The Trump Administration’s New Foreign Aid Model Cuts Out The ‘NGO Industrial Complex’

The United States is overhauling how it distributes foreign aid to prioritize direct investment in partner nations and eliminate waste by bypassing the “NGO industrial complex,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday.

Rubio unveiled the new policy during the signing of a $2.5 billion Health Cooperation Framework with Kenya. The United States will provide up to $1.6 billion over the next five years to support priority health programs, while Kenya will increase domestic health spending by $850 million to foster its long-term health self-reliance.

Rubio said the previous system funneled aid through foreign or U.S.-based NGOs that absorbed funding through overhead and administrative costs while limiting host-country control.

“We would go to a country and say we are going to help you with healthcare needs and then we would drive over to northern Virginia somewhere and find an NGO, one of these organizations, and give them all the money and tell them to go to this country and do their healthcare program for them,” Rubio said. “By the time it got down to it, the host country had very little influence … and only a percentage of the overall money ever actually reached the patients.”

Instead, Rubio made the case for working directly with partner countries, such as Kenya, to cut out what he describes as the “NGO industrial complex.”

“If we’re trying to help countries, help the country. Don’t help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business,” he said.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told The Daily Wire that foreign aid funding should “not pad the pockets of overpaid executives in the NGO industry.”

Top executives at health NGOs backed by American taxpayer dollars frequently have very high salaries. In 2024, the president of Research Triangle Institute earned over $1.4 million, and two of its vice presidents earned more than $850,000 each. At Johns Hopkins University’s Jhpiego Corporation, one executive earned over $1.08 million. Other top salaries included $598,348 at Management Sciences for Health, $545,290 at Family Health International, and $506,371 at Pact Inc.

In 2023, the president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation earned $577,275, and the president of PATH earned $703,405.

“Ultimately, the best aid is the aid that ends because it’s worked to solve problems or build capacity of partner countries. Our partnership with Kenya is an example of this approach in action,” Pigott said.

The framework with Kenya will direct American funding to go towards programs focused on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, polio eradication, disease surveillance, and infectious disease outbreak response and preparedness, according to the State Department.

While Kenya is the first, Rubio said he hopes to sign 50 such agreements with other countries during the signing.

“When developing the dozens of America First Global Health Strategy bilateral agreements we will sign in the coming weeks, we always start with the principle that American sovereign resources should be used to bolster our allies and should never benefit groups unfriendly to the United States and our national interests,” Jeremy P. Lewin, Senior Official for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, & Religious Freedom said.

Brad Smith, Senior Advisor for the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the State Department, said that for over two months, the United States government has been in “very productive discussions” with other governments around the world for similar agreements.

In the coming weeks, dozens more multi-year health agreements will be signed, as part of the America First Global Health Strategy, according to the State Department.

“These landmark agreements will advance a comprehensive and shared vision directly between the United States and recipient country governments for continued future cooperation on global health issues,” a statement from the State Department’s spokesperson’s office said.

The agreements are designed to improve efficiency and accountability by integrating American programs into local health systems, focusing resources on frontline services, engaging private and faith-based partners, and encouraging recipient countries to co-invest in healthcare workers and essential commodities.