The shuttering of USAID last year dramatically reduced the administration’s capacity to manage the foreign assistance awards process—particularly to issue new awards. Based on our best estimates, using last summer's personnel numbers, this left each remaining contracting officer in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars in spending. In that context, it is worth looking at the first 14 months of foreign assistance under the administration to see what has happened with new contracts and awards in particular, as an early indication of how it plans to spend somewhat less foreign assistance with a fraction of the staffing capacity. That early picture suggests one surprising element: a heavier reliance on international organizations to deliver aid.
Using data from USAspending.gov available as of March 30, I downloaded new contracts and assistance awards recorded since January 20, 2025, under the main non-military foreign assistance accounts: Migration and Refugees, Disaster Assistance, Economic Support Fund, Global Health, and Development Assistance. It is worth noting that the FY2026 budget process, which concluded in January, ended new funding under some of these accounts and created new ones. But searching USAspending.gov for both Treasury and Federal Account data linked to the new International Humanitarian Assistance, America First Opportunity Fund, and National Security Investment Programs accounts produced no results to date—the process of creating new accounts takes some time. There are still considerable undisbursed resources available for use in the existing accounts.
In addition, the process undoubtedly misses some awards because of reporting delays and incomplete reports. For example, the State Department’s $150 million award to Zipline to extend drone delivery of health products in five African countries, using global health funding, has not been linked to that (or any) federal account and is therefore not included below. But hopefully, most new awards are captured.
It is also worth emphasizing the focus on new contracts and assistance awards. Over the last year (amid many award cancellations), many existing contracts saw new obligations and some were extended, increased, or given additional elements. This blog focuses solely on newly signed funding agreements.
There are few new awards—and even fewer new contracts
In the last year of the Biden administration, 2,604 contracts and assistance awards were issued under the main foreign assistance accounts. This compares with 345 recorded since the Trump administration took office. That 86 percent decline in numbers compares with a 61 percent decline in value—the new contracts and assistance awards that were issued were larger on average (Table 1).
Splitting by contracts (usually issued to private sector firms) and assistance awards (usually issued to nonprofits and international organizations) suggests a more complex picture: contract values collapsed by 93 percent, more than the decline in the number of awards. Regardless, new large foreign assistance delivery contracts are, at least for the moment, moribund. (The top three contracts account for about $72 million of the $146 million total value of new contracts. Two of those regard internal IT services contracts; the third is a State Department study of critical mineral deposits in Bolivia to reduce exploration risks and attract US investment.) Looking at assistance awards, the decline in numbers was equally steep. Still, the average award value increased, and assistance awards account for 96 percent of spending on new contracts and awards combined (up from 76 percent in the last year of the Biden administration).
Table 1. Number and obligations to new contracts and assistance awards under major foreign assistance accounts
| | 01/20/24–01/19/25 | 01/20/25–03/30/26 |
|---|
| # Contracts | 1,105 | 254 |
| $m Contracts | 2,146 | 146 |
| # Assistance | 1,499 | 91 |
| $m Assistance | 6,735 | 3,336 |
| | | |
| # Combined | 2,604 | 345 |
| $m Combined | 8,881 | 3,482 |
The largest assistance awards are to international organizations, mostly for humanitarian assistance
The top 10 awards by value total $2.84 billion—about 85 percent of all assistance awards (Table 2). All are to international organizations, including the largest two covering the new flexible funding agreement for humanitarian support with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Table 3 looks at the ten largest recipients across all contracts and assistance awards, which account for 95 percent of the total value of new awards. About 85 percent of that total went to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Global Fund, and the International Organization for Migration.
Table 2. Largest assistance awards under major foreign assistance accounts
| Recipient | Total Obligated Amount | Description |
|---|
| UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS | $750,000,000 | TO PROVIDE A RAPID RESPONSE OF URGENTLY NEEDED LIFE-SAVING ASSISTANCE THROUGH THE FOLLOWING POOLED FUNDS, AS DESCRIBED IN OCHA 'S PROPOSALS ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. |
| UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS | $725,000,000 | TO PROVIDE A RAPID RESPONSE OF URGENTLY NEEDED LIFE-SAVING ASSISTANCE THRU UN-OCHA |
| THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA (THE GLOBAL FUND) | $575,000,000 | CONTRIBUTION LETTER AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ACTING THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA. |
| UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS | $275,000,000 | TO MAKE FUNDS AVAILABLE TO THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS ("OCHA") FOR THE REGIONAL HUMANITARIAN POOLED FUND FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA, KENYA ENVELOPE, UGANDA ENVELOPE, AND BANGLADESH. |
| UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS | $200,000,000 | SUPPORT TO THE SUDAN HUMANITARIAN FUND (SHF) |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION | $85,000,000 | CONTRIBUTION IN SUPPORT OF IOM'S 2026 GLOBAL APPEAL, TO SUPPORT CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC OPERATIONS THAT DRIVE SOLUTIONS TO DISPLACEMENT THROUGH PROVIDING ASSISTANCE TO MIGRANTS ($25,000,000) AND COMMUNITY STABILIZATION ($60,000,000). |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION | $60,011,498 | SUPPORT MIGRANTS, BOTH IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THIRD COUNTRIES, TO ACCESS ASSISTED VOLUNTARY RETURN (AVR), TO THEIR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN OR OF LEGAL STATUS, IN A SAFE AND DIGNIFIED MANNER. |
| PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY | $60,000,000 | YEAR 1 PAYMENT OF AGREEMENT FOR PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY (FFA) AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, DONE IN HONIARA ON MAY 9, 2023 (POP: 9/14/23-9/14/33). |
| PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY | $60,000,000 | YEAR 2 PAYMENT OF AGREEMENT FOR PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY (FFA) AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, DONE IN HONIARA ON MAY 9, 2023 (POP: 9/14/23-9/14/33). |
| HAUT COMMISSARIAT DES NATIONS UNIES POUR LES REFUGIERS | $50,000,000 | UNHCR 2026 GLOBAL APPEAL FOR ITS OPERATIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, IN SUPPORT OF THIRD COUNTRY NATIONAL ARRANGEMENT (TCNA) NEGOTIATIONS. |
Table 3. Top 10 recipients across contracts and assistance awards
| Recipient | Total Obligated Amount | % of All Awards |
|---|
| UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS | $2,000,818,000 | 57.5% |
| THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA (THE GLOBAL FUND) | $613,339,677 | 17.6% |
| INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION | $180,370,950.20 | 5.2% |
| HAUT COMMISSARIAT DES NATIONS UNIES POUR LES REFUGIERS | $124,612,043 | 3.6% |
| PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM FISHERIES AGENCY | $120,000,000 | 3.4% |
| UNICEF | $72,686,843 | 2.1% |
| MISCELLANEOUS FOREIGN AWARDEES | $65,138,589.68 | 1.9% |
| THUNDERCAT TECHNOLOGY, LLC | $45,429,233.36 | 1.3% |
| UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME | $40,550,000 | 1.2% |
| CENTRO INTERNACIONAL DE MEJORAMIENTO DE MAIZ Y TRIGO INTERNACIONAL | $39,467,189 | 1.1% |
| TOP 10 TOTAL | $3,302,412,525.24 | 94.8% |
The pace of new awards is accelerating
It is worth noting that three awards made between February 20–25, 2026 to UNOCHA and the Global Fund account for more than $2 billion, reflecting a rapid acceleration after a year with almost no sizeable new awards reported. That suggests we are in the very early days of any new model, and warrants caution in drawing any strong conclusions. And to emphasize again, this blog only examines new awards: awards that began under the Biden administration account for most ongoing outlays and much of the new obligations we have seen under the Trump administration.
Combined with a new approach to global health that emphasizes agreements with countries and a continued decline in contracting capacity, this pattern may signal a shift toward fewer, larger agreements with international organizations and partner countries and away from smaller agreements and contracts with US firms and nonprofits. That’s mostly a good thing in and of itself—but it will take a lot more carefully designed agreements under this new model to sustain even just the lifesaving activities backed by US foreign assistance, let alone start to reconstruct the rest of the program.
