World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) President and CEO Elissa McCarter LaBorde sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in response to the stop-work orders placed on all three of WOCCU’s current U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded projects at the direction of the U.S. Department of State.

The letter asked Rubio to honor USAID’s existing funding obligations and stressed the strategic importance of the USAID-funded financial inclusion projects WOCCU implements through credit unions in eight countries.

“At WOCCU, we believe in foreign assistance programs that deliver measurable, long-term benefits for both the developing world and the American people. However, the nature of this sudden blanket freeze on aid has put organizations such as ours in a precarious financial and legal position, and it has put our employees—American citizens here and abroad—at significant personal risk," wrote McCarter LaBorde. “We urge you to honor the equitable adjustments for existing obligations of funding for organizations that have been put under duress with little guidance on how to recover their immediate operating costs, and honor payments still pending for work completed prior to the stop work orders.”

USAID administers the Cooperative Development Program, a global initiative focusing on building capacity of cooperative businesses and cooperative systems for self-reliance, local ownership, and sustainability. 

During the life of the program, activities have supported more than 500 cooperatives and credit unions resulting in more than $495 million in benefits in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The full letter is available to read here.