Washington, 2 July 2025 (dpa/MIA) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced the official end of foreign aid programmes managed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown," the US top diplomat wrote in a blog post about the agency's effectiveness.

"This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end."

Foreign aid programmes aligned with US government policies and promoting US interests will now be managed by the State Department.

The Trump administration begun dismantling USAID in early February, citing its limited benefits and high costs. In March, Rubio stated that more than 80% of the projects previously managed by USAID would be discontinued.

Of the original approximately 6,200 projects, only about 1,000 would continue under the supervision of the State Department, according to his earlier statements. The move faced legal challenges.

USAID's significance

The aid agency was one of the largest organizations of its kind worldwide, coordinating numerous aid initiatives across the globe, from AIDS relief to reconstruction in war zones.

A recent study has concluded that the dismantling of USAID could result in over 14 million additional deaths in the next five years. Of these, around 5 million could be children under the age of five, according to research published in the journal The Lancet by scientists from Barcelona and Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

The study examined mortality data from over 130 countries and regions between 2001 and 2021 and projected figures for the years 2025 to 2030.

The team analysed mortality data from more than 130 countries and regions between 2001 and 2021, using the findings to forecast outcomes through 2030.

Their projections suggest that the steep decline in US aid could have catastrophic consequences, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

The US has been the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid.

USAID credited with saving millions of lives

The researchers attribute significant global health gains to USAID, estimating that its programmes helped prevent nearly 92 million deaths by 2021, including over 30 million children under 5.

Notably, they found USAID efforts contributed to a 65% reduction in HIV/AIDS-related mortality and a 51% drop in deaths from malaria.

"Our estimates show that, unless the abrupt funding cuts announced and implemented in the first half of 2025 are reversed, a staggering number of avoidable deaths could occur by 2030," the authors wrote in the paper released on Monday.

In many countries, "the resulting shock would be similar in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," they said.

In the early days of his second term, US President Donald Trump slashed more than 80% of USAID's funding, which constitutes roughly a quarter of all global development assistance. Plans are under way to dissolve the agency entirely.

Trump accused USAID of wasting taxpayer money and of being run by "radical lunatics."

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