“People in Need is relatively well protected”: How Trump’s aid cuts affect Czechia’s foremost NGO

  • “People in Need is relatively well protected”: How Trump’s aid cuts affect Czechia’s foremost NGO
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On his first day back in office, US President Trump halted all foreign assistance from the United States – which is the world's largest aid donor. Trump’s decision to stop funding foreign aid will also affect Czech humanitarian and non-profit organizations. Funding from these programs represents about a quarter of the organization's budget for People in Need, one of Czechia’s foremost NGOs. However, just yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that exemptions had been made in US aid for humanitarian work. So, I reached out to the Director of Institutional Relations at People in Need Richard Walker, to see how People in Need is adjusting to the news.

First, can you explain to listeners what exactly US President-elect Donald Trump's executive order to halt all international aid means for People in Need (PIN)? How reliant has PIN been on this funding?

Richard Walker | Photo: People In Need

“The first executive order that was issued, because of course we have now seen some amendments and exemptions to this, essentially brought a halt to all US foreign assistance and foreign aid across the world. There were some exceptions, of course, for Gaza and some others, but all of their development programs and, initially, even the humanitarian programs were put on suspension. All US partner agencies within the last few days have received these orders. However, there was some uncertainty about exactly the processes, what’s behind them, and exactly who would be getting exemptions and for what.

“Some of that clarity has now been provided with [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio's recent exemption order, which seems to indicate that humanitarian assistance and life-saving emergency assistance are now generally exempt from this halt.

“We are still seeing this as a developing issue. We are following it, of course, closely. We are in touch with our partners, the national organizations that we work with, and, of course, our donors. Everyone is following this situation, as the impact is potentially catastrophic.

People in Need in Ukraine | Photo: Martin Dorazín,  Czech Radio

“From PIN's perspective, US funding makes up about 25% of our portfolio. The vast majority of that is in the humanitarian and emergency sector. So, we are assuming that the impact on PIN and its programming will not be as extensive as we could expect from many other organizations that are fully reliant on the US for both their development and emergency funding. The ramifications across the industry will still be very significant.

“I think one of our biggest concerns, of course, is around human rights and, let's say, diversity. When we think about the importance of diversity in inclusion development programming, US policy is fairly adamantly against having these programs supported. We believe that the impact on things like human rights activists and independent journalists who are at risk of persecution will certainly leave them without assistance and support. This, for us, is, of course, a critical issue that we will follow closely and address.”

So, humanitarian aid is the one that they're kind of creating these exemptions for. But how are they going to be looking at these exemptions?

“So the criteria they're using, because the suspension is part of a 90-day review process, is to really try to align America's foreign assistance with America's foreign policy, which is, of course, radically different under Trump than it was under Biden. We expect that this review process will bring clarification, but it may take some time to work through.

“What is key is that things like maternal health, reproductive health, abortion support, and anything related to diversity around gender, transgender, or related issues will not be something that the US will either fund or support. We have some of these programs, but not often with US funding. They come from EU member states or other sources. So again, PIN is relatively well-protected, but this is a concern we are also seeing happening in the EU as well, so it's not just a specific US issue.”

And is it fair to say that some of that backtracking came because of the pushback NGOs were giving?

“I think partially there's been a massive reaction internationally to this. But when you consider that US foreign assistance for development and humanitarian work makes up about 50% of the overall funding, possibly even more in some cases, the impact of stopping that across the world has affected millions and millions of people. It has affected thousands of organizations. A lot of the advocacy work, either through networks or, of course, from specific organizations, has ramped up. And I'm sure the administration is being bombarded with this.

“The criteria they're setting, which are, "Does this project make America stronger, more wealthy, or more influential?" are pretty broad criteria to evaluate a project under. And this is still going to take an awful lot of work to be done over the coming months.”

And just very quickly here, lastly, you were touching on some of the projects that you're looking at that will be affected immediately on this. Is there anything that you discussed with your team that will not be a priority because of this executive order?

“I don't think it will be a priority for PIN. Human rights, for us, is the second leg we stand on. It’s an absolute fundamental principle and foundation of the organization. So we will certainly never stop, whether the US decides they don't like it or not. Fortunately, there are many other donor organizations, states, etc., that do keep these topics as their priorities. We are hoping, of course, that many of them will step in to fill what could potentially be a significant gap.”