“This sudden decision has caught us unprepared, leaving us no time to plan for the transition and making it extremely difficult to explain the situation to the refugees we serve.”
Michael Schöpf, International Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), comments on the decision of the US government to freeze the funds of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest single donor, for 90 days, pending “an assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.” This has resulted in the cancellation of 92% of the organisation’s overseas funding, with cuts affecting some 10,000 humanitarian aid projects. The recent Supreme Court decision not to cut payments to foreign aid organisations for work they have already performed for the government, regardless of the outcome, does not change the scenario. These decisions are likely to have serious repercussions at a global level, causing serious difficulties for governments, international agencies, NGOs and civil society organisations around the world.
JRS underlined in a statement that the decision could adversely impact projects ensuring life-saving support to vulnerable people in nine countries, including Chad, Ethiopia, Iraq and South Sudan. These projects support more than 100,000 refugees, mainly in the areas of education, mental health, emergency relief and social inclusion. In eastern Chad, for example, where the situation is particularly precarious, JRS has provided education to more than 10,000 students and employed 450 teachers. Without funding, most of these students will drop out of school and risk falling prey to people traffickers. The cuts would also affect mental health care for 500 students and income-generating activities for families. Without the opportunity to rebuild their lives, tensions will mount and peace could be threatened both among refugees and local communities,” warns Schöpf.
The US government’s decision – which is now being followed by declarations of disengagement from other European governments – highlights an alarming underlying tendency to disengage from multilateral cooperation, a fundamental pillar of humanitarian aid worldwide. Schöpf adds: “If we abandon multilateralism along with a values-based approach, there will be nothing to replace it. This could mark the beginning of a new global order in which transactions and national interests take precedence over human dignity.”
“Ours is not just an agency that provides essential services, but an organisation that accompanies refugees,” says Schöpf. “In times of crisis, we are there for them, standing in solidarity with families and all those who have been forcibly displaced.”
Caritas Internationalis denounced that ending this support will jeopardise essential services for hundreds of millions of people, undermine decades of progress in humanitarian and development aid, destabilise regions that depend on this crucial support and condemn millions of people to dehumanising poverty or even death.
The AVSI Foundation (Association of Volunteers in International Service) reported that services being provided or planned for more than 675,000 beneficiaries and 700 staff were facing immediate repercussions. Projects in Haiti, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Myanmar have all been adversely affected.
Doctors with Africa Cuamm operating in Karamoja, an extremely poor region in north-eastern Uganda, has run out of funds and assistance needed to complete two projects directly funded by USAID: the first for maternal and child health and neonatal care, and the second for mitigating the impact and spread of tuberculosis.
The Federation of Christian-inspired International Voluntary Organisations (FOCSIV), together with the 070 Campaign and the Peace and Disarmament Network, has written to the Italian Prime Minister asking that international cooperation and development be supported, and that the increase in Italian and European military spending must not further penalise international cooperation, including expenditure on social and environmental protection, which represent sound investments for a safer world and which are already being severely penalised by US decisions.
The greatest danger underlying the figures and the impact of this domino effect is the risk of monetising everything following a commercial mentality and the logic of power systems, thus reinforcing the perception that development aid funds are resources diverted from more important areas such as security.
These are just some of the worrying signs coming from partners large and small who, together with local communities, have implemented 18,600 projects in 108 countries since 1991, amounting to a total of EUR 2.6 billion, financed by funds donated to the Catholic Church by taxpayers through the “8 per thousand” tax deduction scheme. This small drop is in danger of becoming increasingly isolated in a growing sea of needs, and yet it remains steadfast in its quest to initiate processes that strengthen the capacities of all and promote local development, with a view to subsidiarity.
The aim is to promote the multilateralism “from below” called for by Pope Francis in Laudate Deum, whereby “the demands that arise from below, throughout the world, where activists from very different countries help and support one another, can end up putting pressure on the sources of power”. In fact, this crisis can be an opportunity to reaffirm the true meaning of cooperation, which involves building relationships, creating networks, engaging and involving an increasing number of people, reflecting and seeking new solutions together. In other words, to promote a culture of encounter and solidarity, and to work for the elimination of injustice and the protection of rights.
