The Trump Administration’s New Foreign Aid Model Cuts Out The ‘NGO Industrial Complex’
The Daily Wire ^ | December 4, 2025 | Kassy Akiva
Posted on 12/07/2025 1:58:51 PM PST by Twotone
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.
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: foreignaid; kenya; marcorubio; ngo; ngoindustrialcomplex; statedepartment
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1 posted on 12/07/2025 1:58:51 PM PST by Twotone
To: Twotone
It amazing how often things are happening that I voted for.
I’m not used to that.
2 posted on 12/07/2025 2:01:56 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (Annnd....TRUMP IS RIGHT AGAIN.)
To: Twotone
That bypasses “NGO industrial complex,”
God Bless us everyone.
3 posted on 12/07/2025 2:04:27 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
To: Twotone
If NGO’s are being cut out, does that mean the US is going to have the government provide funds and people to address the same problems or goals?
Inquiring minds want to know.
To: Twotone
Why are we paying for healthcare for foreign nations when we have our own healthcare fiasco to fix?
5 posted on 12/07/2025 2:17:19 PM PST by for-q-clinton (ui)
To: Bob Wills is still the king
“Inquiring minds want to know.”
It means:
No more money laundering schemes and no more money going for fried cow pies.
6 posted on 12/07/2025 2:20:05 PM PST by doc maverick
To: Twotone
A lot of liberal/progressive huckster thieves are going to scream.
7 posted on 12/07/2025 2:24:35 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (Trump has arrived and it is awesome to have a real President.)
To: SaxxonWoods
Right?
I’m frequently posting “I voted for that!”
Here and elsewhere. Love it!
8 posted on 12/07/2025 2:25:14 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
To: Twotone
9 posted on 12/07/2025 2:26:46 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (Get out of the matrix and get a real life.)
To: Twotone
When the disgusting USAID details were published, there were 15-20 universities in Australia (yes, you read this correctly, Australia) that were “very concerned that their important research would not continue.”
If they cannot get the Australian people or private money to fund their research, perhaps it is not so very ‘important.’
10 posted on 12/07/2025 2:28:22 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try )
To: Twotone
This is great. The NGOs basically skimmed about 70% of the aid money in fees, corruption and overhead while basically using the little money they did transfer to extort compliance with NGO policies and political agenda
Now the money goes directly to the end user countries so they can skim the money for themselves and implement their own agenda
11 posted on 12/07/2025 2:36:57 PM PST by rdcbn1 (..when poets buy guns, tourist season is over................Walter R. Mead.l)
To: doc maverick
Bob is a big gov’t guy. The bigger, the better...and fund it all to the max.
12 posted on 12/07/2025 2:54:41 PM PST by citizen (A transgender malel competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
To: rdcbn1
13 posted on 12/07/2025 2:56:08 PM PST by citizen (A transgender malel competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
To: Twotone
NGOs should never existed period... They’re the same damn things as lobbyist. They should be outlawed with 20 year minimums for even trying.
14 posted on 12/07/2025 2:57:40 PM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
To: Bob Wills is still the king
The “problems and goals” are the problem. The problems are a problem because they are not our problems, and the goals are a problem because they are not goals which Americans should be funding.
15 posted on 12/07/2025 2:58:44 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
To: Twotone
But where are ex-Senators and appointment level executive branch employees going to get million dollar jobs while out of power. Do you think they plan on working at $200k government jobs all of their lives? They need a few years off “working” at million dollar NGO jobs.
16 posted on 12/07/2025 3:05:11 PM PST by KarlInOhio (I pray that the sleeping giant has finally awakened and been filled with a terrible resolve.)
To: Twotone
--- "The Trump Administration's New Foreign Aid Model Cuts Out The ‘NGO Industrial Complex’"
That;s gonna leave a mark..... / s a r c
What is interesting is that so many little middlemen whose entire existence is funded by passing funds to those who pass funds to someone else are a stake here.
Most middlemen are unnecessary costs added to transactions. Most talking heads want to be paid for words and more words, and studies and more studies, and environmental impact statements and more environmental impact statements, et cetera.
I think the guy that repairs my power line, the gut that picks up the trash, the guy that keeps the sewers working -- these are all crucial to my house and home. The bureaucrats that count the bureaucrats" beans, not so much. Many not at all, come to think.....
To: Twotone
NGO money laundering industrial complex is more like it.
18 posted on 12/07/2025 3:37:35 PM PST by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
To: Bob Wills is still the king
It means "Stalin is STILL my Dream Date" that you are not going to get paid any more.
Hopefully you have another gig.
19 posted on 12/07/2025 4:01:49 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (It's like somebody just put the Constitution up on a wall …. and shot the First Amendment -Mike Rowe)
To: Twotone
So help me understand.
We’re going continue to hand out foreign aid money we don’t really have, but shift which grifters we hand it out to?
Wow, I voted for that! /s
20 posted on 12/07/2025 4:11:38 PM PST by chickenlips (Neuter your politicians)
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