It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since the Trump administration sent termination letters to USAID staff and began shutting the agency down along with other foreign aid programs. One year post-USAID, how has philanthropy's role in development shifted?

In retrospect, it was a kind of soft launch, signalling a new era. Little did we realise it then, but it was the beginning of the end of foreign aid for a range of global health, humanitarian, anti-poverty, democracy, and environmental programs.

Among the many casualties was U.S. leadership in global family planning and reproductive health, including terminating longstanding US investment in programs that enabled people of reproductive age worldwide to access family planning services, prevent sexually transmitted infections, ensure healthy, wanted pregnancies, and plan and space births.

This de-funding one year post-USAID translated into many billions’ worth of losses, because family planning investments generate immense returns — higher than any other form of aid (except trade liberalisation). From a health perspective, every additional $1 spent on contraceptive services saves $2.48 in maternal, newborn, and abortion care costs.

The broader return on investment is many multiples of that. For example, family planning reduces unintended pregnancies, enabling girls to stay in school, develop professional skills. and ultimately fully participate in the economy and society, yielding an estimated $8.40 in economic returns for every $1 spent on family planning.

The loss of U.S. government investment and the high returns it generated is monumental. Before funding was cut, the U.S. was by far the largest bilateral donor for family planning services, providing 43 per cent of all donor government support.

But there are ways to recoup the losses one year post-USAID. First, philanthropy must step into the breach. It would take just one additional cent beyond every $10 of current U.S. charitable giving to restore US family planning aid, a new Population Institute report points out.

That would provide a short-term boost to mitigate service disruptions, meet women and girls immediate needs, and signal that reproductive autonomy remains a priority. And it would give us room to re-think how we can sustain this critical work absent a reversal in U.S. policy.

Read the full article about philanthropy's role in foreign aid by Kathleen Mogelgaard and J. Joseph Speidel at Alliance Magazine.