USAID-funded Calgary organization ordered to stop work as Trump's foreign aid freeze continues
Besa Global was working against corruption in Uganda when it received the news
In the weeks since U.S. President Donald Trump has taken office, his administration's efforts to overhaul the face of U.S. foreign aid have resulted in a 90-day freeze on humanitarian funding, the shutdown of programs around the world, and thousands of staff and contractor layoffs and furloughs.
On Feb. 6, Reuters reported the government's plan to cut the workforce of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from roughly 10,000 people to several hundred.
As the world's largest aid agency, USAID supports global initiatives, including disaster relief, anti-poverty efforts and health services.
It managed more than $40 billion US in combined appropriations in 2023, accounting for approximately 0.7 per cent of the federal budget, (0.3 per cent before the war in Ukraine broke out), according to the New York Times.
And while the ramifications of the move have been felt far and wide — from Mali to Kenya — the impacts have also reverberated closer to home.
Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church is the executive director of Besa Global, an anti-corruption organization based in Calgary that has carried out projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
In January, while in Kampala, Uganda, to kick off the latest project tackling corruption in health care and policing institutions, Scharbatke-Church woke one morning to an email from the consulting firm that had contracted Besa Global.
The email told her that all work had to be immediately stopped, and that she needed to leave the country as she would no longer be reimbursed for her stay.
"There's this real sense of sadness and kind of a gut punch," said Scharbatke-Church, who added she scrambled to cancel all her meetings and book a flight back to Canada as soon as she could.
WATCH l Washington, foreign capitals roiled by Trump USAID plans:
Scharbatke-Church said it took her organization over a year to secure the grant from USAID that was to fund a large part of the Kampala project. She said Besa Global had only just learned of its success in November, making the sudden rug-pull all the more difficult to bear.
In that short time, Scharbatke-Church said, they had already hired staff in Uganda — and now the work-stoppage will leave those employees in limbo.
"These are people with kids and they have school fees and they have all the expenses that we have, except for they have an economy with an epically high unemployment rate and basic services that categorically don't work," she said.
She added that while it's common practice for new administrations in both the U.S. and Canada to realign foreign assistance budgets when they take power, this round of adjustments has a distinctly new character.
"Sending out a notice on a Friday night where most of us, because of the time difference, we'd already worked all day Saturday and incurred costs. And then saying that we're going to not cover your costs, [even though] we signed contracts … we've made agreements based on what was supposed to be a legally binding contract," she said.
"It really feels pretty malicious."
Trump ally and tech billionaire Elon Musk has described USAID as "a criminal organization" and has made multiple accusations on X against the institution's spending.
On Feb. 3, Musk took to the platform he owns to announce he had "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper."
Fahim Quadir, vice-provost and dean of graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs at Queen's University, who also is a professor of global development studies, called the decision to freeze USAID funding shortsighted. He said it will inevitably undo gains that have been made tackling challenges of social development across the globe.
"I find it incredibly difficult to even comprehend the rationale behind such a rushed and drastic decision. There appears to be no compelling argument — not that I can see one, no evidence-based thinking, nor any clear long-term strategy that justifies this purely political decision of withdrawing their support," said Quadir in an emailed statement to CBC News.
"This move is likely to threaten to undo years of progress in areas such as poverty alleviation, education, health care, civil society and gender equality, leaving many marginalized and vulnerable communities in a state of deep uncertainty and despair."
In the wake of the disruption of programs across Canada, aid coalition Cooperation Canada said millions of people will be abruptly cut off from life-saving supplies.
"The impact of this is catastrophic, for thousands and likely millions of people around the world," said the group's head, Kate Higgins. "It forces Canada and Canadians to think about what sort of country we want to be."
Higgins said Global Affairs Canada has been in touch with the aid sector to help manage the disruption, but noted things are already falling apart.
"Critical partners that are part of the implementation of those projects are shutting their doors," she said.
Scharbatke-Church said she hasn't received any new information since the email she received in Kampala.
She added that Besa Global, like many other aid organizations, bill for services after the fact, and she's not sure if it will be reimbursed for expenses incurred in January.
In the worst-case scenario, she said, they may be forced to close down operations.
She said the experience is a foreshadowing for how she believes the new U.S. government will operate internationally.
"The contracts that we have were all congressionally approved. And technically speaking, an executive order should not be able to disrupt that funding. It's pretty cut and dried in the law. And yet it has happened and continues to happen," said Scharbatke-Church.
"So it is quite clear that that leadership is not being constrained by the rule of law anymore."
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With files from Dylan Robertson