Youth were already underfunded. Then USAID froze.
Quiz time: What percentage of health funding goes to youth programs? 1.6%.
That's not a typo. Despite young people making up a quarter of the global population, development funding for youth has always been pocket change.
Now with USAID's funding freeze, that trickle is becoming a drought.
The truth is, USAID has long needed reform. But completely freezing funds isn’t reform: it’s devastation.
Across 42 countries, nearly 4 million women have been cut off from contraceptives. 51,000 people have lost their jobs and more layoffs are coming. Enough food for 2.1M people is stuck in limbo in a port in Djibouti, unable to make it to Ethiopia. Critical support systems are disintegrating in real-time.
There's been a lot of noise around what has been a systemic dismantling of USAID–from condoms in Gaza to LinkedIn becoming a graveyard of development professionals searching for work.
One voice has been notably absent from these conversations: young people.
So we sat down with youth leaders from Nigeria and Rwanda who have navigated chronically underfunded systems for years. While the USAID freeze magnifies an already devastating funding gap, young leaders have been building more sustainable funding pathways long before and post freeze. It's time we listened to them.
The System Was Always Broken
Responsible for $1.50 out of every $5 international development dollars according to ODA, the USAID freeze has thrown the systems globally that rely on humanitarian and development funding into limbo.
But for many young people, that coin-purse was kept well out of reach.
Nearly 90% of the world's 1.8 billion young people live in developing countries–the same places where funding for youth programs remains devastatingly scarce. Funding is so scarce, in fact, that it is hard to find concrete numbers on investments in youth-led development full-stop.
Youth leaders like Dr. Ibrahim face a Sisyphus-like challenge when entering the funding arena–where good ideas take a backseat to pro-grant writers and the ‘Big League’ NGOs.
"Last year, I attended a summer webinar series aiming to understand how young people that are working with initiatives can work with them [USAID], and where they learned how to engage with them through their website and apply for their grants."
Translation: You need special training just to figure out how to apply.
And even then, there are systemic barriers that keep young people from accessing funding at national and global levels.
Funding applications demand academic-level expertise, with complex jargon and documentation requirements that require a dedicated grant-writing staff—resources most youth organizations simply don't have. Then there’s the experience requirements that systematically ignore youth expertise: funders demand years of experience, organizational history, audited financial accounts, and extensive track records, effectively screening out emerging youth initiatives regardless of their potential.
What makes the USAID freeze particularly devastating is that it's hitting the few programs that were actually working for youth. YALI, the Young African Leaders Initiative, connected Dr. Ibrahim and Alice Mukashyaka to crucial networks and training as a young person. Since the freeze, it has completely shut down operations. Certificate distributions halted. Programs vanished overnight.
"We realized this is the new reality. We must depend on each other to sustain our work," says Dr. Ibrahim. Youth leaders are now tapping into their networks to keep projects alive without donor support.
Youth Aren’t Waiting Around
While the development sector scrambles to respond to the USAID freeze, many young leaders who managed to tap into USAID funding are already forging new paths.
Alice Mukashyaka, founder of Starlight Africa, knows this reality all too well. Her organization works with high school girls in Rwanda, encouraging them to pursue STEM careers through experiential learning. Before the freeze, Alice had secured a commitment from USAID to expand her programs to three additional schools.
But when the freeze hit, everything stalled.
"We had to change everything. Instead of expanding, we shifted to strengthening what we already had. The freeze forced us to rethink how we attract funding," Alice explains.
Alice's experience reflects thousands of similar stories across the world, where promising youth initiatives that finally secured USAID support now find themselves back at square one. For her, this means focusing on building partnerships locally and refining existing programs. Her shift in strategy underscores a growing realization among youth leaders—sustainability must come from within.
Meanwhile, another Rwandan entrepreneur (who requested anonymity), has spent eight years running a social enterprise that reaches over 10,000 young people with sexual health education. She faced repeated rejection from both traditional business investors and angel investors.
"I could go to business investors—they told me I was like an angel because of the social impact. I went to angel investors—they said I was too business-focused."
The female Rwandan entrepreneur pivoted to a hybrid model. Her enterprise generates revenue through home décor products, using profits to fund her sexual health initiatives.
Dr. Ibrahim in Nigeria emphasizes community-based social entrepreneurship as another viable path. "Local philanthropy has a very big way to go in terms of development. People that are living within their community that have the means of helping out should help their community achieve what they want to achieve. Social entrepreneurship is something that we really need to take a look at. Your community may not necessarily have to be for profit, but at the same time, we need to understand that there is a reason we need sustainability for it." His organization, Hope for Her, combines education, vocational training, and advocacy—all designed with sustainability built in from the beginning.
The common thread between Alice, Ibrahim, and the Rwandan entrepreneur is clear: they are building systems that outlast donor cycles and eliminate the bureaucracy.
The Rwandan entrepreneur points out: "By the time funding passes through big organizations, there's already so much bureaucracy. Direct funding to youth-led initiatives would change everything."
Investment in Youth is a Sure Bet
If there’s one takeaway from these conversations, it’s this: investing in youth isn’t a gamble.
The Rwandan entrepreneur’s hybrid funding model, Alice’s STEM initiatives, and Dr. Ibrahim’s community-based approach show that young people have bold ideas, plans, models, and the determination to execute them.
While the USAID freeze demands immediate action, it also forces a reckoning with a broken system. Youth-led initiatives aren't waiting for permission to prove their worth. They've already done it.
In a world of uncertainty, betting on youth might just be the most certain decision individuals and funders alike can make.
Ready to partner with us to help youth lead the way? Reach out to our team today!
