WOCCU and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions headquarters in Madison, Wis.
President Donald Trump’s freeze of overseas grants led the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) to stop work this week on the three projects that help credit unions in Ukraine, Guatemala, Peru, Kenya and other countries.
Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order led the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to issue 90-day stop-work orders this week for all three international development projects that WOCCU implements on its behalf through credit unions. As a result, the Madison, Wis.-based nonprofit said Thursday it has suspended work on:
- The USAID GROW Project in Ukraine;
- The USAID Economic Inclusion Project (EIP) in Peru and Ecuador; and
- The USAID Cooperative Development Program’s (CDP) Accelerating Growth and Inclusion in Lending for Credit Unions (AGIL4CU) Project in Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Kenya and Senegal.
“We remain committed to the cooperative principles that are shared by our vast membership across the world and look forward to continuing our partnership with USAID in advancing economic opportunities through credit unions,” it said.
The USAID GROW Project serves entrepreneurs, cooperatives and farmers in the rural areas of Ukraine, supporting agricultural production and food security in an area WOCCU said is central to supporting the global food chain.
The USAID Economic Inclusion Project (EIP) in Peru and Ecuador is designed to stimulate credit union lending and savings to Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and helps them obtain documentation that allows them to integrate into their local economies, thereby stemming their migration to the U.S. WOCCU said Venezuelan migrants enrolled in the project are earning more than double their Venezuelan peers not enrolled in the project, with young Venezuelan adults earning four times as much.
The USAID’s credit union project in Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Kenya and Senegal is designed to expand the ability of credit unions to provide value to their members, create jobs and contribute to the economy through increased financing to entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises.
WOCCU's latest annual report on its website is for 2023, which showed that USAID provided $7.57 million, or 99%, of its $7.66 million in development grant revenue. The group's total revenue was $16.62 million.
The New York Times has reported the executive order disrupts $70 billion of annual aid approved by Congress through bipartisan negotiations. While some waivers might be granted, the suspension of programs is causing many nonprofits to lay off workers and close offices, which they say will make resumption of the programs difficult even if funding is restored.
Contact Jim DuPlessis at [email protected].
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