When USAID Pulled Funding, Nepal’s Mothers Paid the Price

The void left by shuttered programs is stark in Rautahat district, where the number of women seeking prenatal care has plummeted. Local health officials report that without community health volunteers to monitor pregnancies and explain danger signs, women are arriving at hospitals only when emergencies turn fatal. In the village of Prempur Gonahi, neonatal deaths—which had been reduced to zero by 2024—surged again within months of the funding withdrawal.

While the U.S. State Department maintains that its aid focus has shifted toward efficiency and that it remains a leading global donor, the reality on the ground contradicts this assessment. Organizations like CARE Nepal have seen their resources decimated, leaving centers without basic equipment or the staff necessary to bridge the education gap for impoverished, often illiterate mothers. Health workers emphasize that the interventions lost were both inexpensive and highly effective, such as fortified nutrition and clean birth kits, which previously prevented the very tragedies now becoming common again.