in the articles republished in this special section are under the sole responsibility of their authors. As an exception to the publications usually under our editorial responsibility, we shall not subject the articles in this section to our editorial rules, and will reproduce the articles submitted to us by the authors as they stand or as they have previously been edited, as the case may be. In agreement with the authors, we may select some of the articles submitted to us for publication in our November 2025 special issue.