The global workforce of the U.S. Agency for International Development has been placed on administrative leave. This move is part of the Trump Administration’s plan to cut 
costs and streamline the government. Lani Jordan is a Minnesotan who has spent the last eight years as an expert volunteer consultant for USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer program. She says USAID makes the United States stronger by creating stable democracies around the world. “We have trading partners and allies as opposed to people we to deal with who may not be our friends,” said Jordan. “If we don’t do this, China and others will step in and that weakens us as the U.S.” Through her work with USAID, Jordan worked with farmers and small businesses on economic development in Moldova, Ghana, Malawi and Tunisia. Jordan supports a systematic approach to reviewing all of these programs and projects. “I hope supportive folks in Congress can have those conversations with the Administration and we can move back from what looks like a short-signed slash-and-burn approach to something that can save the best of these programs that have been built over a better part of eight decades.” Listen to the full interview.
