USGLC Unveils Blueprint to Reshape International Aid With Sunset Plans and National-Interest Alignment

At the Concordia Annual Summit, the head of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition laid out a sweeping framework for overhauling how the United States delivers foreign assistance — proposing that programs declare victory and shut down when they succeed, and that every dollar be tied to measurable American interests. With dozens of competing reform reports expected in 2027, the blueprint is an early bid to set the terms of a debate that could redirect billions in U.S. spending.

• USGLC releases blueprint organized around five practices to abandon and five principles to adopt for international assistance
• Lobito Corridor spotlighted as model for tying critical-mineral infrastructure to community health and governance investments in Africa
• Reform wave on the horizon: major commissions and reports on international aid restructuring due in 2027

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A Framework to "Know When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em"

Liz Schrayer, president and CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, used her Concordia session to unveil what the organization is calling the "Blueprint for Effective International Assistance: What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Next." The framework is built around two lists of five — practices to leave behind and core principles to embrace — and is designed to anchor the coming wave of aid-reform debates ahead of 2027.

Why it matters: International assistance spending is entering a period of intense scrutiny. Multiple reports and commissions are in progress, and the USGLC blueprint is an attempt to frame the conversation before those reports land — potentially shaping how Congress, the State Department, and multilateral donors evaluate programs worth tens of billions of dollars.

Where things stand: Schrayer outlined five practices the aid community should abandon:

1. Open-ended assistance without sunset plans — "Let's get serious about sunset plans, the idea that we should declare victory when something succeeds," she said, while noting that life-saving humanitarian aid during disasters must be preserved.
2. Assistance disconnected from national interests of any donor country.
3. Doing what a country can do for itself — pivoting support as nations reach upper-middle-income status.
4. Bureaucratic duplication and silos across agencies.
5. Underinvesting in capacity to deliver — "It could be the greatest program of all, but if it's inefficient in capacity, whether it's in government or not, it's not going to work," Schrayer said.

She acknowledged all five problems persist, citing examples of funding that continues flowing to successful programs long after goals are met.

The five principles to lean into mirror those concerns:

1. Align with national interests — for the U.S., that means "making us safer, delivering for our economic and jobs, advancing our values," Schrayer said.
2. Leverage private-sector capital.
3. Harness innovation, particularly technology and AI.
4. Deliver measurable results.
5. Build self-reliance at the local level through burden sharing and ensuring recipient countries have skin in the game.

"Given the stakes in the world, international assistance is more important than ever. But given the pressure on resources, it's more important than ever to make sure it's effective and agile," Schrayer argued.

The Lobito Corridor: A Case Study in "Winning the American Way"

To illustrate how the blueprint's principles work in practice, Schrayer pointed to the Lobito Corridor — a U.S.-backed infrastructure program that moves critical minerals from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Angola's port. The project spans multiple U.S. agencies, including the State Department, the Development Finance Corporation, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and pairs infrastructure investment with community-level work in global health, food security, and governance.

Schrayer drew a sharp contrast between the U.S. approach and that of unnamed competitors: "This is how America can win the American way, not just grab and go as some of our rivals do."

She closed with a personal story from Zambia — a young woman who was homeless and HIV-positive at 15 and, through a PEPFAR-sponsored program, became healthy and launched a fashion design business. "She was healthy, she was safe, and she was so proud about her fashion design business that she was building," Schrayer recalled, arguing the story demonstrates how U.S. assistance can be both strategic and compassionate.

What's next: The USGLC plans to produce a "report on reports" as the expected wave of reform studies arrives in 2027, aiming to elevate the strongest ideas across commissions. Schrayer urged the Concordia audience to engage directly with the blueprint, closing with a Dolly Parton quote: "You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try."