Report traces impact of US foreign aid cuts on Australian agency programs
At the start of the year, Ciaran O'Toole says Conciliation Resources was just setting out on a five year project. "We work primarily in communities, building or enhancing the capacities in communities to be able to prevent violent conflict. We had just started a program in the in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and then it was quite quickly stopped as part of U-S AID pulling out." The international peace building group hoped to prevent violence in an area where conflict is increasing. Last year, 49 people were killed in the Highlands in what was considered a major escalation in tribal fighting in the region. "It is what not happens, right? It is the headlines that don't exist. It is around, sort of, working on these complex, long term problems at a community level. So it's not just reacting to when violence occurs." But the plan to station mediators to help communities find non-violent ways to address grievances in PNG's Hela province came to an abrupt halt in January, as the United States Administration paused all USAID funding for 90 days. Since then, only 14 per cent of programs have had their funding reinstated by the U-S government. Conciliation Resources was forced to let go of some staff, and reduce hours for others. "The communities that are affected by violence, and in particular, the women that suffer abuse, the people that are affected directly by violence who struggle to see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. Yeah. I would feel more for them." The program is one of more than 120 run by Australian agencies impacted by the cuts, according to a report by the Australian Council for International Development. Director of Policy and Advocacy Jessica McKenzie says the cost is in the hundreds of millions. "400 million ((AUD)) worth of programming has been cut. 20 country offices have closed, and we've seen a number of staff laid off. Just one agency had to let go of 200 local staff, not even their own staff, and they would have been single income families. And so you can imagine the flow on effects of this." The council expects the actual effect of the cuts to be greater, with less than half of its members responding to the survey. Australian-run programs in Indo-Pacific region were hardest hit, with $113 million AUD worth of funding lost in the Pacific closely followed by $111 million AUD in Southeast Asia. But the impact for Australian agencies extends throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ms McKenzie says a program assisting 765,000 people in Yemen was cut. "It was providing life saving medicine. It was providing life saving food, and it was providing malnutrition help for 26,000 children under the age of five." In Nepal, a program supporting over 300 girls to go to school has been axed. "That means that they're more exposed to modern slavery, to human trafficking, to force child marriage. The flow on effects of these projects and their ability to break the cycle of poverty are really quite compounding." The council found that child-related programs encompassing, education, health, nutrition, and anti-child trafficking took the greatest financial hit, closely followed by projects focused on climate change. The U-S Administration undertook a review during the initial pause to ensure only programs that aligned with the foreign policy of the President were funded by the government. Whilst aid organisations say they have been given little clarity as to why programs were cut, there's a belief that those focused on climate change and gender did not meet the expectations of the administration. Mr O'Toole says there was some themes within the cuts. "I don't think there was much thinking gone into it, to be quite honest. I think it was anything that included elements of gender, which our program obviously did. Possibly even the words peace building was eliminated, we believe, pretty quickly. There's a lot of talk around peace from the administration. A desire to sign peace agreements to Nobel Prizes, but at the end of the day, peace starts in communities. It starts with people. It starts on the ground." Australia's International Development Minister Anne Aly says the government is still working to understand the full extent of the U-S cuts.
"We are concerned that the cuts will have an impact, particularly on the poorer nations within our region, which is why we continue to say and to demonstrate that we are a trusted partner in the region. It's why we have not cut our a budget. In fact, we've increased our aid budget."
ACFID is calling for the budget to be increased from 0.65% to 1% of total federal spending to help fill the gap left by the United States. "In the past, between 2005 and 2015, it was at 1% of Australian federal expenditure. So this isn't a really big change." Labor reallocated $120 million of foreign aid from global health and education programs to the Indo-Pacific region in its pre-election budget in response to the USAID pause. Overall, Labor committed to spend an additional $135 million on aid in the next financial year, an increase in line with inflation. That's below Labor's Party Platform to increase the aid each budget as a percent of gross national income, with a final target of 0.5 per cent of GNI. It's remained stagnant at 0.19 per cent since 2022. Dr Aly says the overall spend will continue to be gradually increased. "That's what's in our platform. What I'm saying is what we have done is increase our overseas development assistance budget, and that we have made a commitment to increase it by indexation." Since coming into power, Labor has increased its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the Pacific with concerns about China's influence in the region driving increased investment and aid programs. Ms McKenzie says the government should priorities the programs with the greatest impact. "We can rebalance it towards more of those health, education, nutrition programs, rather than some of the more geostrategic imperatives." Dr Aly says Australia will continue to prioritise the Indo-Pacific.
"We're focused on ensuring that the countries in our region have economic resilience. We're focused on the health needs of the countries in our region. We're focused on ensuring that our aid goes to where it's most needed and where it can have most impact. I don't think it should be a point of contention that Australia should be focused on the region in which we operate."
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At the start of the year, Ciaran O'Toole says Conciliation Resources was just setting out on a five year project. "We work primarily in communities, building or enhancing the capacities in communities to be able to prevent violent conflict. We had just started a program in the in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and then it was quite quickly stopped as part of U-S AID pulling out." The international peace building group hoped to prevent violence in an area where conflict is increasing. Last year, 49 people were killed in the Highlands in what was considered a major escalation in tribal fighting in the region. "It is what not happens, right? It is the headlines that don't exist. It is around, sort of, working on these complex, long term problems at a community level. So it's not just reacting to when violence occurs." But the plan to station mediators to help communities find non-violent ways to address grievances in PNG's Hela province came to an abrupt halt in January, as the United States Administration paused all USAID funding for 90 days. Since then, only 14 per cent of programs have had their funding reinstated by the U-S government. Conciliation Resources was forced to let go of some staff, and reduce hours for others. "The communities that are affected by violence, and in particular, the women that suffer abuse, the people that are affected directly by violence who struggle to see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. Yeah. I would feel more for them." The program is one of more than 120 run by Australian agencies impacted by the cuts, according to a report by the Australian Council for International Development. Director of Policy and Advocacy Jessica McKenzie says the cost is in the hundreds of millions. "400 million ((AUD)) worth of programming has been cut. 20 country offices have closed, and we've seen a number of staff laid off. Just one agency had to let go of 200 local staff, not even their own staff, and they would have been single income families. And so you can imagine the flow on effects of this." The council expects the actual effect of the cuts to be greater, with less than half of its members responding to the survey. Australian-run programs in Indo-Pacific region were hardest hit, with $113 million AUD worth of funding lost in the Pacific closely followed by $111 million AUD in Southeast Asia. But the impact for Australian agencies extends throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ms McKenzie says a program assisting 765,000 people in Yemen was cut. "It was providing life saving medicine. It was providing life saving food, and it was providing malnutrition help for 26,000 children under the age of five." In Nepal, a program supporting over 300 girls to go to school has been axed. "That means that they're more exposed to modern slavery, to human trafficking, to force child marriage. The flow on effects of these projects and their ability to break the cycle of poverty are really quite compounding." The council found that child-related programs encompassing, education, health, nutrition, and anti-child trafficking took the greatest financial hit, closely followed by projects focused on climate change. The U-S Administration undertook a review during the initial pause to ensure only programs that aligned with the foreign policy of the President were funded by the government. Whilst aid organisations say they have been given little clarity as to why programs were cut, there's a belief that those focused on climate change and gender did not meet the expectations of the administration. Mr O'Toole says there was some themes within the cuts. "I don't think there was much thinking gone into it, to be quite honest. I think it was anything that included elements of gender, which our program obviously did. Possibly even the words peace building was eliminated, we believe, pretty quickly. There's a lot of talk around peace from the administration. A desire to sign peace agreements to Nobel Prizes, but at the end of the day, peace starts in communities. It starts with people. It starts on the ground." Australia's International Development Minister Anne Aly says the government is still working to understand the full extent of the U-S cuts. "We are concerned that the cuts will have an impact, particularly on the poorer nations within our region, which is why we continue to say and to demonstrate that we are a trusted partner in the region. It's why we have not cut our a budget. In fact, we've increased our aid budget." ACFID is calling for the budget to be increased from 0.65% to 1% of total federal spending to help fill the gap left by the United States. "In the past, between 2005 and 2015, it was at 1% of Australian federal expenditure. So this isn't a really big change." Labor reallocated $120 million of foreign aid from global health and education programs to the Indo-Pacific region in its pre-election budget in response to the USAID pause. Overall, Labor committed to spend an additional $135 million on aid in the next financial year, an increase in line with inflation. That's below Labor's Party Platform to increase the aid each budget as a percent of gross national income, with a final target of 0.5 per cent of GNI. It's remained stagnant at 0.19 per cent since 2022. Dr Aly says the overall spend will continue to be gradually increased. "That's what's in our platform. What I'm saying is what we have done is increase our overseas development assistance budget, and that we have made a commitment to increase it by indexation." Since coming into power, Labor has increased its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the Pacific with concerns about China's influence in the region driving increased investment and aid programs. Ms McKenzie says the government should priorities the programs with the greatest impact. "We can rebalance it towards more of those health, education, nutrition programs, rather than some of the more geostrategic imperatives." Dr Aly says Australia will continue to prioritise the Indo-Pacific. "We're focused on ensuring that the countries in our region have economic resilience. We're focused on the health needs of the countries in our region. We're focused on ensuring that our aid goes to where it's most needed and where it can have most impact. I don't think it should be a point of contention that Australia should be focused on the region in which we operate."
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