A freeze on US foreign aid, ordered in January 2025, is causing significant disruption to development projects in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. The abrupt halt has led to widespread staff departures and uncertainty about the future of long-term initiatives.

The goodbye emails started arriving on a Monday. By Friday, Sheila’s inbox told the story of an organisation coming apart at the seams, one farewell at a time. Sheila* had spent nearly a decade helping run US-funded development projects in the Philippines. She had watched them grow, hire staff and take root in local communities. When Washington ordered a freeze on foreign aid in January 2025, she told herself it was just a pause – a bureaucratic blip pending a review by the new...