When Programs End Overnight: Documenting the Impact of USAID Terminations on Persons with Disabilities

Nearly one year has passed since the dismantling of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) fundamentally altered the landscape of international development. While much has been written about the institutional and financial fallout, far less attention has been paid to the human consequences—particularly for persons with disabilities.

For Inclusive Development Partners (IDP), the impact was immediate and severe. Nearly 90 percent of our funding disappeared overnight. Payments for work legally completed in late 2024 and early 2025 were frozen, placing staff livelihoods at risk and threatening the organization’s survival. Thanks to an emergency GoFundMe campaign and extraordinary community support, IDP was able to make payroll and continue operating at a reduced scale. While most withheld funds have since been released, the damage caused by abrupt program termination remains unexplored.

Across the world, USAID-supported programs closed without warning. Children with disabilities lost access to education supports. Families lost health and rehabilitation services. Local staff—many of whom had disabilities themselves—lost stable income and professional pathways. Yet these impacts have gone largely undocumented.

IDP believes that what is not documented can be dismissed.

Using funds raised through our GoFundMe campaign, IDP has launched a mixed-methods research study entitled Impact of USAID Program Terminations on Persons with Disabilities in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Boston. The study is being conducted across eight countries where IDP-supported USAID programs were terminated— Bangladesh, El Salvador, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

This research is grounded in a core principle: those closest to the impact must lead the inquiry. Local research teams—composed of individuals with and without disabilities—are being paid to collect data, analyze findings, and shape recommendations. The study will capture perspectives from persons with disabilities, families, government stakeholders, organizations of persons with disabilities, and former program staff.

Our goal is not only to understand what was lost, but to identify lessons for future aid transitions, donor accountability, and disability-inclusive development practice.

We are also calling on the broader disability and development community to contribute:

• Did you work on programs in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, or Pakistan that included disability-inclusive components? If so, please contact IDP at info@inclusivedevpartners.com to share information about those projects.
• Do you have stories about persons with disabilities who were impacted by these program closures? We welcome you to share them. There is no substitute for these voices.
• In the coming weeks, we will disseminate a survey for donors (including former USAID staff) and current and former international development implementing partners to better understand the scope and consequences of these terminations.
• If you would like to support this research financially, please consider donating to IDP through our GoFundMe campaign:
  https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-support-for-idps-global-mission

Together, we can document what happened, center the voices of persons with disabilities, and ensure these impacts are neither invisible nor forgotten