WOCCU Asks Secretary of State Rubio to Honor Existing USAID Funding Obligations

Elissa McCarter LaBorde

World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) President and CEO Elissa McCarter LaBorde on Monday sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressing the strategic importance of the USAID-funded financial inclusion projects WOCCU implements through credit unions in eight countries and asking he honor USAID's existing funding obligations.
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"USAID funding has allowed us to leverage millions of dollars of private capital through credit unions to increase the incomes of individuals, create jobs, support local economies and deliver what has become a global movement of self-sustaining, local financial institutions that do not depend on aid, but rather mobilize domestic savings and make people’s money work for them. By fostering economic self-reliance through trusted financial institutions, USAID and WOCCU help counter economic desperation, crime and instability—stemming further illegal immigration to the United States. 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," reads a portion of the letter.

McCarter LaBorde sent the letter one week after USAID issued stop work orders on all three of WOCCU's current USAID-funded projects at the direction of the U.S. Department of State. 

"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," wrote McCarter LaBorde.

You can view the full letter to Secretary Rubio here.

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