By Staff Reporter
THE United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has ordered all recipients of its funds to cease operations forthwith in Zimbabwe.
The latest development follows newly-elected U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive orders of reevaluating and realigning his country’s foreign aid.
USAID has long been a significant contributor to Zimbabwe’s development initiatives. In 2024 alone, USAID’s funding to Zimbabwe amounted to approximately US$360 million, supporting a wide array of programmes spanning health, agriculture, and governance sectors.
In a January 27, 2025 notice to grant recipients, Andrea M. Plucknett, USAID Zimbabwe supervisory agreement officer, said recipients of funds must immediately suspend activities.
“Dear implementing Partner: Effective January 24, 2025, the Agreement Officer hereby issues an order for the recipient to immediately suspend performance under the agreement your organisation was awarded by USAID/Zimbabwe.
“The recipient shall take all reasonable steps to minimize the incurrence of costs allocable to the agreement during the period of award suspension,” wrote Plucknett.
Main grant recipients and sub-grantees were also instructed not to resume work under agreements entered into with USAID until there is communication to lift the suspension.
“The recipient shall not resume work under this agreement until notification has been received in writing from the Agreement Officer that this award suspension has been cancelled,” further wrote Plucknett.
Also, all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives being undertaken in Zimbabwe have been stopped.
“All DEIA activities under all ongoing awards are to cease immediately. In light of the above, please have your authorised representative certify that any DEIA-related activities have completely ceased.”
The Trump administration has moved to stop the supply of lifesaving drugs for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as medical supplies for newborn babies, in countries supported by USAID around the globe.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Trump administration’s three executive orders targeting DEIA initiatives take a “shock and awe” approach that upends longstanding, bipartisan federal policy meant to open doors that had been unfairly closed.
In his first few days, Trump is undertaking a deliberate effort to obfuscate and weaponise civil rights laws that address discrimination and ensure everyone has a fair chance to compete, whether it’s for a job, a promotion, or an education.
With these actions, the administration is not only undoing decades of federal anti-discrimination policy, spanning Democratic and Republican presidential administrations alike but also marshalling federal enforcement agencies to bully both private and government entities into abandoning legal efforts to promote equity and remedy systemic discrimination.
Trump’s executive orders undermine obligations that firms doing business with the U.S. government and receiving billions in public dollars are held to the highest standards in remedying and preventing bias.
ACLU says for decades, federal policies have supported efforts to promote equal opportunity, enforced by administrations from both parties.
