Times Of Swaziland: WITHDRAWAL OF USAID FUNDING A BIG BLOW WITHDRAWAL OF USAID FUNDING A BIG BLOW ================================================================================ Emmanuel Ndlangamandla on 03/03/2025 07:58:00 THE world we live in is changing very fast. The election of President Trump and his ‘America First’ agenda is affecting the global order. Unfortunately, funding opportunities which were dominated by the Western powers including the United States of America, repurposing its funding to boost military spending, has made it evident that development aid will dwindle and that is a disaster for the non-governmental organisations (NGO) sector that relies heavily on donor grants, especially from the Western powers. The non-governmental sector has been in existence in this country since pre-colonial years. Organisations such as Red Cross, Save the Children, the Catholics and Nazarene were instrumental in setting us up with a health and education facility to respond to the health and educational needs of emaSwati. The NGO sector has exponentially grown since the 90s due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is thus estimated that there could be around 500 NGOs some being community-based Organisations (CBOs), others faith-based Organisations (FBOs) and international non-governmental srganisations (INGOs). These organisations provide critical assistance to emaSwati in all the four regions. Of course the bulk of work where NGOs played a vital role since the 90s has been in responding to HIV/AIDS, which was declared a national disaster. How are non-governmental organisations defined? The World Bank defines NGOs as private organisations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services or undertake community development (Operational Directive 14.70, Aug 7, 2023). NGOs’ work in Eswatini NGOs are there to support or compliment government effort in development. Hence, they play key roles in the following sectors: health, HIV/AIDS, agriculture, education, gender, social protection, disaster management, human rights, environmental protection and climate change to mention a few. NGOs target the underserved in our society including: children, women, girls, young women, key populations and the disabled. The changing funding environment Eswatini NGOs have been grappling with dwindling funding as Eswatini is classified as middle income. However, there are some donors who have continued to invest in Eswatini development by channelling resources through the NGO sector. Of course, the HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria crisis saw a significant rise in funding flow to Eswatini to help stem the tide on these diseases. With start of the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2021, Western countries were forced to divert aid to support the humanitarian crisis as millions were displaced. Hence, some NGOs in Eswatini lost some grants. There were other wars such as the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This was also exacerbated by humanitarian crises due to natural disasters. All these developments impacted aid flow to Eswatini and other developing countries. Following the election of President Trump, he froze aid for 90 days. This affected USAID and PEPFAR funding. A number of NGOs were forced to close or scale down if they had no other sources of funding. The American Government leadership has been meeting their NATO and European counterparts where America has demanded that NATO members should pay more for their security. They also initiated negotiations with Putin, without participation of Europeans and Ukraine. This has caused the European Governments to increase military spending. Hence, the British Government has announced that it will increase its military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP and the Netherlands has also announced a major cut in development aid funding. This has indeed shocked the NGOs in Britain as they argue that military spending should not be at the expense of development aid. This is because development aid contributed immensely in peace. What will become of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals? As NGOs depend on external funding, it is clear that the changing funding landscape will be severe. Unfortunately, it is the beneficiaries who will feel the brunt. What should NGOs do? The NGOs should have a deep reflection on how they will respond to this unfolding crisis. Hence, organisations like CANGO should organise a dialogue platform for NGO leaders to assess the situation and then think outside the box regarding the sustainability of their organisations and their work in the country. The NGOs should engage government with a view to find solution. NGOs are already serving thousands of emaSwati, hence, the financial uncertainty will leave emaSwati without services from NGOs. A good example is the Luke Commission that has closed its doors following the United States Government aid freeze, forcing thousands of emaSwati to seek services in already stretched health facilities. Government should look at various options of how it can assist NGOs continue to serve emaSwati, otherwise the gains already made will be reversed. The private sector should also increase its social investment programmes in Eswatini or else the gains made in fighting HIV/AIDS will be threatened!