The Administration’s freeze on foreign assistance earlier this year and the subsequent dismantling of USAID have increased suffering and death among children in low-income countries and diminished U.S. global status as a trusted world leader. 

Lawmakers now are tasked with combining USAID’s humanitarian role and, to a far lesser extent, its development role, with the diplomacy role of the State Department. But fewer than 20% of USAID programs will be folded into the State Department. Key steps must be taken to ensure that children are not left behind in this process. For instance:  

• The State Department’s Function 150 Account for Fiscal Year 2026 must be maintained, at a minimum, at the FY 2025 level of roughly $60 billion, and the Administration must obligate and disburse this funding as directed by Congress 
• USAID programs supporting children must be saved  
• Development programs must be preserved along with humanitarian assistance  
• U.S. humanitarian programs must continue to align with humanitarian principles  
• Senior, empowered leadership reporting directly to the Secretary of State must oversee and lead these development and humanitarian programs  

USAID Programs Supporting Children Must Be Saved 

Worrying signs suggest that the Administration is forgetting children. According to plans shared with Congress, the Administration has terminated a vast swath of child-focused programming, including basic education, Vulnerable Children, and Orphans and Vulnerable Children programs. The Administration passed over these programs because they were not deemed “lifesaving” by the Secretary of State (and therefore given a theoretical waiver) or did not align with the Administration’s goal of using foreign assistance to make America “safer, stronger, and more prosperous.” Before the dismantling of foreign assistance, children were receiving roughly 10% of U.S. foreign assistance resources. Although that amount was far too small given that kids make up 30-50% of the population of many low-income countries, it was far better than the barren landscape that is emerging.  

The State Department Must Retain Orphans & Vulnerable Children Programs  

The Administration has already ended 23 programs for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and has no plans to carry them over to the State Department. Unlike the rest of PEPFAR, which the Administration plans to retain, the OVC program will disappear, leaving vulnerable children and orphans without protection and nurturing care and at dangerous risk of sexual abuse, trafficking, and violence.  

The Administration is operating under the misconception that PEPFAR’s non-clinical support for children, such as Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programs, is not “lifesaving” and therefore does not need to be preserved. But decades of community-level HIV implementation have shown that barriers to testing, treatment, and adherence to treatment for children living with and orphaned by HIV cannot all be addressed through clinical interventions. Instead, PEPFAR’s OVC programming has been the key to tackling barriers to adherence, such as inadequate nutrition, parenting education for caregivers of children living with HIV, home visits to support testing and adherence to treatment, and lack of financial assets for families to ensure their children reach the clinic and remain on treatment.  

OVC Programs Enjoy Broad Support 

Since Congress passed the first AIDS, TB, and Malaria bill that authorized PEPFAR in 2003, and in every subsequent reauthorization, lawmakers have required that 10% of bilateral HIV resources go to orphans and vulnerable children to keep them fed and protected. The State, Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations has also included the 10% directive for OVC in recent foreign aid funding bills because Congress felt so strongly that these world-class programs must continue. But now, the United States has turned its back on these children — at last count, 6.6 million children and their caregivers were under the care of these programs. 

PEPFAR’s OVC work historically has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Congress. The faith community also backs the program. But absent an immediate reversal by the Administration, history tells us that many of the millions of children who were dropped from OVC support will soon be found in hazardous labor, sex trafficking or the grave, instead of in school where they belong.  

Modeling of PEPFAR’s OVC programs in Kenya showed a return on investment (ROI) of 4:1 because of reductions in HIV infections, child marriages, cases of child sex trafficking, and cases of physical violence against children while simultaneously boosting the number of girls in school. Long-term, these programs reduced costs to society and increased labor market productivity by keeping girls safe. In fact, PEPFAR’s adolescent girls’ programs, the majority of which are funded by the OVC set aside, reduced their experiences of sexual violence by 65% in Malawi and 68% in Kenya. 

Development Programs Are an Essential Part of U.S. Strategic Policy 

The Administration plans to slash most development programming and to retain a smaller version of USAID’s humanitarian work at the State Department. But investing in humanitarian assistance without development programs would be inefficient, simply placing the smallest of proverbial Band-Aids on open wounds while ignoring what caused the gashes in the first place. 

Humanitarian assistance focuses on the short-term — the immediate response to crises —by providing food, water, shelter, medical care, and protection to people affected by emergencies. Development assistance, on the other hand, seeks to create lasting change by addressing long-term issues such as the root causes of poverty and food insecurity, and promoting resilience to shocks such as extreme weather. The goal is to make humanitarian assistance less necessary over time. Appropriate international responses require both humanitarian and development assistance, and a smooth transition from humanitarian aid to development is crucial for long-term recovery and sustainability.  

Examples of highly effective development assistance include basic education (especially for girls), caregiver training in positive parenting of toddlers, breastfeeding support that enables moms to exclusively breastfeed babies for the first six months, and improved child nutrition achieved by helping families provide children with protein and vitamins and minerals, often from kitchen gardens. Other examples include training farmers in pest control techniques and water resource management to allow their crops to flourish.  Peacebuilding among warring groups also allows families to safely plant and harvest crops or travel to markets.  

In South Sudan, for instance, a project funded by USAID and implemented by a faith-based organization helped warring tribes build and maintain community water points together. The communal water sources provided families with clean water and reduced the spread of water-borne disease, and also promoted peace between the tribes. With peace came regular planting and harvesting of crops, allowing communities to feed themselves and avoid the need for humanitarian intervention. Simply reacting to emergencies as they break out without a long-term plan to stabilize the area (as seems to be the current plan) will keep the U.S. lurching from one humanitarian situation to another without reducing insecurity or poverty long-term. 

Empowered, senior leaders must head these programs 

The Administration must establish a new position at the State Department, such as Deputy Secretary for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, to oversee all development and humanitarian programs. This position must report directly to the Secretary of State. This position is necessary because the goals and expertise needed to lead, implement, and monitor development and humanitarian assistance are vastly different than the skills needed for diplomacy. The goals of aid and diplomacy must be aligned, but distinct.  

For example, diplomacy seeks to advance American interests abroad. But the core ethical accepted guidelines for humanitarian assistance include humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. Humanitarian aid is given regardless of race, creed, or nationality of the recipients, and without adverse distinction of any kind. It is absolutely critical that the Administration adhere to these global humanitarian principles not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because to do otherwise will endanger the lives of American humanitarian workers. To insist upon “America First” policies in humanitarian work would compromise trust and acceptance within affected communities and would undermine the safety and security of humanitarians. This is no small matter. Last year was the deadliest year on record for aid workers, with 377 humanitarian workers killed and hundreds of others attacked and kidnapped. 

Ideally, Congress would insist that USAID remain an independent, fully staffed, and fully funded agency. Barring that unlikely possibility, lawmakers must mandate the appointment of a Deputy Secretary for Development and Humanitarian Affairs at the State Department who reports directly to the Secretary of State. This person must demonstrate a strong development and humanitarian background and prove capable of leading the following offices and programs: 

• Humanitarian Assistance, including migration, refugees, and emergency relief  
• Development Assistance, including food security and nutrition, water and sanitation, basic education, and economic development  
• Global Health, including Maternal, Newborn & Child Health and Nutrition, Vulnerable Children, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Neglected Tropical Diseases, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (including a strong Orphans & Vulnerable Children component), and the Office for Global Health Security  
• Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) and Good Governance  
• Office of Foreign Assistance, integrating policy and budget  
• Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (including a strong focus on child protection/anti-trafficking). 

The post Key Ways to Preserve USAID’s Children’s Programs appeared first on First Focus on Children.

A week of frenetic activity by the Trump Administration has raised questions around health care, food and other aid to children, HIV treatment for kids, and the future of public education.

“It is unfair to keep children in limbo,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “Children are not children for very long. As the Administration dithers, children continue to grow despite not knowing whether they will get health care, food, shelter or other assistance that they need to thrive. The uncertainty is inexcusable. And many of the orders — specifically the ones surrounding federal aid and school vouchers — likely are illegal. We hope the courts will resolve these issues quickly.”

• Aid to children: Confusion remains around the Administration’s directive to freeze all federal loans, grants and assistance, an order that threatens more than $329 billion in children’s programming — or an average of $4,500 per child, according to calculations based on Children’s Budget 2024. The funding in question supports Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food stamps, school meal programs, Head Start and other early education initiatives and myriad other programs that support low-income children. The order, which acts on the principle of impoundment, appears to be illegal and likely will be challenged in court.
• Public Education: President Trump signed three executive orders on education this week, including one to promote school vouchers nationwide. A new analysis by First Focus on Children finds that a nationwide voucher program could decimate the country’s public schools, increase discrimination, widen the income gap, and ensure that the United States has two different education systems with vastly disparate resources. In addition, Congress has not given the Administration the authority to spend funding outside the designated scope, making the order on vouchers likely illegal. School vouchers, referred to as “school choice” by supporters, divert taxpayer funds from public schools to private, often religious, schools and home schooling. Read School Vouchers and the Growing Threat to Public Education.
• HIV treatment for kids: Internationally, a freeze on funding previously appropriated by Congress for overseas programs likely has halted distribution of HIV drugs, even among programs that already have the drugs in hand. Experts estimate that the stoppage could cause an estimated 1,471 babies per day to be born with HIV. A new State Department waiver allows some emergency humanitarian assistance, but the definition of “emergency” remains unclear. In addition, a blanket freeze on poverty-focused development assistance could halt any new maternal and child health programs, clean water efforts, routine vaccinations, nutrition programs, and control of malaria and other infectious diseases.

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School vouchers, which undermine public education by diverting public funds to private, often religious schools, could become the nationwide norm: President Trump signed three executive orders on education this week, including one to promote school vouchers nationwide. In addition to being illegal —Congress has not given the Administration the authority to spend funding outside the designated scope — the expansion of voucher programs across the country could financially decimate public schools, according to a new brief by First Focus on Children, increase discrimination, widen the income divide, and ensure that the United States has two different education systems with vastly disparate resources. Euphemistically called “school choice,” a national school voucher scheme would provide anything but. Read more here.

Kids overseas may — or may not?? — be getting life-saving HIV drugs. No one knows: As of this writing, the Trump Administration has placed a blanket freeze on poverty-focused development assistance. This means that any new maternal and child health programs that keep babies alive and healthy have been halted. So too are clean water, routine vaccination, malaria and other infectious disease control and nutrition programs – all stopped. Further, previously congressionally appropriated funding for current programs has been stopped. This means, for example, that programs with HIV drugs already in hand will lack the funding to distribute them out in the field. More babies will be born HIV-positive (an estimated 1,471 per day) and more children will die of HIV because they do not receive their treatment. Without treatment, one-third of babies who are HIV-positive will succumb to infections and die before their first birthday. The State Department provided a vague waiver yesterday for some emergency humanitarian assistance, but it remains unclear exactly what constitutes an “emergency” and what doesn’t.

If confirmed, RFK Jr. holds the keys to the health of 73 million children: Even as we send this note, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick for health secretary, is being grilled by Senators in a second confirmation hearing. In a comprehensive agenda called “Making America Healthy Again for Children,” First Focus on Children urges the prospective cabinet member to protect and enhance Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which together insure half of all U.S. children, improve infant and maternal health, upgrade pediatric emergency and cancer care, and use his position to address the systemic challenges facing children, from inadequate access to health care to the impacts of poverty, neglect, and inequality. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has long been the cornerstone of the federal government’s response to these challenges, overseeing programs including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), community health centers, maternal child health programs, mental health and substance abuse, public health, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), child welfare programs, early childhood programs like Head Start, and runaway and homeless youth programs, which together have transformed the lives of millions of children. Read Making America Healthy Again for Children.

Federal funding for programs including Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start and other critical services still in danger: The White House has said that despite a judge’s injunction federal funds are still frozen. As with the executive order on vouchers, this impoundment order also is illegal. That said, without confirmation of whether the freeze will continue — or to what programs it could apply — First Focus on Children estimates that the directive to freeze all federal loans, grants and assistance could endanger more than $329 billion in children’s programming  — or an average of $4,500 per child — in aid to children for food, homelessness, health care, child care and myriad other issues, according to calculations based on Children’s Budget 2024. See the chart above for specifics.

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In an unsigned memo, the Trump Administration said that Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, will be exempt. But when asked during a press conference whether that meant no individual receiving Medicaid would lose benefits, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she could not confirm. The original memo from the Office of Management and Budget included Medicaid, SNAP, and Head Start among the programs subject to the freeze. Leavitt said OMB would release a new list. 

Meanwhile, all 50 states have been shut out of their Medicaid payment systems.

“The uncertainty is the point here, obviously,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “Families across the country are wondering whether their child’s preschool is open, whether they can take their child to the doctor, or whether school meals are still available. The Administration has injected fear and despair into families who depend on services — which, by the way, they’ve paid for with their taxes — to care for their children.”

Without confirmation of which specific programs will be affected, First Focus on Children estimates that the directive to freeze all federal loans, grants and assistance could endanger more than $300 billion in children’s programming  — or an average of $4,500 per child — in aid to children for food, homelessness, health care, child care and myriad other issues.

The immediate cessation of federal aid could prevent more than $329 billion from reaching children, according to calculations by First Focus on Children based on Children’s Budget 2024, with billions coming out of health care, food stamps, public schools, vaccines and school lunch. The chart below represents the total amount of money going to kids that would be on the chopping block over the course of the fiscal year if these programs were eliminated or if the money were never issued, based on cross-referencing the Children’s Budget 2024.

“We call on Congress to demand that the Administration follow the Constitution and the law and rescind this illegal order,” Lesley said.

Because Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations are not finalized, estimates are based on expenditures from FY 2024

The post UPDATE: $329 billion for children at stake in frozen funds appeared first on First Focus on Children.

Currently, 2.22 million girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have been out of school for over 300 days. For Nasiba (a pseudonym), a 16-year-old Afghan girl from Kabul, the Taliban’s decision to ban girls’ education past primary school has had a catastrophic impact on her life and future. Like millions of adolescent girls around the world, Nasiba dreams of having the independence and choice to pave her own path:  “I want to go to school and become an independent woman who chooses and decides for her life…If I am educated, men wouldn’t dare to interfere but if I am not, they will decide my whole life for me” (2021). 

In recent years, the ever-evolving conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate disasters, ongoing humanitarian emergencies, and protracted crises in Ukraine, Myanmar, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, and many other regions around the world have exacerbated the global education crisis and existing structural inequities for the  1.8 billion children and youth. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.5 billion children have been affected by school closures and at least 1 in 3 of the world’s schoolchildren (463 million children) were unable to access remote learning while schools were shuttered. The ongoing impacts of COVID-19, compounded with other interrelated emergencies, have placed 222 million children and youth living in conflict-affected regions in critical need of access to education.  

To prevent further backsliding and to create quality inclusive education, Heads of States, policymakers, civil society, children and youth advocates, and other key stakeholders in the humanitarian-development nexus must make commitments and prioritize investments in gender-transformative education ahead of the Transforming Education Summit and ensure that youth voices are meaningfully included in key decision-making during and after the summit. 

Transforming Education Through Gender-Transformative Education 

For girl-children and adolescents, the effects of these emergencies on their access to education are uniquely gendered. In crisis settings, girls are disproportionately at risk of experiencing poverty, gender-based violence, and forced marriage, which further amplify barriers to safe, quality, inclusive education. At least 1 in 5 primary-aged girls living in conflict-affected regions are unable to access quality education. It is estimated that, as a result of COVID 19 and other shadow pandemics, an additional 20 million secondary school aged-girls may never return to school. In spite of these somber statistics, children and youth around the world have had no choice but to remain resilient against rising attacks on their education, wellbeing, and lives.  

Gender-transformative education improves understanding of gender identities and dynamics within curriculum and challenges harmful gender norms and stereotypes that perpetuate violence. In communities where girls, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ youth are marginalized, gender-transformative education has the potential to create systematic change by addressing intergenerational gender-based violence and inequities. This type of education advances more inclusive peacebuilding in the face of conflict, climate change, and COVID-19.  Children with lower levels of educational attainment are more vulnerable to environmental shocks and stresses. Children, especially girls, are more likely to be removed from school in order to work when disaster strikes. 

Youth Leadership and Intergenerational Partnerships: the Path Towards Transforming Education 

The Transforming Education Summit provides a critical opportunity for young people around the world to collectively contribute recommendations to UN Secretary-General, António Guterres through the Youth Declaration, youth-led consultations, and national consultations. From Salta, Argentina to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, youth advocates – including Doris Mwikali, Cynthia Nyongesa, Nhial Deng, and Sofía Bermúdez – have led grassroots youth consultations to ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable and underrepresented populations of children and youth are recognized and meaningfully integrated into the Transforming Education process. 

Meaningful, active, and inclusive youth participation, engagement, and partnership must be prioritized as a core pillar of effective policy and programming in education. When young people are empowered through resources and opportunities for equitable partnerships, they gain a greater capacity to remain resilient for themselves and their communities. As advocates of the Children’s Foreign Policy and Funding Initiative’s Youth Alliance Working Group, we urgently call on Heads of States, Ministries of Education, participants and organizers of the Transforming Education Summit, and all education stakeholders to actively and meaningfully listen to children and youth voices, include children and youth as equal partners in critical discussions and actions on commitments during and after the Summit, and prioritize children and youth first. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, war, and other humanitarian emergencies, we believe that change must start with open and meaningful intergenerational accountability and partnerships between youth, policymakers, and advocates. 

The post Fighting Education Inequity: Young People are Critical to Transforming Education appeared first on First Focus on Children.