NGOs as a phenomenon are an interesting case study and I have been wanting to peel it down layer by layer for very long. However, before I could even get to it, it exposed itself.
Many people around the world, including me, are already exposed to the fact that NGOs predominantly funded by the West are not just charity organizations, rather they are a front for deep covert agendas ranging from regime changes, color revolutions, halting developmental activities, and importing western cultural monopoly.
It has been under discussion that these NGOs facilitate regime change under the pretense of true liberal democracy, the destabilization of development by the framework of environment and animal rights protection, i.e. preventing a dam from being built in order to save turtles and the superficial ideas of feminism, gender equality, and media freedom to destroy the cultural fabric of deep-rooted civilizations. Several states tried to counter this by regulating NGOs and forcing them to register as foreign agents by providing audits and information about their donors.
Recent discussions revealed that almost all of these NGOs operating around the world are linked to USA ID (colloquially read as US AID) which some confused with philanthropy and others as a soft power, however, it turned out to be neither. Its articulated agenda is to enhance people-to-people connection and foster goodwill among non-westerners toward the Western empire. After decades of this experiment, the result is that almost the entire population of the global south considers the West to be the root of their problems ranging from poverty, resource exploitation, and cultural destruction to never-ending wars, which is to say that USA ID has achieved none of its set objectives, not even the covert one.
USAID funded 6,200 journalists, 707 non-state media outlets, and 279 media-focused NGOs in more than 30 countries in 2023. Just imagine the total number of journalists and non-state-run media organizations that have been sponsored by USAID in last last 60 years
In my opinion, this exposé of USA ID would not be possible without the Russia Gate scandal and Trump’s impeachment efforts in order to establish him as a Russian agent. USA ID an apparatus of the US deep state played a major role in the campaign to malign Trump during this process. After becoming aware of this malicious labyrinth Trump decided to go on a revenge spree and exposed their darkest secrets, although already known to the broader world but never discussed explicitly.
Academicians, researchers, journalists, socialites, and vloggers from Iran, Myanmar, Moldova, Cambodia, AZerbaijan, Pakistan, China, Ethiopia, Jordan, Hungary, Egypt, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus living abroad will face the consequences of the closure of USAID because they have been funded by the agency directly or through its vessels like universities, small business houses, NGOs, etc. The sole assignment for them is to defame and damage their countries of origin.
A flag of US hegemony is going half mast?
Let us look at some of the information that has been revealed such the 2023-24 spending of hard-earned US tax dollars over providing $15 million for condoms to the Taliban through USAID, $446,700 to promote the expansion of atheism in Nepal, $1 million to boost French-speaking LGBTQ groups in West and Central Africa, $20,600 for a drag show in Ecuador, $47,020 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for an LGBTQ-centred comic book in Peru, $55,750 for a climate change presentation in Argentina to be led by female and LGBT journalists, $3,315,446 for “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean”, $7,071.58 for a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) speaker series in Canada, $80,000 for an LGBTQ community centre in Bratislava, Slovakia, $16,500 to foster a “united and equal queer-feminist discourse in Albania, $10,000 to pressure Lithuanian corporations to promote “DEI values”, $8,000 to promote DEI among LGBTQ groups in Cyprus, $1.5 million to promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals in Serbia, $70,884 to create a U.S.-Irish musical to promote DEI in Ireland, $39,652 to host seminars at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on gender identity and racial equality, $2.5 million to build electric vehicle charging stations in Vietnam and $425,622 to help Indonesian coffee companies (private entities) become more climate and gender friendly through USAID. The list indicates an interesting factor and that is heavy funding to LGBTQ communities in former Soviet Union entities in eastern European countries because the former Soviet Union was very harsh over same-sex issues. This begs the question of whether the beneficiaries of these donations actually benefit from them or if it is a money laundering operation in the guise of human rights protection. The data mentioned above is nothing but the tip of the iceberg because even the new US Administration would not share data about classified projects that had been done or are still going on through USAID engines such as academicians, media organizations, NGOs, INGOs, socialites, and intelligentsia. USAID-sponsored media rights organizations are targetting President Trump for opening Pandora’s box of USAID. This is because USAID had funded 6,200 journalists, 707 non-state media outlets, and 279 media-focused NGOs in more than 30 countries in 2023. Just imagine what would be the total number of journalists and non-state-run media organizations if the data were shared over the last 60 years—since USAID is working for the ‘better future of humanity”.
In 2025 US foreign aid budget allocated $268.4 million to support “independent media and the free flow of information,”. USAID has been distributing funds to provide training and support to “strengthen independent media,” including large media organizations and smaller or individual media sources operating under “repressive conditions” and 9 out of 10 media outlets in Ukraine rely on international funding. The list of researchers, scientists, innovators, universities, private corporations, small businesses, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Faith-Based & Community Organisations, Diaspora organizations, and Humanitarian Responders organizations have yet to be shared with the public because these are the critical tools of regime change, injecting western narrative among the public, particularly against youth and to manipulate social and economic development in targeted countries such as stopping water dams (remember Kalabagh Dam project), cultivating indigenous crops, cultivating and producing raw material for herbal medicines so on a so forth. Several questions include whether USAID is truly a humanitarian organization. Hidden dynamics behind USAID’s global reach are yet to come under scrutiny.
Trump ally Elon Musk is calling “USAID a criminal organization. Time for it to die” while Deep State media is calling Musk’s moves “efforts to ransack the federal government”. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) believes that the aid freeze appears to have put a hold on $268 million that was earmarked to fund “independent media and the free flow of information” this year. RSF added the full impact of the freeze is hard to measure since many recipients are “hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks.” This factor surely indicates that there is a possibility that thousands of journalists and media organizations who are taking financial support from USAID are not even documented in the Aid’s record and getting support from undocumented channels—a typical of intelligence networking.
Available documents indicate that academicians, researchers, journalists, socialites, and vloggers from Iran, Myanmar, Moldova, Cambodia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Pakistan, China, Ethiopia, Jordan, Egypt, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus living abroad will face the consequences of the closure of USAID because they have been funded by the agency directly or through its vessels like universities, small business houses, NGOs, etc. The sole assignment for them is to defame and damage their countries of origin.
Though USAID may be stripped of its current status and officially cease to exist, similar covert organizations under the direct control of the US State Department may continue to exist and promote US interests around the world under the guise of humanitarian support, going full throttle against BRI, BRICS and SCO
Data-based online organizations under the pretext of “investigative sites” will also face suspension of their projects. The effective journalist cadre is from Ukraine. RSF reports that journalism in Ukraine, where 90 percent of news organizations rely on USAID funding, some very heavily; will face the brunt. Olga Rudenko, the editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent which has received USAID grants in the past claimed that the freeze “has caused harm to independent Ukrainian journalism”. USAID had been promoting its cause to “support” journalists globally stating that “supporting independent media has been part of USAID’s democracy and governance assistance efforts since the 1980s”. USAID even had been providing financial support to journalists who faced lawsuits for publishing unconfirmed data against personalities, departments, states, etc. USAID administrator Samantha Power in her World Press Freedom Day speech in May 2023 stated that journalists shouldn’t have to deal with bankruptcy, bailiffs, or bullets and its organisation is there to support them. Now Ukrainian journalists promote an interesting possibility and that is the “entry of Russian money into Eastern European journalism”. They claim that some media might be shut down or bought by businessmen or oligarchs and Russian money will enter the market. They believe that abruptly suspending USAID has made many media outlets and journalists vulnerable, dealing a significant blow to press freedom while President Donald Trump believes that every dollar the US spends, every program the US funds, and every policy the US pursues must be justified with the answer to three simple questions—- “Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”. PEW Research Centre indicates that Ukraine was the single-biggest recipient of U.S. aid in fiscal 2023, receiving $16.6 billion. Israel got $3.3 billion in military aid in fiscal 2023. Other major recipients included Ethiopia, Jordan, Egypt, and Afghanistan.
Now it is easy for students of media studies and political science to decipher why Western media as well as Western human rights groups have been promoting a certain political figure and defaming Pakistan’s military for alleged human rights abuses
Having said all this, I feel like I have to point out that even though USAID may be stripped of its current status and officially cease to exist, similar covert organizations under the direct control of the US State Department may continue to exist and promote US interests around the world under the guise of humanitarian support, going full throttle against BRI, BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
At least from now on we will have the possibility to discuss it openly. Regarding Pakistan’s scenario, it would now be easy for students of media studies and political science to decipher why Western media as well as Western human rights groups have been promoting a certain political figure and defaming Pakistan’s military for alleged human rights abuses. Do my readers and students remember the role of Western media and Western NGOs in ruining the future of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and several African countries?
Shazia Anwer Cheema is an author, and analyst and writes articles for national and international media outlets. She did her M.Phil in Cognitive Semiotics from Aarhus University Denmark and is completing her Ph.D. in Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News.
Shazia Anwer Cheema is an author, and analyst and writes articles for national and international media outlets. She did her M.Phil in Cognitive Semiotics from Aarhus University Denmark and is completing her Ph.D. in Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague.
