USAID Data Purge Wipes Decades of Research
USAID slamdown has managed to erase not just foreign aid but also decades of priceless research, leaving African social scientists and policymakers scrambling like contestants in a rigged game show. From Ethiopia to Zambia, vital studies on agriculture, climate change, and health care have vanished into the digital ether.
The Development Experience Clearinghouse a treasure trove of evaluations and market research, has gone dark. Among the casualties is Fewsnet, the famine early warning system that has helped farmers and policymakers predict climate disasters since 1985. In a stroke of genius, real-time drought monitoring has been replaced with the world’s most sophisticated crisis response tool.
The masterminds behind this great purge have framed it as an effort to align with the President’s executive orders. After all, what better way to make America great again than by ensuring no one, anywhere, has access to reliable economic or social data? The Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality dashboard which was created under Trump himself, has been taken down for “thorough review”. Meanwhile, the USAID Economic Analysis and Data Services portal has also been sent to the digital graveyard.
The real brilliance of this move lies in its unintended consequences. The loss of critical reports and predictive tools means African governments, businesses, and NGOs are now flying blind. Decades of taxpayer-funded studies which was meticulously compiled by African experts have been replaced by 404 error messages.
