U.S. National Endowment for Democracy suspends support to worldwide partners

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an American NGO, has announced suspension of support to worldwide partners due to inability to access its appropriated funds after the Trump administration halted foreign aid.

In a statement published on its website the organization argued that nearly all of its funding is not actually considered foreign assistance and is not subject to the executive order.

“The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is currently unable to access its Congressionally appropriated funds, which sustain nearly all of its grantmaking and operations. As a result, for the first time in the organization’s four-decade history, it has been unable to meet its obligations and has been forced to suspend support for nearly 2,000 partners worldwide,” NED said in a statement. Ninety-five percent of NED’s funding is directly appropriated by Congress and is not considered foreign assistance. This funding therefore was not subject to the executive order freezing foreign assistance for a ninety-day review. However, despite being exempt, access to these funds has been inexplicably cut off, forcing NED to halt all partner support and furlough the majority of its staff. While the U.S. Department of State has suspended a small portion of NED’s funding as part of the foreign assistance executive order, those funds represent only a fraction of the Endowment’s total budget,” NED said.