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What I'm Thinking About
What a month. The US aid freeze has put millions of lives at risk and thrown so many organizations into absolute chaos. It has also led to something unexpected: a moment of opportunity.
I’m seeing so many solidarity efforts to understand the impact of the freeze, create emergency funds for critical programming, and host virtual events to hold space for people to process what this means. But just as incredible are the reflections from all across the sector and the world about the opening that this crisis is providing.
Everyone I know who has worked with agencies like USAID understands how costly their funding is – in terms of the time and resources their funding demands; the values it does not align with, the local priorities that it flouts, and so much more.
We’ve seen allies within these institutions, but let us not forget that aid is inherently political. For proof, just look at Samantha Powers’ guest spot last week on The Colbert Show, where her case for USAID focused around “how US security is advanced, US prosperity and markets for American goods are being created.”
As we grapple with the impending fall out of this moment, I want us to have the difficult conversations that will allow us to come to terms with the fact that Western aid will not willingly provide the resources for the liberation of the Majority World.
Regardless of what happens next, the ground has shifted, and countries that previously relied on aid will need to figure out how to get by without it. So what happens next?
I hope we will find the space to redefine our respective and collective strengths, in a way that reshapes narratives around the power and agency we hold within our communities.
I come from a country where you often hear that our history is a series of missed opportunities. I’m hopeful that this will not be one of them.
What I'm Reading
Navigating the now
The aid freeze is making it harder to argue how egregious it is that one entity, representing one political power, can have so much power over so many lives. If you want to understand some of the impact the aid freeze is having in the Majority World, check out Accountability Lab’s impact tracker: https://www.globalaidfreeze.com/.
The hardest hit sector is health, including nutrition and feeding programs, transmissible disease testing, treatment and mitigation, and other life saving programming. If you are looking for ways to support the many emergencies around the world, Unlocking Aid launched a Bridge Fund to raise emergency funds for critical programs. There is also a working list of alternative funds that could unlock new opportunities.
So many colleagues are left in the lurch with barely a moment’s notice leaving so many in the Majority World with less income to support their families. Many people are reeling and could benefit from a dedicated space to process this moment in time. Fearless Project is hosting an hour-long virtual gathering on February 25th called Processing the USAID Transition: A Virtual Community Gathering for Global Development Professionals. The event will create a supportive space for development professionals to process this seismic shift together.
What has USAID’s legacy in Haiti been?
In the immediate aftermath of the freeze, I was provoked by this piece from Jake Johnston, author of Aid State, who examined USAID budget allocations in Haiti to call out the agency’s lack of results in the country.
In the early days of my career, I worked in and around several USAID projects in Haiti, and I never met a national staffer who believed in the work they were doing there. The blatant ways that the money went back to the US via bids for contracts on everything from monitoring and evaluation, project management, logistics and equipment was astounding. The data mining that allowed for fantastically inflated “impact” numbers has been a target of my ire for years.
Read Jake’s piece for some truly eye-opening data points, like the fact that firms in the Washington, DC area received more than half of all Haiti-related USAID spending in the 10 years after the country’s 2010 earthquake.
What’s Unsaid?
I was a guest this week on the New Humanitarian’s What’s Unsaid podcast. It’s a cool space that explores themes that practitioners aren’t often sought out to talk about or, in the case of its sister podcast, Rethinking Humanitarianism, where the conversations range from big picture systems issues to real stories that demonstrate the lesser known challenges of aid.
I particularly enjoyed the episode where feminist Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah talked about the unrealistic expectations for multi and bilaterals to truly do localization or gender equity because they are not structured to do so, in the interest of their home nations, and the status quo is too comfortable for the “powers that be” who are not capable of sharing power is such a way.
As we settle into the new normal sans USAID funds, Sekyiamah reminds us that in times of crisis, it’s a good time for women to lead and an opportunity to reshape societies to be more just.
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Check out the episode of What’s Unsaid that I mentioned, Why we need to fund feminists with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
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Check out this episode of Rethinking Humanitarianism on Why humanitarians should care about tax justice with Hassan Damluji, co-founder of Global Nation; Alvin Mosioma, associate director of climate, finance, and equity at Open Society Foundations talk about the importance of tax justice for fair societies in a world where the wealthy and powerful find ways to evade fair taxation.
Nguzo Africa: Is the aid freeze a wake up call?
Community foundation Nguzo Africa posted a reflection about the aid freeze, arguing that this is a wake up call for the aid industry and the organizations who have depended on it for far too long.
The authors call upon the movements that have pushed for aid advocacy for so long, especially the #ShiftThePower movement. It’s time to look around us and think about what we can do with what we have.
New book: Community-led development in practice
So unbelievably excited to see this book finally coming out! A much-needed work showcasing practical and realistic community-led initiatives worldwide.
Congrats to Gunjan Veda—and my Haitian colleague Louino Robillard. This has been a long time coming, and I’m thrilled to be part of The Movement for Community-led Development. |
