United States Agency for International Development
US government civilian foreign aid agency
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 in 2025, its remaining functions were transferred to the United States Department of State.
USAID was established to counter the influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War through soft power. In 2025, the second Trump administration ended 83% of overall projects, and according to Reuters, the agency is expected to disband in September 2026. However, USAID had been reorganized by the United States Congress as an independent agency in 1998 and can only be 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 education, global health, environmental protection, and democratic governance. From 2001 to 2021, USAID programs were estimated to save between 4.1 and 4.7 million lives per year, including between 1.2 and 1.7 million children under five.
History
In August 1953, President Eisenhower reorganized country offices as "United States Operations Missions" (USOMs).
The public source identifies “United States Agency for International Development” as uS government civilian foreign aid agency. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, States and Agency.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q217072. VIAF identifies the subject as 125410167. The Library of Congress control number is n82167227. None of the 5 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1961, 2025, 2026 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “United States Agency for International Development” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.