From withdrawal to opportunity: Rethinking education aid post-USAID

Last year, the global education community watched as one of its most influential actors stepped away. The dismantling of USAID’s education portfolio may be framed as a budgetary adjustment, but it was also the end of an era. For decades, USAID had been the key bilateral donor in global education. But more than that, it was a convener, a thought leader influencing how foundational learning was understood worldwide. The withdrawal has not only disrupted programmes but left a strategic vacuum in global education leadership.

When speaking with Elena Walls, senior education policy analyst and lead author of the report Impact of USAID Withdrawal on Global Education and Skills Development, her words carry both urgency and reflection.

Walls has spent the last 25 years implementing research studies, designing evaluations and managing research teams. A large part of this time was dedicated to USAID’s education portfolio, before it was disassembled. Since then, she has spent months tracing the ripple effects of a decision that stunned the development world.

“Even if the financial investment may seem small—about one billion dollars annually—it came with the behemoth of the U.S. as a driving force,” she says. “USAID punched above its weight.”

The quiet crisis of foundational skills

For years, USAID championed the basics: literacy and numeracy in grades 1–4. These were not glamorous goals, but they were transformative. “Grade 2 and 3 are the sweet spot,” Walls explained. “The data shows this.” Yet, as she points out, the first standardised tests often come at the end of primary school in many national assessment systems. That’s too late for many children who have already fallen behind. In rural areas, dropout rates remain stubbornly high. Without early intervention and sustained investment, the promise of education fades before adolescence begins and gaps risk widening.

Walls believes data can change this trajectory. She recalls the shock that resonates when figures show that, in some countries, 90% of low-income second graders cannot read. “What gets measured, gets done,” she says. But too often, uncomfortable truths are ignored. “There is a lack of desire to embrace data, because it means embracing hard realities.”

Coordination is not collaboration

Walls does not mince words on one point: business as usual will not suffice. Donor coordination exists, but collaboration that drives systemic change is rare.

"We have a lot of coordination, but not a lot of collaboration,” Walls laments.

Operational alignment does not always translate to systematic coherence. The latter is far harder to achieve. More so since fragmentation persists across education levels, particularly in transitions from upper primary to secondary and in technical and vocational education (TVET).

“Education systems are not seamless,” Walls observes. “Links between upper primary and middle school are often siloed. If those transitions fail, the cost is huge. Especially for disadvantaged learners.”

This is where Walls introduces the concept of convening power. Investments matter. But it is not about money alone. It is about bringing actors together in a political, technical, and operational triad to align reforms across the education continuum.

For the EU, this means really making the most of frameworks like Team Europe Initiatives to move beyond fragmented projects toward joint funding, shared monitoring, and collaborative policy design.

“It’s about creating coherence where fragmentation exists,” Walls explains.

The human cost of USAID’s withdrawal

Behind these structural debates lies a stark reality. The withdrawal of USAID funding has hit the most vulnerable hardest: girls, refugees, learners with disabilities, and children in poverty. In Lebanon, the third phase of the QITABI programme,  designed to improve literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional skills, was halted midstream.

In Jordan, $402 million in education aid vanished, leaving schools struggling to absorb Syrian refugees. In Egypt, reforms in higher education and technical training stalled, silencing voices that had only recently begun to be heard.

These numbers represent children who may never return to school or young people who will miss the chance to learn a trade.