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11/13/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/13/2025 14:10

A Complex Legacy: U.S. Global Food Security Assistance, 2008–Present

A Complex Legacy: U.S. Global Food Security Assistance, 2008-Present

Photo: OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary by Caitlin Welsh, Rose Parker, and Joely Virzi

Published November 13, 2025

Among the U.S. government global development programs paused or terminated in 2025 are those that aimed to improve global agriculture and nutrition. These programs reflect longstanding, bipartisan support for U.S. global food security efforts. These programs also reflect a complex array of U.S. legislative, bureaucratic, and funding priorities regarding food security. While the cessation of these programs represents losses-lost U.S. influence globally and lost support for food security by recipient countries-it also represents an important opportunity. Going forward, U.S. lawmakers may consider ways to streamline U.S. foreign assistance for global food security to reduce duplication of efforts, ensure complementarity of investments, and further U.S. national security interests.

Interact with the infographic below, which looks at eight of these U.S. global food security assistance programs over the last four presidential terms and illustrates their reach around the world.

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Caitlin Welsh

Director, Global Food and Water Security Program
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Rose Parker

Program Manager, Global Food and Water Security Program
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Joely Virzi

Program Coordinator and Research Assistant, Global Food and Water Security Program

Programs & Projects

  • Global Development
  • Global Food and Water Security Program
Remote Visualization

To explore more, the tables below detail each program's funding (in USD millions) to each recipient country. The data is derived from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Where data is not listed, data was not available.

Remote Visualization
Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Community Development Funds Emergency Food Security Program Feed the Future Food For Peace Title II Food for Progress McGovern-Dole Food for Education Millennium Challenge Corporation (Agriculture-Related Programming)

Caitlin Welsh is the director of the Global Food and Water Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Rose Parker is a program manager with the Global Food and Water Security Program at CSIS. Joely Virzi is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Global Food and Water Security Program at CSIS.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2025 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Tags

Economic Security, Food Security, International Development, and Humanitarian Assistance

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CSIS - Center for Strategic and International Studies Inc. published this content on November 13, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on November 13, 2025 at 20:10 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]