October 16 - 2p Central - Understanding USAID's Legacy and Alternatives

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Mark Schuller

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Oct 6, 2025, 9:07:53 AM10/6/25
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Dear colleagues,

 

I hope you are all managing and taking good care of yourselves and your community in these times. I also wanted to apologize for cross posting. I did want to invite you to the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies (NNGO’s) first talk in the Community Engaged Research series:

 

Understanding USAID’s legacy and alternatives

 

Thursday, October 16, 2:00-3:30 p.m. Central

Zoom: go.niu.edu/USAID

 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), closed officially as of September 2, 2025, had a complicated and at times contradictory legacy.

 

Created during the height of the Cold War, President Kennedy imagined USAID as a vital tool in the U.S. foreign policy toolkit. Since its creation, USAID became the United States’ and the world’s primary distributor of foreign development and humanitarian aid, with an annual budget of over 60 billion dollars in 2024.

 

Along with its stakeholders overseas, USAID was the first agency targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in February 2025. DOGE’s cuts to the agency reduced USAID to a skeletal staff and suddenly ended life-saving services such as maternal health and anti-retro viral treatments, impacting millions across the globe. While many have decried the end of USAID, its legacy is complex. Experience and research across the Global South, for instance, has shown that USAID’s mandate to promote U.S. interests has led to negative consequences: increasing inequalities, empowering particular constituencies that have deepened and prolonged conflict, and engaging in regime change.

 

This panel, spanning continents and experiences of practitioners and researchers, offers a timely reflection on this mixed legacy, tracking current impacts, and identifying alternatives.

 

Panelists:

 

Million Belay, General Coordinator (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa)

Yolette Etienne, retired NGO executive (Oxfam / Action Aid)

Jane Henrici, George Washington University

Daniel Oberko, Public Services International

Joeva Rock, Stony Brook University

 

Moderated by Mark Schuller, NNGO Director

 

Co-sponsored by Anthropology and the Changing Systems of Power, Stony Brook University

Risk and Disaster Topical Interest Group, Society for Applied Anthropology

 

 

 

Thanks all.

 

Sending good energy,

 

Mark Schuller, Director

Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Northern Illinois University

DeKalb, IL 60115

msch...@niu.edu

(815)753-4410

 

https://www.niu.edu/clas/nonprofit/index.shtml

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram

 

 

Personal websites:

http://www.anthropolitics.org 

http://www.humanityslaststand.org

http://www.potomitan.net

 

 

Rees, Martha

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Oct 9, 2025, 9:01:02 PM10/9/25
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Mark 
Thank you for this. Our father, C. Herbert Rees, and many others (Carter Ide) worked for USAID for decades, and the experience formed us all into the people we are today. 


Martha Woodson Rees
Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Agnes Scott College


Among National Liberal Arts Colleges:

#1 Most Innovative (6 years in a row)

#2 Top Performer on Social Mobility


Among all U.S. Higher Education Institutions:

#3 for First-Year Experiences

#4 for Learning Communities

#9 Study Abroad





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Rees, Martha

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Dec 1, 2025, 8:06:23 AM12/1/25
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Mark, 
Was this panel recorded or transcribed? I'd be interested in it.
I expect you've seen this PBS piece on former employees making a web donation site to match donors with programs: 

Thank you
Martha


Martha Woodson Rees
Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Agnes Scott College


Among National Liberal Arts Colleges:

#1 Most Innovative (6 years in a row)

#2 Top Performer on Social Mobility


Among all U.S. Higher Education Institutions:

#3 for First-Year Experiences

#4 for Learning Communities

#9 Study Abroad





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Mark Schuller

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Dec 1, 2025, 5:20:33 PM12/1/25
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Hi Martha,

 

Thank you for sharing this piece with us. It is a moving gesture of solidarity.

 

Yes, indeed the discussion is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK9BTiaQ1G0&t=273s

 

Thanks again.

 

Have a wonderful day and week,

 

Mark Schuller, Director

Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies

Professor, Department of Anthropology

Northern Illinois University

DeKalb, IL 60115

msch...@niu.edu

(815)753-4410

 

https://www.niu.edu/clas/nonprofit/index.shtml

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram

 

 

Personal websites:

http://www.anthropolitics.org 

http://www.humanityslaststand.org

http://www.potomitan.net

 

Rees, Martha

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Dec 1, 2025, 5:53:04 PM12/1/25
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thanks you sharing and saving. 


Martha Woodson Rees
Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Agnes Scott College


Among National Liberal Arts Colleges:

#1 Most Innovative (6 years in a row)

#2 Top Performer on Social Mobility


Among all U.S. Higher Education Institutions:

#3 for First-Year Experiences

#4 for Learning Communities

#9 Study Abroad




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