CEGA Statement on U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze

How the United States provides foreign aid appears to be changing dramatically. Although the U.S. Agency for International Development has been a central element of U.S. foreign relations and engagement for more than sixty years, severe cuts to its budget and staffing have made its future increasingly uncertain.

While it will take time for these changes to be reviewed by Congress and the courts, they are having an immediate impact on millions of people in the U.S. and around the world — people who rely on USAID for critical services, emergency care, and their livelihoods. Like many of our peers, we are closely monitoring and responding to these changes, while seeking bridge funding for critical projects and supporting the talented researchers, staff, and students who make our work possible.

Several CEGA projects that receive funding from USAID have been paused or cancelled. This week, we received a termination notice for our $75M cooperative agreement, “Promoting Impact and Learning with Cost-Effectiveness Evidence (PILCEE).” PILCEE was designed to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of USAID programming by using rigorous evidence to guide the Agency toward interventions that promise the greatest impact per dollar. Evidence is critically important for allocating scarce resources, and PILCEE was uniquely suited to improve how large providers of foreign aid operate. As the dust settles from the changes at USAID, we remain ready and eager to provide vital evidence to help address global poverty more effectively.

Research is a tool for progress — progress that makes America safer and expands our economy even as it saves lives and improves standards of living around the world. Research can also make the work of agencies like USAID more effective, efficient, and affordable. At a time of compounding global crises, greater need, and fiscal austerity, non-partisan and fact-based evidence of the kind that PILCEE would have generated can only further our shared interests. As the U.S. rethinks its approach to providing foreign aid, evidence should be at its center.