Trump administration officials have crafted a proposal to overhaul U.S. foreign aid programs, with a section exploring how it could make use of blockchain technology to track aid distributions and increase accountability. The plan would rename the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance and bring it directly under the Secretary of State’s authority, according to an initial report from Politico showing an internal document purportedly circulating at the State Department.
Under a section for “modernized, performance-based procurement,” the document references an initiative to secure and trace distributions “via blockchain technology” to “radically increase security, transparency, and traceability.” The proposal comes as USAID faces an uncertain future. In January, the State Department placed the agency’s staff on administrative leave and halted payments to partner organizations, prompting legal challenges.
A federal judge has since issued a preliminary injunction against dismantling the agency, following efforts by D.O.G.E., the Department of Government Efficiency, established by Elon Musk that sought to do so. It remains unclear who authored the document, as it appears to be scanned from a physical copy. Decrypt has reached out to the agency to learn more.
The proposal further argues that the approach would “encourage innovation and efficiency” and focus on “tangible impact” instead of “simply completing activities and inputs. “The blockchain implementation appears to be part of broader reforms intended to impose stricter controls on aid distribution, requiring measurable outcomes through “third-party metrics, not self-reporting.”
Congressional authorization would likely be required for major structural changes, though the document indicates some reforms could be implemented through executive action. More broadly, the proposed overhaul limits USAID’s focus on global health, food security, and disaster response, making U.S. foreign aid initiatives leaner in terms of scope.
The document also outlines a restructured framework based on three organizational pillars—”Safer, More Prosperous, and Stronger”—led by three agencies under the Secretary of State’s direction. The ideas resonate with existing literature on how blockchain technology could be used for public good. A 2018 article published in the Journal for Humanitarian Action cites core features of the technology as having the potential to “remove corruption by providing transparency as well as accountability.”
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