Courtesy of Knot Studios
For soon-to-be graduates, the outlook of employment in the foreign aid and assistance sector has significantly worsened in recent weeks. As of March 10, 83% of all foreign aid programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have been terminated, and as of March 18 a confirmed 15,596 Americans have lost their jobs following the Jan. 28 USAID Stop-Work Order, which froze funding for all USAID programs. The funding freeze and subsequent cuts of USAID programs have impacted both employment in government and at non-government organizations (NGOs) — in 2022, NGOs implemented 60% of USAID foreign assistance projects. In a preliminary ruling on March 18, a federal judge found the USAID cuts unconstitutional and issued a block.
Graduating Lewis & Clark senior Hayley Ammerman ’25, an international affairs major who plans on pursuing a career in foreign aid, provided her perspective on the current labor market.
“On a practical logistical level, it has obviously narrowed the availability of jobs on the market significantly,” Ammerman said.
During her job search, Ammerman connected with a mentor who recently dissuaded her from applying to jobs which rely on federal funding.
“I have a close contact in the State Department who had just started her job as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor for USAID a couple of months before the election, and obviously, now she’s out of the job,” Ammerman said. “I’ve kept in close contact with her … because she was supposed to be mentoring me on what to do after graduation. Her advice, basically, is just stay away from any sort of government-funded foreign aid institution or anything like that, because they’re just not going to hire you.”
She expressed concerns that, even if USAID funding returns, there may be fewer positions available for American nationals in the foreign aid sector.
“All these other countries who have those connections feel betrayed by the United States right now, and also have lost respect for us, and we’ve lost legitimacy,” Ammerman said.
LC’s Diplomat in Residence Niels Marquardt ’75 described how he predicts these changes will impact future employment in the foreign aid sector. Marquardt is a former U.S. Ambassador, and currently serves on the steering committee for GlobalPDX, an organization that connects the global development community — including employees of NGOs like Mercy Corps and the Portland Refugee Support Group (PRSG) — to one another.
Marquardt pointed out that new graduates not only face reduced job opportunities, but also competition with the more-established, recently-laid-off foreign assistance workers.
“For the short term, it’s going to be very difficult. I think there’s so many people who have made their livelihood in the foreign assistance industry,” Marquardt said. “It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that employs thousands of Americans all over the world, including in Portland, so that whole ecosystem has pretty much come to a standstill.”
Mercy Corps, a prominent foreign aid and assistance NGO with an office in Portland, receives 26% of its funding from USAID. On Feb. 13, the nonprofit announced a “workforce reduction” as a consequence of the grant cuts. On Feb. 28, Mercy Corps reported that it had terminated 41 programs which had the potential to serve over 5 million people worldwide. As of March 18, the exact number of terminated jobs is unknown.
“I know quite a number of people, I’ll say half a dozen people here in Portland who are part of that. They have worked either as contractors or directly for groups like Mercy Corps or Amnesty International, which are two big NGOs based in Portland, (or for) smaller ones,” Marquardt said. “And then there’s all other kinds of trickle-down effects from the freeze on federal funding that affect any number of NGOs.”
Similar to Ammerman, Marquardt expressed his concern that U.S. soft power, the ability to use non-coercive forces to enact change, would decline after the funding cuts. Marquardt cited the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) — an HIV relief program founded by President George Bush in 2003 under USAID — as an example. Since the funding freeze, PEPFAR programs have largely shuttered, leaving millions without care.
“If people are going to start dying because they’re not getting medications under, say, PEPFAR, that’s the opposite of soft power. That is a moral shortcoming that will not be overlooked if our adversaries will, of course, point out to people how the United States is responsible for these deaths,” he said.
Marquardt suggested some potential avenues to employment in foreign service that are not impacted by the cuts to USAID funding. He highlighted the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a bilateral U.S. foreign aid agency independent of USAID, as an option. He also encourages students to look into the Peace Corps, an agency which sends American volunteers to assist in development efforts worldwide and is often considered a stepping stone to a foreign service career.
“I’m a former Peace Corps volunteer myself. I’ve advised many students over the years that that might be a good step for them if they think they’re interested … in living and serving abroad,” he said.
Ammerman provided some alternative career paths she has been exploring in the wake of the employment crisis.
“(I’m) definitely turning a little bit more locally inwards, and domestically. I think aiming to work on Capitol Hill with congressional staff is a good idea,” she said.
Ammerman also highlighted think tanks— policy research institutions often funded by private donors — as another alternative. She is also looking into international organizations who operate independently of U.S. funding.
“My former USAID connection’s suggestion to me was looking at think tanks because they’re not funded (by USAID) and you’re still able to do research and advocacy through research,” she said. “I was just looking at Amnesty International today, and the UN, things like that, more like international institutions, I think are better places to start right now.”
Marquardt acknowledged that while employment prospects for new graduates seem grim in the short term, the changes to foreign aid funding will not be permanent.
“I see the alignment between Lewis & Clark values and what these people do. And I just have to recognize and acknowledge that, you know, this is gotta be very disappointing, but hang in there. It won’t last forever,” he said.
Ammerman encouraged students to not give up hope and instead take this as an opportunity to improve the foreign aid system in the future.
“I personally have been trying not to lose all hope in the prospects for our career field, because worse comes to worse, there will be a ton of work for us to do once this is all over … they are going to have a lot of empty positions that need to be filled with people who are driven by the passion for change.” she said. “The change will be getting back to where we were, and then also maybe changing it along the way, so that it’s better.”
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This is such a whine. One said “foreign countries have lost respect for us because of the shuttered USAID programs.” You mean, they lost our money! Do they respect themselves be permanently living off of other countries like the USA?
And the other guy claiming we are responsible for deaths in Africa? How do you figure? Americans aren’t responsible for the day to day wellbeing of Africans.