The fallout of the U.S. aid freeze in Washington, Abuja, and beyond

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Fallout of the U.S. Aid Freeze in Washington, Abuja, and Beyond"

Podcast Information

• Title: Into Africa
• Host: Katherine Linda Zuki
• Producer: Sarah Baker
• Music: Wonder Child
• Release Date: February 6, 2025
• Description: Into Africa challenges prevailing U.S. narratives about Africa by spotlighting cultural, political, and economic change agents on the continent. Hosted by Katherine Linda Zuki, the podcast features conversations with policymakers, journalists, academics, and other trailblazers in African affairs.

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1. Introduction and Context

The episode opens with Katherine Linda Zuki setting the stage for a critical discussion on the recent U.S. foreign assistance freeze. Highlighting the significance of U.S. aid globally—specifically through USAID, the world's largest foreign assistance provider—the host emphasizes the immediate and far-reaching impacts of the aid halt.

Notable Quote:

"Because the US is the world's largest source of foreign assistance by a mile, the ripple effects were felt almost immediately around the world."
— Katherine Linda Zuki [00:01]

2. Overview of USAID's Role Globally and in Africa

Guest: Andrew Friedman, Senior Fellow with the CSIS Human Rights Initiative and former USAID Democracy Officer.

Andrew Friedman provides a comprehensive overview of USAID's extensive operations, noting its presence in approximately 160 countries with a budget of around $42.5 billion for fiscal year 2023. He elaborates on the diverse sectors USAID operates in, with a significant focus on humanitarian and health efforts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where nearly $9 billion is allocated.

Notable Quote:

"Internationally it's active in about 160 countries and programs or obligates about 42 and a half billion dollars in funds."
— Andrew Friedman [01:43]

3. Impact of the U.S. Aid Freeze

a. From CSIS Perspective (Andrew Friedman)

Andrew Friedman delves into the specifics of the 90-day work stop order initiated by a presidential executive order, primarily under the Trump administration. This freeze directs implementing organizations to halt their projects, affecting both ongoing programs and the internal staffing within USAID.

Key Points:

• Stop Work Orders: Organizations must cease operations, impacting vital sectors like health, democracy, and governance.
• Internal Impact: Approximately 400 institutional support contractors in Washington D.C. have been laid off, disrupting the management and coordination of aid programs.
• Exemptions: Secretary Rubio's guidance on exempting humanitarian and health aid has provided some relief, but uncertainties remain regarding long-term effects.

Notable Quote:

"The latest public reporting I've seen is that about 400 people at USAID Washington were laid off."
— Andrew Friedman [07:14]

Mood at USAID: Friedman describes a somber atmosphere within USAID, where dedicated professionals are grappling with job insecurity and witnessing the erosion of essential aid programs. The dual challenge of personal job threats and the broader impact on life-saving operations creates a "pretty rough atmosphere."

Notable Quote:

"What matters to them is the work. [...] if we're talking about human rights people, what matters to them is the protection of human rights."
— Andrew Friedman [08:25]

b. From Civil Society Organizations in Africa (Samson Itodo)

Guest: Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yaga Africa.

Samson Itodo shares firsthand experiences of how the U.S. aid freeze adversely affects civil society organizations (CSOs) in Africa. Yaga Africa, which focuses on elections, youth mobilization, and human rights across several African countries, faces significant disruptions due to halted USAID funding.

Key Points:

• Operational Challenges: The freeze forces Yaga Africa to halt projects, particularly those related to election integrity and democratic reforms, jeopardizing upcoming elections in 2027.
• Financial Strain: With around 80% of election-related work funded by USAID, the organization struggles to sustain its operations and retain staff.
• Adaptation Efforts: Yaga Africa is exploring diversified funding sources and private sector partnerships to mitigate the impact, though challenges persist due to limited local philanthropy in governance sectors.

Notable Quote:

"We have a project that seeks to begin to prepare different stakeholders for elections to ensure that they are peaceful, they are credible and they are inclusive."
— Samson Itodo [25:21]

Staff Welfare: Itodo underscores the human aspect of the freeze, highlighting the uncertainty faced by staff who rely on these positions to support their families. The organization is grappling with difficult decisions regarding staff retention and operational costs amidst the funding freeze.

Notable Quote:

"My biggest concern is my colleagues and their welfare."
— Samson Itodo [31:20]

4. Broader Implications on U.S. Foreign Policy and Aid Dependency in Africa

a. U.S. Foreign Policy Dimensions

Andrew Friedman discusses the critical role of USAID within the broader framework of U.S. foreign policy, often referred to as the "3D approach"—Diplomacy, Defense, and Development. He argues that weakening the development pillar undermines overall U.S. diplomatic efforts and soft power.

Notable Quote:

"Without this lever of American soft power, the future of US foreign policy would certainly look different."
— Andrew Friedman [16:23]

b. Africa's Aid Dependency and Sovereignty

Samson Itodo shifts the conversation to a continental perspective, addressing the long-standing issue of aid dependency in Africa. He critiques the historical and structural factors that have tied African economies to Western aid, emphasizing the need for African-led solutions and regional economic integration through initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Key Points:

• Historical Context: References to Structural Adjustment Programs and IMF loans illustrate the entrenched dependency on Western financial institutions.
• Economic Sovereignty: Advocates for strengthening governance, reducing corruption, and leveraging AfCFTA to bolster internal economic growth.
• Private Sector and Local Philanthropy: Highlights the scarcity of local philanthropic support for governance-related programs, calling for increased domestic funding sources.

Notable Quote:

"This is a time to reclaim our sovereignty because we've got what it takes as a continent."
— Samson Itodo [35:43]

5. Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode concludes with a blend of pessimism and optimism regarding Africa's path forward amid the U.S. aid freeze. Katherine Linda Zuki reflects on the duality of the situation—acknowledging the severe challenges while recognizing the pivotal role of organizations like Yaga Africa in fostering hope and facilitating change.

Notable Quotes:

"Sometimes you have to struggle for it. That's why I say that I believe strongly that if citizens in Kenya can rise up and say, reject finance bill... then I think it is very possible to force our governments to look inward and mobilize the resources that is required to fund our development."
— Samson Itodo [42:26]

Final Thoughts: Both guests underscore the necessity for resilience and proactive strategies—whether through policy reforms, diversified funding, or grassroots activism—to navigate the uncertainties introduced by the aid freeze. The conversation emphasizes that while external aid plays a crucial role, sustainable development hinges on Africa's internal capacity building and governance enhancements.

Notable Quote:

"In times like this, you cling to hope, but you don't just cling to hope. You work for hope."
— Samson Itodo [42:26]

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Transcript

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

By 2050, one in four people in the world will be African. The choices that we make now across Africa will shape the world's collective future. These are the stories, the trends and the issues we face in the present that will define the coming decades. Welcome to the Afropolitan. I'm your host, Katherine Linda Zuki. This has been an incredibly tumultuous time for the global aid sector as the US Government issued a freeze on nearly all foreign assistance. Because the US Is the world's largest source of foreign assistance by a mile, the ripple effects were felt almost immediately around the world. Today we're unpacking the scale of USAID's work around the world, the immediate impacts of this aid freeze, and how this aid freeze is impacting a civil society organization in Nigeria. My first guest is Andrew Friedman. He's a senior fellow with the CSIS Human Rights Initiative and dare I say, the first friend of the pod, long term supporter of the Afropolitan. Thank you, Andrew.

[Andrew Friedman]

That is definitely a banner I wear joyfully. You do an incredible thing here. So thank you so much for having me on.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

No, thank you, Andrew. So, Andrew, before you joined CSIS, you were a democracy officer with USAID's Bureau for Africa. And so before we get into the impacts of this work stop order, I just want to couch this conversation by understanding the scope of USAID's work around the world.

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah. So the U.S. agency for International Development, or USAID, is the federal government's agency charged with both international development and humanitarian development efforts. So it's a massive, sprawling effort that includes a lot of different aspects across the globe. So internationally it's active in about 160 countries and programs or obligates about 42 and a half billion dollars in funds. That's for fiscal year 2023. It's a little bit higher in fiscal year 2023 than it has been historically because of efforts in Ukraine. But prior to that, prior to about 2021, it had been somewhere between 20 and 30 billion dollars. So long and short, it's a very, very large organization that does a lot of different things in the international development sphere. I mentioned humanitarian efforts, but there's also health efforts, there's economic growth efforts, there's democracy, rights and governance efforts, there's education. I'm sure I'm missing things that are done, but you know, it's. It's a tremendously large agency that does a lot of great work.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. And maybe zooming in on Africa, what are the main issues or the main sectors that USA tends to work on.

[Andrew Friedman]

Humanitarian and health efforts in Africa are by a wide margin, the largest part of the work that USAID does on the continent. In total, there's about eleven, eleven and a half billion dollars that are obligated in Africa. And of that, about 8.8, a little under 9 are in the health and humanitarian sphere. So you can tell that's just a huge proportion of the work that's done in sub Saharan Africa. USAID's present in about 40 countries and then there's work done in 5 states in North Africa. So that's separated by the bureau. You know, on the continent, in total, it's about 45 countries.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Right. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's become a key part of our health systems. USAID is providing meals to children in parts of Tanzania. They were the key intervener in Somalia in 2022 that prevented a famine from taking hold there. So it's everywhere. It's become a core part or at least a very prominent part of a lot of Africa's health infrastructure, education infrastructure, humanitarian infrastructure, and so on.

[Andrew Friedman]

Absolutely.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

And so given all of these things, I just want us to first understand what is a work stop order and what does this funding freeze actually mean?

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah. So I want to start by saying that we are recording this on Thursday, January 30th. That's important because, you know, depending on when folks listen to it, a lot could have changed. A lot still up in the air. Frankly, there's a lot of confusion about what has been intended and frankly, what's going on. So I'll start with your question about the stop work orders. So what happens based on the executive order that President Trump put forth for a 90 day freeze in foreign assistance, are that ongoing efforts have received what's called a stop work order, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's, you know, implementing organizations. So the way that USAID works is they choose an effort that they're going to go forth with and then they put out something inviting organizations to bid. Those organizations bid on that and then they accept the best bid, the most workable effort, and they pay that organization to put forth that. That can be anti malaria actions, that can be civil society strengthening or other democracy rights and governance type stuff. Stop work orders go to these implementing organizations and tell them to stop work. They tell them to stop what they're doing. They will no longer be funded. As this 90 day pause happens, I'd like to go a little bit into that and apologies for how in the weeds this is, but I think the easiest way to think of it is kind of internal and external when it comes to these stop work orders. The most prominent one that we think of are stop work orders that go out to these organizations. I understand you're going to speak to a couple of folks who run CSOs on the continent after this, and they'll be able to tell you a lot about what that looks like. But the long and short of it is a stop work order will go to an implementing organization based in, say, Abuja, and that organization will then have to stop what they're doing, whatever sphere it's in, whether it's health, democracy, human rights, et cetera. The other side of it is kind of broadly internal, which is a Large proportion of USAID's employees in Washington and elsewhere are actually contractors. They're institutional support contractors or ISCs. So stop work orders have also gone to the organizations that host these institutional support contractors, meaning that a lot of people who work for USAID internally have lost their jobs, been laid off based on these stop work orders. The reason I bring that up is because Secretary Rubio just released guidance on Tuesday night exempting humanitarian aid, exempting health aid, exempting life saving aid in many circumstances from this pause, but because so many people in the Bureau of Humanitarian affairs at USAID and the Global Health Bureau are institutional support contractors, they've received stop work orders. The latest public reporting I've seen is that about 400 people at USAID Washington were laid off. It's pretty unclear how that will move forward, how that money will be managed, how that will be sent out, and how those grants will be managed for the ongoing work, even if the actual work on the continent is exempted.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

So that means really, the people in charge of managing, overseeing, dispersing and coordinating the humanitarian assistance here in Washington D.C. aren't really there.

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah, a whole lot of them. I mean, as I mentioned, the public reporting that I've read is right around 400 institutional support contractors. In addition to that, there's been, I think the number is 57 senior leadership. So a lot of people who are charged with making these decisions are either on administrative leave as the senior leadership or were laid off for institutional support contractors. I want to again stress that this is what we know right now. It could be that the way the guidance is interpreted brings back some of those people who've been laid off. I just, I don't know. And it's pretty up in the air for them right now.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I just want to pause and actually just ask. I'm curious what the mood is like at like USAID Washington. Are people dejected? I can imagine it's a terrible, terrible time. But I mean, I'll speak for myself. Some of the most wonderful, curious people I've met since I moved to Washington D.C. have been people who work for with USAID and are driven by principles of humanitarianism. Right. And so how are they feeling? Do you know how folks are coping right now?

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah, I think you put it incredibly well there, which is these people are in the role that they're in for a belief in what it is. I mean, they're development focused, they're human rights focused, they're health focused. What matters to them is the work. I mean, if we're talking about something like pepfar, what matters to them is ensuring that there are tremendous protections against HIV and AIDS for people in the developing world, predominantly on the African continent. If we're talking about human rights people, what matters to them is the protection of human rights, the elevation of local civil society organizations that are capable of standing up for democracy, promoting human rights, et cetera. So you get this kind of twofold devastation, this twofold personal difficulty where not only is your job either gone or threatened or in fear, but also you see the hollowing out of the work. You see it being very difficult to, you know, get antiretrovirals to people or you know, getting life saving aid or humanitarian assistance to people who just really need it. And those two things combine along with the personal struggles that come with having your job threatened. They combine and it makes for a pretty rough atmosphere.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. I'm curious what you've been able to glean on the immediate impacts of this stop work order for benefactors, for people that rely on USAID grants to receive HIV treatments. For example.

[Andrew Friedman]

I'm glad you bring up the HIV treatment because there's a fantastic report that was just put out by amfar, which is an incredible HIV prevention research organization. So the estimate is that there's around 220,000 people who daily require services and assistance, antiretrovirals, et cetera, for their active HIV. That's in addition to about 18,000 children and orphans of HIV and AIDS that are supported by this program. That's daily. So these are people who every day that this goes on are not getting that support. Unfortunately, outside of the human impact there, it really puts a big question mark on and what the future can look like in terms of doing this work. I think it's important to talk about these implementing organizations because there's a really broad Continuum from huge companies that do this kind of work down to very small local civil society organizations that might be, you know, three people in a small office sharing a desk, and the huge organizations, this is really impacting them. And we've seen tremendous layoffs in companies like that. But the small organizations, they're just not going to be able to float for three months with no income. They just might be gone after this. So if you talk about small local organizations, they're really going to feel this, and they really just might not exist at the end of 90 days. I think that's important for both the work and the implementation and the importance of elevating local organizations that can do this kind of work and are a part of the community. But it's also worth mentioning because in President Trump's first term, putting more power and more finances and more resources into these organizations was a huge part of the foreign assistance agenda. There was an initiative called the New Partnerships Initiative, which aimed to bring funds, resources and assistance to those kinds of organizations. Localization was a big part of it. The idea was just to make sure that these organizations are able to do a whole lot more work. And I know it's not directly affiliated with the White House, but that was the biggest part of the chapter on USAID in the project 2025 issues or ideology?

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

I've worked for one of those organizations with five staff. I was an intern. And I say intern in air quotes because really, when you're an intern, you're just. It's all hands. And, I mean, a month without crucial funding is. It's enough to, like, kneecap an organization potentially forever.

[Andrew Friedman]

Oh, yeah. One of my favorite meetings I ever took while I was working at USAID was I was traveling in West Africa and I met a group of women that were working on promoting STEM education for women. And they had this incredibly pragmatic view and incredibly practical approach to how they were promoting it. But it was two young women in their mid-20s who were doing something on a shoestring budget. They would put on events that would get a little bit of US Government money, and they actually got a little bit of money from Google, and they would also be regularly sponsored by, like, local restaurants who would provide the food for these events that they would do. And they were doing incredible work. But the idea that an organization like that could float for three months with no resources, no income, it's impossible.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. It's untenable. And, I mean, are there any signs as to whether this order will be extended beyond those 90 days? Even if an organization manages to float.

[Andrew Friedman]

I really don't know. Unfortunately, I think that Secretary Rubio's statement and broadening the waiver on Tuesday night is a really good indication that there is an awareness of just how important this work is and how it can't be broadly stopped in a way that won't cost lives. Lives won't create massive issues, and won't really make it impossible to do that kind of work moving forward.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. And I mean, the immense goodwill that programs like PEPFAR have generated for the United States.

[Andrew Friedman]

Absolutely.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. Hopefully that will factor in. And then maybe just stepping back a little. Andrew, I've seen some people describe this moment as existential for the AIDS sector. Do you agree? What are your thoughts on that?

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah, I think it's really helpful to contextualize it. Let me say, new priorities in the foreign assistance sector and an examination of how it has worked, those aren't new, those aren't unique to the Trump administration. In fact, they're vital for an elected democracy. And I can say I would stand first in line to help with an evaluation of how to do this kind of work better. I mean, the idea of stepping back to ensure that truly finite resources help the most people and work towards a world where such assistance is not needed, those are really important things. And it's a lofty goal to ensure that it's moving in the right direction. But I do think the stoppage, this 90 day pause, whether it ends up being the full 90 days, whether it ends up extended, it really has the possibility or potential to hollow out the sector and hollow out the space of people doing the work that could have really lasting impacts. Even if, you know, on day 91, the full tranche comes back, which, you know, who knows, maybe that'll be the case. But again, I mean, I think the idea of stepping back and looking at how to do this better is really, really important. And, you know, efforts have been made to do that in the past. But if this presents itself as an effort to do that while some of the work is ongoing, especially the life saving work, that would be a positive that could come out of this in a very, very difficult moment for a lot of organizations and people who are beneficiaries of U.S. foreign assistance.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah, yeah. And to step out even further, just to look at, like, US Foreign policy writ large. USAID has been a core pillar of US Soft power around the world. In Washington, people love Talking about the 3D approach to US foreign policy, which is diplomacy, defense and development. And so if this disruption continues or if the development part of this triangle is severely weakened, how do you think that will affect U.S. diplomatic engagements? How will that affect U.S. foreign policy writ large and maybe even America's standing in the world?

[Andrew Friedman]

Yeah, so let me say two things. I mean, the first is your 3D examination is completely right and a lot of people also refer to that as the three legs to a stool of US Foreign policy. That's not accidental. If you pull out one leg of a three legged stool, it doesn't stand upright anymore. This is incredibly important and it works in tandem with defense policy, in tandem with diplomacy policy and diplomacy, period. Without this lever of American soft power, the future of US foreign policy would certainly look different. I mean, I'm not willing to put a normative better or worse on it. I certainly, as someone who works in the sector and believes in it, strongly think it would be worse, but it would definitely be different. The other thing I want to say, you mentioned US standing in the world. It's easy to think of these efforts in the kind of abstract, right? USAID gives us taxpayer money and then there are, you know, malaria medications that go to children in Cameroon. Say that work is done by organizations and people who are incredibly enmeshed in local communities who are incredibly, incredibly invested in the success of those kinds of efforts. As someone who's done a lot of foreign policy work, these are the people that we need to make sure that we're partnering with as the United States, I mean, civil society writ large on the continent. It is a training ground for future leaders. It is a place that people who really care about their communities are. And as Africa becomes more and more and more important in US foreign policy for a wide array of reasons, very much including the youth bulge, you know, and you've talked about on this pod, by 2050, one in four people in the world will be African. These are things we know. These are people that the United States government and the United States generally needs to keep partnering with these civil society leaders, the people who really care about what happens in their community.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

And on that note, Andrew, true friend of the POD who can recite the the intro. Thank you so much. Thank you for being willing to walk us through this, explain both how this works internally at USAID and its impacts. I know personally speaking, I needed this sort of guidance or this understanding of how it works internally and then how USAID's actions impact the largest sort of Washington D.C. your Chemonics, right down to, you know, women in their 20s working on stem issues. So thank you so much.

[Andrew Friedman]

Exactly. Yeah. Thank you again. Huge supporter of what you're doing here and I really appreciate you having me on.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

To get a sense of how some civil society organizations in Africa are impacted by the aid freeze, I'm joined by Samson Itodo. He is the executive director of Yaga Africa. Samson, welcome to the show.

[Samson Itodo]

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

So, Samson, with this foreign assistance freeze, I would really like to get an understanding of how your organization. Organization has been impacted. But first, please just walk us through what Yaga Africa does.

[Samson Itodo]

Well, thanks, Katherine. So Yaga Africa is a civil society organization that works on elections, youth mobilization, human rights, and more importantly, we work in Africa to help both citizens and states build constructive relationships. So that's what we are. So when you think about African politics, African elections, Yiga Africa works on those issues either through election observation or promoting electoral reforms and also working with citizens to ensure that democracy delivers. So that's what we do. We do a lot of research and also provide technical support to democratic institutions.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah, and how many countries do you operate in?

[Samson Itodo]

So currently we work out of Abuja, but we've got program presence in Ghana, in Liberia, in Sierra Leone, in Kenya, in Ethiopia, and we also cover other countries like South Africa as part of our program. So when you think about sub Saharan Africa, it's the sort of geographical space that we work and we currently have an office in Tanzania as well, doing work with young people and elections and political inclusion.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Can you please share your proudest achievement since starting at this organization?

[Samson Itodo]

Hmm. I'll say first, this February 7th will be the 18th year of Yaga Africa's work. When you think about Prada's achievements, first, I would say that this organization, we started this organization as a student body in the University of Jos in Nigeria. And to see how the organization, you know, has grown from a student led organization to one of Africa's frontline democracy promoter organization. It's one of our greatest achievements. But if from a program perspective, I would say when you think about our work on elections and how we are able to leverage technology, artificial intelligence and data to expose fraud and electoral corruption in elections in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. And also, you know, moving from exposing the fraud to proposing reforms and seeing electoral laws being amended to address some of the concerns in our report, it's one of our proudest achievements. And maybe if I could just mention one, they're not too young to run campaign is one of our proudest achievements. Where we galvanized young people, working with other organizations to amend Nigeria's constitution to reduce the age for running for office. And that became a global campaign that was adopted by ecowas, the Africa Union and the United Nations. So today we see how young people between 25 and 29 running for office and they are winning elections. So we are changing the face of politics not just in Nigeria, but in other parts of Africa. And I think these are some of the proudest achievements that we have recorded over the years. And I can go on and on, but let me just stop there.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

No, that's incredible work. And out of curiosity, what was the minimum age to run for office before your campaign and then what is it now in Nigeria?

[Samson Itodo]

Well, before the campaign, you know, the constitution says you have to be 40. You know, to run for the president of Nigeria, you have to be 30 to run for the House of Representatives and then 30 to run for the state legislature. And young people said, no, we cannot enjoy partial franchise. In other words, you cannot say that at 18, you expect that a young person should have, you know, the sort of intelligence, the consciousness to make voting choices at the ballot. And yet you say that they have to wait until 22 years after they turn 18 to be able to aspire to run for president or 12 years. And young people said no, that we needed a legal framework, a constitution that safeguards political inclusion. And so the constitution amendment sought to reduce the age of running for state houses of assembly. So state legislature from 30 to 25. And also the house of Reps, which is a federal House of Representatives, was reduced from 30 to 25. So currently you need to be 25 before you can aspire into state house of assembly. And I tell you, for the first time since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, we had young people at 25, 26, who are currently members of parliament, both at the federal level and at the state level.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

That's incredible work that you're doing, like quite literally changing the age makeup of our elected officials in Africa. It's incredibly important, especially for such a young continent.

[Samson Itodo]

Exactly. With a median age of 19.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Right, right. And so, given this crucial work that you're doing, I would like to hear more about how the foreign assistance freeze here in the US has affected your work.

[Samson Itodo]

Yeah, first, it's affected our work greatly. And this has presented a lot of challenges for Yaga Africa. But I must say that I'm quite impressed with, with the actions taken, especially by the USAID field officials in Nigeria. We have a situation where they've kept us informed about these changes. And we've been having Regular meetings just to discuss this order, but also giving us the opportunity to ask questions. So beyond the emails, beyond the mails, we've seen that sort of respect for partners and I think that it's a good model and this particular action taken by usaid, you know, in engaging its partners. But does it present challenges? Yes, it presents a lot of challenges. It's affected to an extent our ability to implement certain programs. And I want to say that we do have an existing project funded by USAID. It's a fixed amount award that elapses in 2026 and mainly looks at elections. How do we depend the integrity of elections in Nigeria? Using technology, using data? How do we facilitate electoral reforms? Because Nigeria is going into elections in 700 days. We have a general elections in 2027. And so 2025 is a crucial year for preparations for that election. And so we have a project that seeks to begin to prepare different stakeholders for elections to ensure that they are peaceful, they are credible and they are inclusive.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

What percentage of IAGA Africa's revenue comes from USAID grants and projects?

[Samson Itodo]

We as an organization are quite lucky that we have a diversified funding base and all that is driven by our understanding of the landscape that as organizations you can't depend on one particular source of funding. And so it's important to diversify your funding base. So I don't have a definite percentage, but most of the election related work on election observation because election is a critical aspect of our work, at least a large chunk of that. And I'll say 80% of our election work is supported by USAID because we also work on local government elections in addition to national elections. And all that also had to be stopped because of the order. So, so that'll be my response to that. I don't have a definite figure, but I'll say there's a significant amount of USAID's support actually covers our elections program. And now with this freeze, there has been that stop work order. So we've had to stop every work on that particular project because of this freeze. In fact, I'd say that to a large extent it also has implications for operations because those projects have project staff who are recruited, you know, to deliver on the project. Most of them are 100% of their time committed to the project. But with this funding freeze, we have to wait until the organization really is thinking about, you know, how do you manage, you know, your personnel and cover your operational cost. In view of this particular stop work order, one of the things that we have seen is, you know, an attempt to modify existing contracts to the extent that he introduces some of those clauses and that yes, organizations will need to bear some operational cost, but those costs have to be really, really important to the extent that we would have to present detailed explanation as to why this cost had to be undertaken in the course of this 90 days where the reviews of existing contracts will be made so the partners to take reasonable steps to minimize costs that are not avoidable in the course of this period of stoppage. So this again has its own implications on organizations. And so for us, we're trying to figure out, you know, biggest challenge is if you have about 10 or 20 staff on a particular project and now there's a stop work order, what do you do with that 10 or 20 staff? Do you ask them to go or you reduce their work time and reduce their pay? Because we don't have a definite answer as to what to do with that staff. So we're actually in a dilemma and I guess most organizations are in a dialogue because there's no guarantees that after the 90 days there's going to be a relaxation of the order because two things can happen. There's either a termination or the ban will be lifted. But the key question is those existing projects have to be subjected to those three questions of whether the projects make America safer, stronger and prosperous. Now, the dynamics of power really indicates that the decision is going to be made in D.C. so we don't know, you know, what's going to be the outcome of that, but we'll just have to keep waiting.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Back to the dilemma that you mentioned. I'm curious if Yaga Africa and any of your colleagues in other organizations are already making long term plans to do with staff and hiring. Are people waiting until the 90 days are over to see if they can retain the staff that they have or are those long term decisions being made? Now I'm so glad that Yaga Africa has this diversified stream of revenue. But are organizations that are heavily reliant on usaid, are they scrambling to find new donors?

[Samson Itodo]

So the first short term decision we have to make is our people, is our staff. I am more concerned about my colleagues than the office operational cost because first you have individuals who are breadwinners in their family who this is where they generate the monies that keeps their family, that puts food on their table. Now we've got to think about their welfare. And part of what, you know, we have done at Yaga Africa is the moment we receive this order. There was an institution wide communication that went out to the Entire organization that even though this disruption is just based on a leadership change in the U.S. but it's a, I call it a reminder call and not a wake up call, a reminder that we've got to think strategically, you know, about our funding models as an organization. And so we've kept staff informed. The moment we have meetings and we have updated information, we inform our colleagues. The second decision we have to make is whether to retain staff or are there reserves that is available to pay staff for the next 90 days? Because based on the sort of information, there are certain costs that can be recovered, but they have to be minimal costs and we have to show justification why those costs are incurred within this period of 90 days. Now that is new information. We are still thinking about how to make that decision, but it's a very tough decision to make because you don't want to incur cost that you cannot recover at the inflection of the 90 days. And in terms of diversifying our revenue streams, we're where we're really working on broadening our DNA base, but more importantly, also looking at private sector partnership. The challenge for Nigeria and perhaps also other African countries, it's local philanthropy. Unlike the us, unlike other parts of the world where you have private foundations that provide resources and organizations can assess them, there isn't much of that, you know, within the Nigerian space. And, and this is a moment where we need to encourage local philanthropy targeted at governance related programs because you have, you know, private sector support that goes into social courses like health, like education, like environment. But when it comes to governance and accountability, either for conflict of interest issues or for political or patronage reasons, there isn't a lot of support that goes to organizations like Yaga Africa that protect human rights, that protect the civic space.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Samson, I actually want to zoom out with you to the continental level and the debate and the conversation that this aid freeze has spurred, which is a conversation about aid reliance, right? People are asking themselves, how can one executive order passed in the USA mean that millions of people no longer have access to HIV treatment that they rely on, or how many critical agriculture programs, health programs and so on have come to a standstill? And so this conversation about aid reliance, aid dependency pops up, you know, ever so often. I think during the COVID pandemic, we all had a debate about how is it that we are all, as a continent relying on vaccines made outside of Africa. How is we as a continent struggling to procure vaccines because we don't have enough sub zero freezers to store them? So this is coming up again. But I almost feel like this time around it's much more intense in that no one really knows what's going to happen after these 90 days, but the signs aren't good. And so I'm just curious, like what your opinions are or what your take is about Africa's aid dependency writ large and whether this. You put it very well. It's not a wake up call as much as a reminder means, or do you think it will lead to any tangible improvements in how it reliant as a continent we are on foreign aid?

[Samson Itodo]

Very brilliant question and I'm very delighted about what's happening across the world, especially in Africa. I'm actually excited about this. My only worry is I hope that our very short attention span, you know, does not impact our ability, you know, to reflect on the lessons that this presents to us as a people. Because when you talk about aid dependency, all of this is rooted. There are certain historical and economic factors that are responsible for aid dependency. And to a large extent, while I agree foreign aid provides support for development, but it leads to long term dependency, which really weakens governance and economic systems across the world. There is no doubt that the superpowers leverage aid to build soft power. It gives them certain leverage and access. But when you think about history, look at the Structural Adjustment program of the 80s and the 90s, when a lot of African countries faced economic crisis, they turned to IMF and the World bank for assistance. And since then they've depended on World bank for assistance. You look at the reject finance bail protest. One of the driving reasons that led to the opposition of that was the fact that the IMF gave Kenya the condition to raise the amount of money to access certain loans. And the Kenyans were skeptical about IMF loans. And so I hope that the African governments especially strengthen their governance and economic systems to reduce this dependency. Because it's embarrassing that some of these programs will have to depend on the west because he who pays the piper dictates the tune. This is a time to reclaim our sovereignty because we've got what it takes as a continent though, even though we don't operate in isolation, that there are certain superpowers and structural issues that seem to make us tied to the apron strings of the West. This is a time to actually cut that umbilical cord. And do what? Reshape this conversation in such a way that we come to the table with certain confidence that we are maximizing our capacity to solve some of our problems and not have to wait. And there are a few things that can be done. The first one I say is to look at the opportunities that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, AFTA actually provides the ad because if we encourage regional trade and integration, you can build and inspire economic growth because AFTA provides a huge opportunity. Because if countries are able to maximize afta, you know, to solve some of the economic problems, maybe we will not be depending on other countries for source of livelihood. The discussion and the debate about tax systems is really critical. I think that yes, it's important to reform our tax system to show up our revenue generation in different African countries. But the, the other side about accountability is important. You cannot be taxing low income earners and then the resources is not used or plunged back into the system. Instead it's stolen and siphoned by political leaders. These are some of the things, and I say issues around governance and reducing corruption is also at the heart of this because you see countries that have human and natural resources scrambling, you know, to fix the infrastructure, especially health infrastructure or even education, and also providing security. And that needs to change. And I also hope that African governments will, you know, reset their approach towards economic agreements. We've seen an exponential growth in the numbers of Africa leaders meeting happening in different parts of the world. World. China is meeting with Africa leaders. France is meeting with Africa leaders. Russia, Africa leaders, U.S. africa leaders. Everybody, you know, meeting with Africa leaders. And the South Korea, South Korea, you know, it just looks like it's a free for all. Every Tom, Dick and Harry just rises and say, oh yeah, we want to meet with African leaders. And you see all our leaders just showing up, you know, to those meetings. And then you wonder, do we have respect for ourselves? If we've got, there's a reason why they're having these meetings. There's a recognition that is something about Africa. How come we ourselves are not recognizing that and looking inward to harness those potentials so it gives us leverage to negotiate fairer, equitable and more importantly reduce this exploitative economic relationships that we have with developing nations.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah, maybe to wrap up, I'd say that I had two gut reactions to what you said. The first one was quite pessimistic because I was like the citizens, like, we all get it. We all get how aid dependency is terrible and how it can quickly change the trajectory of lives depending on decisions made in capitals outside of the continent. And my reaction was pessimistic because I was like, I don't know if most of our countries have the leadership that can rise to this moment, that can rise to the occasion, that can Say, maybe this is the time, as you said, to, like, pause and think about how not only we can build the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement to be something that uplifts people out of poverty and creates jobs, et cetera. But. And then the second reaction was optimistic, because that's what Yaga Africa is here for. That's literally what you guys are doing. That is what you are creating. You are helping fill this vacuum of ambition. Right? This vacuum of. Of ideas, this vacuum of idealism. Right? Because I think a certain level of the idealism that comes with the youth to say, no, we can do this. No, we can change this. The youth that shake off or at least haven't accrued enough of that pessimism that we find with generations as they go on. And so your work is so important. It's such an honor and a pleasure to meet you and to talk with you and thank you for being willing to share all of your ideas.

[Samson Itodo]

No, the pleasure is ours. I would tilt more on the optimistic side because in times like this, you cling to hope, but you don't just cling to hope. You work for hope. And the way you work for hope is to stay vigilant, asking the right questions. Because we shouldn't believe or just sit back, fold our hands and think the benevolence of our political leaders would deliver development. No, it doesn't work that way. You've got to struggle for it. You've got to work hard for it. And that's why I say that I believe strongly that if citizens in Kenya can rise up and say, reject finance bill, if young people, you know, in Nigeria can say, end bad governance, if the protesters on the streets of Dakar can say, save Senegal and they got the results that they wanted, then I think it is very possible to force our governments to look inward and mobilize the resources that is required to fund our development. And I dare say that we have them. The richest people in the world. You find them in Africa. If you look at the multilateral institutions, there are a lot of Africans. And look at what's happening in the Africa Development Bank. Look at what's happening in Africa. Nexim Bank. There's a lot happening on the continent. We just need to scale that and ensure that it trickles down to the people that do need the support.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Yeah. Good governance, not only is something that comes out of our institutions, but as a struggle, is such a succinct way of putting it right. That. Yeah, you're absolutely right. The changes that we saw in Kenya in Senegal didn't come out of think tanks writing, you know, great analysis. It was actually struggle. It was people in the streets saying, no, we're being over taxed.

[Samson Itodo]

Yeah, that's right.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Samson, thank you so much. I hope that you'll be willing to come back because I would love to talk to you about just about everything. But thank you so much for your time.

[Samson Itodo]

With all pleasure. It's been such a delight.

[Katherine Linda Zuki]

Thank you for tuning in to the Afropolitan. Please subscribe to the Afropolitan wherever you listen to your podcasts. This podcast is produced by Sarah Baker and our music is by Wonder Child.