Termination letters arrived like a slow drip from the United States. After the sudden closure of USAID at the end of January and the freezing of funds for already contracted projects, the final closure notices arrived at the end of February. In our case, for projects worth over 15 million euros in Uganda, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Kenya, and Brazil.
But hundreds of organizations like ours around the world, from one day to the next, have had to shut down programs that were already in progress.
At first, it was hoped that the freeze on American aid would be temporary, but now, amidst cross-legal actions and rulings that open very uncertain and partial gaps, hope is fading: thousands of services for the most vulnerable have ended, including life-saving interventions, the distribution of antiretroviral drugs has ceased, refugee reception has been stopped, the promise of lifting hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty has been betrayed, and hundreds of staff have been laid off.
Yet, fifty years of field experience, in places on the margins of the Earth, cannot crumble so easily: with our beneficiaries, with whom we have worked in refugee camps, slums, cities devastated by earthquakes or floods, or along migration routes, we have learned that one is never determined by circumstances, not even the most adverse ones, and that it is always possible to start over.
Neither the blow from the American administration, which withdrew 95% of the aid allocated, amounting to 40 billion in 2025, nor the decision of the British Prime Minister to shift a portion of funds from cooperation to defense, weaken the certainty that our work remains a fundamental pillar for ensuring coexistence in an interconnected and complex world.
The narrative that, all in all, this American shift would finally expose the hypocrisy of money wasted, given to those who cannot develop or, worse, used to fuel a corrupt system, is unfounded, as well as unacceptable.
Every single euro or dollar spent to implement development or emergency programs has a positive impact, not only on those it aims to help immediately, but on us, and on the world as a whole: it is effective because it improves people's lives, contributing to building fairer societies, economic development, and security, which is the great emergency everyone is talking about.
We will never tire of repeating, because we experience it every day: there can be no well-being for anyone if we do not work for the development of all.
In this regard, Italy, with the Mattei Plan integrated into the European Global Gateway and multilateral cooperation, is in fact demonstrating that it chooses to proceed on the path of equal collaboration with other countries, not the path of predatory competition that generates conflict. In it, development cooperation is recognized as an integral and qualifying part of foreign policy, a tool for promoting economic stability and peace, as well as solidarity. In this sense, the Mattei Plan is a valuable asset to protect in these times.
Those who contribute to funding it with their taxes must be clear on this: international cooperation can improve and find innovative ways to achieve even more systemic effectiveness, but it deserves adequate funding— it is an investment.
While creating the conditions to save children from extreme poverty and send them to school in places far from us, while promoting sustainable agricultural, entrepreneurial, or urban development plans, it is protecting our own future and that of our children, here.
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