The USAID cuts triggered a contraction most organisations are still trying to absorb. The headlines focused on field roles — the health workers, the food security teams, the emergency relief staff. Those losses are devastating and irreplaceable.

What got less attention was the second wave: the grants managers, the reporting teams, the data analysts, the administrative staff who kept the compliance documented and the programmes monitored. These are the people who kept missions operational — and they were hit hard.

The result is organisations being asked to do the same work with far fewer people. The missions haven't shrunk. The reporting requirements haven't eased. The compliance deadlines haven't moved. But the teams responsible for all of it are operating at the edge of what's sustainable.

This is where we work. Not in field delivery — but in the operational layer underneath it. The layer that, if it breaks, brings everything else with it.