US foreign policy will dictate direct funding to countries, embassies to be involved

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 March 2025, 22:24 by Writer

The United States (US) will disburse aid directly to countries with the involvement of embassies in the wake of concerns by Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean about the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday.

During his visit to Jamaica, where he met with several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders before travelling to Guyana to hold talks with President Irfaan Ali, Mr Rubio said the US would no longer be providing aid through an agency that might have collaborated with, for instance, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that might have convinced USAID to fund specific projects.

“How we want it to be in the future, is that our embassies are involved with the host government, our hosts, our partners, and we ask them, what are your needs? And we provide assistance geared towards the needs of the nation-states that are hosting us and that we’re partnering with,” he told a news conference that he shared with Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness.

Suggesting that the now closed USAID was not delivering American funding to foreign nations efficiently, Mr Rubio assured that his country was not getting out of providing aid to other countries. “We are going to be providing foreign aid,” he said before going on to say that it would be linked to US government priorities and those of recipient nations. The top US foreign policymaker said the days were over where USAID and NGOs decided the needs of other countries and “they give them a bunch of money.” The Secretary of State listed several areas that US foreign financial assistance would focus on. They include opportunities to increase skills training, attracting investment opportunities in business and trade, and expanding domestic intelligence capabilities.

“We are going to have foreign aid that is aligned to our foreign policy, and our foreign policy is going to be aligned to our mutual shared interests with the partners that we have all over the world,” he said, referring to Jamaica as an “incredible partner” to the US.

The Donald Trump administration recently shuttered USAID leaving thousands of projects in limbo around the world, including a number in Guyana and the Caribbean. They include a three-year Caribbean Agricultural Productivity improvement Activity (CAPA) project that had received an allocation US$5.3 million.

President Ali, CARICOM’s lead on agriculture, recently said individual CARICOM member states would have to take up the shortfall. A number of projects that had helped finance support for Venezuelan migrants in Guyana had also been affected by USAID’s closure.