The Architecture of Hope Under Siege: One Year of Global Aid Dismantling

By Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association | Inter Press Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, March 4, 2026 — A year has passed since the 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign assistance signaled the deepening of a structural dismantling of international solidarity. Today, the "existential threat" to the freedom of association is no longer a warning; it is a lived reality.

"Thousands of civil society organizations (CSOs) worldwide have been reduced to their minimum or are completely vanishing, while others are forced into transformations that compromise their core missions." — Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur

This is not only creating more victims of human rights violations but has also left prior victims alone. For the freedom of association, the impact is devastating.

Coordinated Attack on the Infrastructure of Dissent

The dismantling of USAID, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), and other dedicated funds from other countries has cut the lifelines for NGOs that served as democratic watchdogs worldwide (such as Refugees International). Therefore, this is not merely a budgetary shift but a coordinated attack on the infrastructure of dissent.

In the United States, foundations and nonprofits are facing "three overlapping crises":

  • Policy Threats: Executive Orders targeting DEI and redefining "charitable" status to strip tax exemptions.
  • Organizational Targeting: Explicit vilification of networks like the Open Society Foundations and investigative letters targeting major funders like the Gates and Ford Foundations.
  • Mass Closings: Organizations are laying off up to 95% of staff, leading to a "generational funding collapse" of the humanitarian system.

Deadly Humanitarian Toll

Since the 2025 freeze, researchers estimate the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid alone has already caused 750,000 deaths, over 60% of whom are children—a rate of 88 preventable deaths every hour. Projections indicate that without restoration, 22.6 million people could die from preventable causes by 2030.

"We must restore a sustainable aid architecture that serves human dignity and the planet rather than private profit or political control." — Gina Romero

Impact on Critical Sectors

Access to Justice

Terminated grants for community violence intervention programs, legal assistance for crime victims from underserved communities, court-appointed advocates for children in abuse cases, and services for domestic violence survivors have been severely affected. Community shelters and hotlines are closing.

Democracy and Rule of Law

Crisis in independent media and civil society reduces the critical voices that speak truth to power. In authoritarian contexts, the constraints on dissenting voices increase repression, especially against the most vulnerable groups.

Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) received a 16% cut of its budget for 2026. Several Human Rights Council mandates are being defunded, many tied to investigations into human rights violations in authoritarian states.

Global Health

Access to PrEP and life-saving HIV drugs has been halved for 80% of community organizations. Cholera deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone surged by 361% in 2025 after essential water projects were halted.

Education

The abrupt cancellation of nearly 400 USAID-funded education programs in 58 countries risks leaving millions of children—predominantly girls and refugees—without access to quality learning.

Food Security

In West and Central Africa, 55 million people are expected to endure crisis levels of hunger by the end of the first semester of 2026. In Afghanistan, monthly reach for emergency food aid plummeted from 5.6 million people to just 1 million.

Collapse of Data Collection

As USAID programs disappeared, so did the reporting requirements that tracked disease, death, and human rights violations. We are entering a period where the true scale of suffering and needs may never be fully known.

Shrinking Civic Space

Besides funding cuts, the existential threat is also related to reduced possibilities for civil society organizations to collect new funding due to increased mis/disinformation about CSO work that leads to lack of trust in communities. This shrinks civic space, already heavily affected by anti-NGO laws and persecution.

We cannot allow a world without civil society. It is a world without hope, where the most vulnerable are left alone to face the most pressing human crises and wars. The international community must move beyond "business as usual" to restore a sustainable and just aid architecture that empowers civic engagement rather than advancing its suppression.