On 20 January, the Trump administration issued an executive order freezing all American foreign aid through the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for three months, citing that the “industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
This decision has had significant implications for Lebanon, a country whose public institutions and population have heavily relied on foreign assistance since the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), particularly from the US.
With this in mind, Lebanon lacks comprehensive data summarising the total aid contributions from foreign countries.
Sami Zoughaib, an economist with the think-tank The Policy Initiative, speaking to The New Arab, said: “How large is the US portfolio in Lebanon, and how dependent is the Lebanese economy on US funding? This question remains unanswered due to the opaqueness of the aid and development sector when it comes to the sources of funding and donors.”
According to Sami, the US “primarily funds infrastructure projects, large-scale NGOs, and supports municipalities’ access to energy and water, as well as the private sector and research projects.”
Damage has already been done
In 2024, Lebanon received $219 million in assistance through USAID and approximately $17 million through the State Department, with military aid accounting for 4% of the total, while the remaining funding primarily supported humanitarian relief ($91 million) and education ($71 million).
The United Nations data also indicate that the US is likely to be among the top contributors of aid in Lebanon. In 2024, Lebanon received a total of $1.3 billion in grants through UN agencies and their implementing partners — a figure that excludes other sources of funding, such as “financial assistance to ministries, bilateral funding, and contributions from other international institutions like the World Bank,” as Sami noted.
In 2024, the US was the top donor in terms of grants reported by UN and NGO implementing partners, contributing $293 million, or 22% of the total grants.
Although the US judiciary ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift the blanket freeze on foreign aid on 13 February, the damage has already been done in Lebanon.
On 28 January, a local NGO working on recycling was notified to stop operations through a stop-work order, followed by a termination of contract in mid-February. USAID provided 100% of their budget, including all salaries.
“We immediately cut my salary to be able to pay our three employees,” the head of the NGO, who prefers to remain anonymous, told The New Arab.
“We emailed international donors, embassies, and we applied to open calls for financial support in the hope we can sustain our staff,” he added, increasingly worried that he would have to close down operations entirely.
A group of therapists in Lebanon, whose work was mainly funded by USAID, reported to The New Arab that they were impacted in a similar way.
According to the therapists, after receiving a stop-work order in January, they later learned that pending invoices, including their January salaries, would not be paid.
“For the time being, we have chosen to continue offering the sessions we were contracted for free of charge, as interrupting the therapy would be even more detrimental to our patients,” they shared, adding that they are now trying to turn to other donors, such as the European Union or Canada.
‘These people have families’
Evaluating the damage caused by the temporary freeze of US foreign aid across Lebanon remains complex.
“We are still assessing the implications of the US decision on the UN’s and NGOs’ work in Lebanon,” Kawsar Fahd, a communication officer at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told The New Arab.
Earlier this month, the UNDP sent an email to local organisations to assess the impact, with the email stating: “Did you receive stop-work orders? Did you release any staff? (…) What will be the direct and indirect impact of the suspension on different population groups? Please provide estimates of the number of affected beneficiaries where possible.”
“I assume that the Lebanese NGOs and small-scale projects will be able to survive: they should be able to find alternative sources of funding through the European Union or Canada,” Sami told The New Arab.
“The biggest impact will likely be felt by large international NGOs that are very exposed to US funding, which subcontract to smaller NGOs, who will in turn be affected by these intermediary bodies,” he added.
This is what happened to Sanabel Nour, a Lebanese NGO active in Tripoli since 1995, whose core mission is to tackle poverty.
“The US funding represents a mere 2% of our budget, and we receive it through a granting agency. For five years now, this grant has allowed us to run an entrepreneurship programme that benefits 300 people yearly,” Rida Sayadi Dassouki, president of Sanabel Nour, said.
He added, “On the 24th of January, we were told that this programme is suspended. This project provided a job for eight people in our organisation. Unfortunately, we are not able to cover their salaries without this grant. That is a big concern for me: these people have families, they need to pay their rent and their children’s tuition fees.”
That said, Rida noted that the entity channelling the US funding is “trying its best to secure funding to pay their salaries in February.”
He also underlined that the executive order harms her organisation’s reputation on the ground: “The vulnerable people that we assist do not necessarily understand that it is a decision that comes from the US and is not in our hands.”
A former employee of the American organisation International Rescue Committee (IRC) wondered, “Is this the NGO’s great extinction? Who will survive, and who won’t?”
According to the employee, the American organisation has had to put at least one programme on hold since it received a stop-work order, while between 15 and 20 employees are now on unpaid leave across Lebanon.
“Not to undermine anyone who has lost their job, but these cuts primarily affect the population’s access to social services, health and education, and I feel this is being lost in the conversation,” the employee stated.
“Procurements are stopped as well as recruitments,” said another employee working at the IRC. “Movement of staff is also restrained as the car rentals were on the US grant. Only the activities funded through other donors are ongoing.”
In saying this, both professionals shared a concern: that the suspensions and cancellations of programmes will have a trickle-down effect on the Lebanese economy.
Nazih Fino, head of Seed NGO in Tripoli, also bears this concern in mind.
“We applied for a psychosocial support project funded by the US through an intermediary body. We were recently informed that the call for projects was suspended, and possibly cancelled. With this grant, we were planning to hire 15 people for the next 10 months, and it would have covered the salaries of five staff members,” Nazih told The New Arab.
He added, “Our suppliers will also be affected: we would have relied on someone to prepare the snacks for the children. Not to mention that this directly affects 800 students and parents.”
“The aid and development sector is very big within the Lebanese economy, and inherently insecure,” Sami weighed in.
“While the last years were marked by donor fatigue, which in turn led to a decrease in foreign aid, the new government gives an exciting perspective for legacy donors to re-enter Lebanon, which could in turn offset the decrease in US aid.”
Laure Delacloche is a French freelance journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, She focuses on social issues, especially how crises impact women. Her work has appeared in French and international outlets and is a member of Solvo, a solutions-oriented collective of journalists
Follow her on X: @LaureDelacloche
