USAID Funding Freeze Leave Over 85pct Of Ethiopian Nonprofits Crippled

Gov’t suspends work permits for foreign NGO staff

Over 85 percent of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Ethiopia have paused operations following the Trump administration’s clampdown on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sources told The Reporter.

CSOs working on human rights, peace, health, and development issues have especially been affected by the cutoff of funding from the US Agency, while others are also facing serious disruptions, according to the sources.

“Large CSOs in Ethiopia used to access up to 70 percent of their funding from USAID. Now they’re in crisis,” a representative of a prominent CSO told The Reporterspeaking anonymously. “We’ve suspended five of our projects due to the aid suspension.”

Other sources informed The Reporter that a leading CSO that had been supplying clean water to more than 100,000 IDPs in Tigray has also suspended operations following the USAID freeze.

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The Authority for Civil Society Organizations has responded to the situation by instructing CSOs from transferring property or conducting transactions.

“Recently, USAID has suspended grant and aid support. The Authority is closely monitoring the issue. The Authority will take necessary measures and provide support based on details from the USAID suspension. However, no Ethiopian CSO that has been receiving aid from USAID shall engage in any kind of transfer of property, sale, disposal, or any kind of transaction/transfer,” reads a notice recently issued to CSOs. “The Authority will take serious measures against any CSO found engaging in such actions.”

The financial troubles come at a time when CSOs are grappling with the federal government’s decision to suspend the issuance of work permits for employees of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The Authority announced the suspension two months ago.

“We could not bring in our foreign staff. We are trying to operate with local manpower but it’s become very difficult for us,” said the CSO representative, who also works at the Ethiopian PSO Council.

Fasikaw Molla, head of the Authority, refused to comment on the issue.

However, other sources told The Reporter that the order to suspend work permits for foreign expats came directly from the Office of the Prime Minister, and even the Authority does not have a say in the matter.

The government is also deliberating on a new regulation to govern the issuance of work permits to foreigners, and sources say the suspension may not be lifted before the regulation is ratified.

Nonetheless, CSO reps and officials who spoke to The Reporter say the work permit suspension is a less pressing issue than the USAID funding freeze.

“We heard the government has suspended providing permits for international workers.  We heard the government is preparing a regulation. There is a crisis in the CSO sector in Ethiopia. The USAID funding suspension has crippled all CSO activities and the Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations Council. National issues have become elementary. The operational environment was already in danger before the USAID issue,” said a source representing the Council.

The Council counts more than 4,000 CSOs as members, but the total number of CSOs active in Ethiopia is higher.

“The nature of the USAID suspension is unclear. They said it is a temporary suspension for 90 days. The only option is to wait,” said the source.

This week, US President Trump’s new administration responded in court to questions surrounding the cut of USAID grants that had been approved prior to the start of his second term in the White House.

Pete Marocco, USAID deputy administrator-designate, said the US State Department, led by Marco Rubio, has decided to eliminate around 92 percent of the Agency’s grants. The Trump administration has claimed total savings of nearly USD 60 billion from cutting 4,100 grants.

Aid groups and advocates have been raising alarms that cuts to USAID’s programs would lead to loss of life, particularly in humanitarian crisis zones such as Sudan, where over 1,000 food aid kitchens supported by USAID have closed amid widespread starvation.

The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAid projects for advocates to try to save in what are current court battles with the administration, according to reports.

In January, Trump ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight.

Major United Nations health programmes were among those to get termination notices, including UNAIDS, the Stop TB Partnership and Scaling Up Nutrition as well as projects helping millions of forcibly displaced people.

In total, nearly 5,800 USAID programs have been terminated, while more than 500 have been saved, according to reports. An additional 4,100 US State Department programs have also been terminated, while US officials say close to 300 are under review.

A lawsuit filed in US courts alleges that Rubio made the final decision on each program individually, maintaining or terminating it in accordance with national interests and foreign policy.

The sweeping cuts to foreign aid programs have dealt a significant blow to nonprofits and contractors around the world.

According to data modeling done by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the USAID cuts could push 5.7 million more Africans into extreme poverty over the coming year.

Washington’s decision was mirrored by the UK, where parliament moved this week to cut its already diminished foreign aid budget in favor of military spending. Analysts expect the EU to follow suit as Europe attempts to fill the funding gap left behind by the Trump administration in Ukraine.

Observers fear further cuts from the EU and UK would have disastrous consequences for CSOs in Ethiopia.