By Kate Newman
Whatever your views are on USAID, its policies and how it has distributed money, we must not ignore the destructive impact its suspension has already had on many people’s lives. Halting US aid is already causing direct harm to essential services which many across the globe depend on.
The long-term impact of its current suspension, and whatever happens next cannot yet be known. There are those looking who suggest that this could be the end of an era. They predict a permanent closure of USAID, an abandonment of the United States’ aid effort, unless it is in the interests of ‘America First’. This could provide permission for similar actions in other parts of the ODA giving world, especially given the rise in right-wing populist governments in many other contexts. For some, this creates fear for lives that will be lost and concern that there will be real reversals of progress to raising living standards and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Others see opportunity – a chance to redefine development agendas, reduce dependency on aid, shift power, enhance space for locally led agendas and action, and develop a new global social contract, based on shared interest and collective responsibility.
Whatever happens in the long term the impacts will be multi-faceted and context-dependent. What ties to foreign aid, and the withdrawal of that aid, mean in one place will be very different from what they mean somewhere else. It is important to pay attention to this period of transition, as part of considering what the future might look like.
While we cannot know what will happen, we can be sure that the way the things are happening now is damaging. Those employed in USAID are threatened with unemployment, many of the organisations funded by USAID are facing an existential crisis, and those who participate in USAID funded programmes are losing access to the urgent services on which they depend. We also know that civic space is under threat in all parts of the globe, and that at this point more than ever civil society support is crucial – not only to meet immediate needs but also to influence the shape of the world to come.
At INTRAC we will monitor the diversity of impacts and responses to the Stop Work order, keeping our focus on being unashamedly for civil society. While we argue that the roles and responsibilities of global and local actors must be redefined to recognise and start to repair our colonial past; and to create space for locally led development, we believe that both have a role to play in a resilient, effective and legitimate civil society. We will continue to focus on our contribution to strengthening civil society support infrastructure. We want to learn with others as they navigate this space, and share knowledge from previous experiences which might help as the sector grapples with what is happening now, and what might come next.
We believe all actors committed to equitable, diverse, inclusive, resilient, effective and legitimate civic space have a role to play; and we intend to deepen our learning and understanding as we collaborate with others to strengthen ecosystems of civil society support and protect civic space.