In northern Uganda’s refugee settlements, the sudden cut in international funding has left classrooms empty, clinics without medicine, and livelihoods collapsing overnight.
When international aid is cut, it’s not just food and medicine that disappear—so do jobs, classrooms, and hope. In northern Uganda’s refugee settlements, the collapse of local microeconomies after U.S. funding cuts has left thousands in dangerous uncertainty. Projects that once built paths to self-reliance now stand abandoned—half-built, half-hoped.
In Kitgum, near the South Sudan border, the consequences of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID, a cornerstone of global humanitarian aid, remain devastating. Thousands of families who fled war now face hunger and despair. When the World Food Programme reduced food distribution to one million refugees, the ripple effects were immediate. The AVSI Foundation was forced to halt a project that had employed over 200 field officers, supported 13,000 households, and helped refugees start farms and small businesses. Overnight, livelihoods vanished.
“The decline in funding has had a range of adverse effects on refugees,” said UNHCR representative Jatuporn Lee, “including increased child neglect as parents seek livelihoods, rising theft, mental health and psychosocial concerns, higher land rents, illegal animal grazing triggering conflict between the host community and refugees, school dropouts, and gender-based violence…These concerning vulnerability trends are clear indicators of growing vulnerability and underscore the urgent need for sustained donor support to promote protection and inclusion.”
The aid programs had been designed not just to sustain, but to empower—building dorms, water plants, and schools that employed both refugees and locals. When the aid disappeared, teachers volunteered without pay to keep classes open while parents could no longer afford school fees. Small restaurants and street vendors scaled back. The rhythm of daily life—school, work, market—broke down, leaving young people vulnerable to recruitment, trafficking, or exploitation.
The loss of humanitarian jobs wasn’t just about income; it was a breach in the circle of poverty that traps families in crisis. Critics of the funding cuts were told that “life-saving aid” would remain untouched—but life, for most refugees, is more than survival. When I met Viola, a 24-year-old pregnant woman who miscarried after malaria drugs failed to arrive at the clinic, I saw what happens when even brief interruptions in supplies become deadly.
“There is an absolute uncertainty in the future,” said Ugandan lawyer and human rights defender Nicholas Apiyo. “National and international organizations that depended on USAID have either closed or scaled down their operations. People are left with no continuous care, and many have already lost their lives… Although funding for life-saving aid partially resumed, the disruption left a heavy toll on the beneficiaries of treatment to cure Ebola, HIV, and malaria. A restoration enabling the supply chain to resume will take time, and lives will be lost in the process.”
“However, as the United States’ soft power of attraction fades and meets international distrust, Uganda and many other African countries will likely strengthen their ties with Russia, India, Iran, and China. Not less hegemonic than the United States, those countries are seen as more predictable and less ‘schizophrenic,’ as Apiyo puts it.”
In Wadi Okollo and Terego Districts, where older projects continue, the results show what sustained support can achieve. Funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, AVSI’s STEP program improved stability through renewable energy and farming initiatives. Agricultural output rose 92%, renewable technology use reached 61%, and families reported higher incomes and stronger community ties.
Local teachers and social workers spoke of “a race against time”—where every month of support can mean the difference between a child learning to read or joining an armed group.
The lesson is clear: when investment is sustained, results follow. Aid doesn’t just save lives—it sustains futures. When it disappears, so do the fragile beginnings of stability, and with them, the hope of recovery.