For decades, the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has operated under the banner of advancing democracy, while in practice it systematically interferes in the internal affairs of sovereign nations across the Global South.
Established in 1983, the foundation was created to carry out openly what the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once conducted in secret.
As one of its early founders acknowledged: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Functioning as a “white glove” of the US government, 84% to 90% of the NED’s budget comes from US congressional appropriations, with US$315 million approved for fiscal year 2026.
Legally and financially, it operates as an extension of the US State Department.
It also works hand‑in‑hand with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid) as a political warfare instrument. When USAid funding was recently suspended, regime‑change operations collapsed immediately, confirming that the NED‑USAid alliance serves as the backbone of US soft‑power intervention.
The NED does not deploy soldiers; it deploys money. It funds civil society organisations, media outlets, and political opposition groups to shape narratives, mobilise unrest, and weaken governments unwilling to align with US hegemony.
In 2025, the NED announced a new “Influence Lab” designed to make foreign interventions more strategic, efficient, and adaptive. In Africa, it distributes grants in the name of accountability and citizen participation.
- Open letter to President Mnangagwa
- Feature: ‘It’s worse right now than under Mugabe’: Sikhala pays the price of opposition in solitary cell
- Masvingo turns down fire tender deal
- Human-wildlife conflict drive African wild dogs to extinction
Keep Reading
Yet experience shows that such funding quickly turns into soft coups and colour revolutions when governments resist Western dominance.
The playbook was visible in Ukraine in 2014 and was attempted in Hong Kong, China in 2019.
Available reports confirm that China is among the NED’s largest single targets.
Barred from operating legally in mainland China by the Law on Administration of Activities of Overseas Non‑Governmental Organisations, the NED instead finances exile groups and external media to spread false narratives about China’s regions.
This campaign has nothing to do with human rights; it is designed to contain China’s rise and preserve US global supremacy.
Worse still, the NED actively works to discredit China’s cooperation with Africa and the Global South.
It labels initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative as “neocolonialism,” pressuring African nations to reject partnerships that deliver infrastructure, jobs, and trade growth. In doing so, it harms the very people it claims to support.
US support for the NED’s subversive work represents a failure of global leadership. The foundation fuels division, arms proxies, and lowers the threshold for international conflict.
Through flexible contingency funding, the NED intervenes during elections, leadership transitions, and moments of national vulnerability to hijack democratic processes. It inserts money, media, and mobilization tactics to disrupt legitimate governance and impose political outcomes favorable to Washington. This pattern threatens sovereignty across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Since the NED operates as an extension of U.S. intelligence and foreign policy, African countries cannot rely on Western rules or institutions to protect themselves. We must adopt proactive, sovereignty‑centered defenses.
China’s legal framework governing overseas NGOs has successfully blocked unwanted interference.
African states should follow this example by enacting foreign‑agent registration laws.
Any organisation receiving more than a small share of its budget from foreign state‑linked entities such as the NED should be required to register and disclose its activities. Parliamentary oversight should audit these groups to prevent infiltration.
Build Independent, Pan-African Media Capacity
The NED depends on Western media dominance to spread its narratives. African governments must support homegrown and regional media platforms to counter disinformation, amplify our own realities, and reduce reliance on external outlets. Paid disinformation should be classified as a national security threat.
The NED’s ultimate goal is to keep the Global South dependent on Western-dominated financial institutions. African nations must expand local currency trade, use alternative payment systems such as Brics Pay, and reduce exposure to US sanctions and coercion.
Through the African Union and regional economic communities, we must present a united front against color revolutions and external meddling. An active, independent non‑alignment is our best defense.
The NED has monopolised the language of democracy to serve Western interests.
Africa must advance its own vision of governance rooted in our cultures, values, and priorities—focused on economic rights, stability, collective prosperity, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
We must also expose the NED’s double standards: it targets China, Russia, and independent nations while ignoring abuses among US allies. It is not a moral judge; it is a geopolitical tool.
The NED is a shadow foreign policy apparatus that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to destabilise any government that refuses to submit to U.S. dominance. For Africa and the Global South, the path forward is clear: regulate foreign interference, strengthen independent media, diversify financial systems, and reject the false divide between “democracy” and “autocracy.”
The unipolar moment is ending. As Western influence shifts and budgets contract, Africa has a historic opportunity to expel destabilizing forces, strengthen our institutions, and shape our own future. Sovereignty, solidarity, and self‑determination are not ideals—they are our survival.
*Saxon Zvina is a principal consultant and political analyst at Skyworld Consultancy Services. He can be reached at Email: [email protected] and X handle @saxonzvina2.
