This is Inklings, where we explore how aid works in the wilds of humanitarian hubs, on the front lines of emergency response, or in the dark corners of aid punditry.
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Today: Israel’s new NGO restrictions, criticism and thanks from people who use aid, and the ethics of shutting humanitarian programmes.
On the radar |
How to end well: Call it a sign of the times. Bond, the UK NGO network, has new guidelines on how to close programmes “whilst continuing to keep people safe”. When the Trump and Musk machinery severed US funding overnight, many US-dependent programmes shrunk or closed just as quickly. That left people turned away from shuttered clinics or programmes, and communities wondering why aid had suddenly stopped. It left many frontline staff out of work – and those who still had jobs with the task of trying to explain it all.
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Risks: The Bond paper highlights some of the many risks (beyond the loss of services themselves). There could be a rise in sexual exploitation and abuse – including for survivors with open cases who still need protection. Unfinished medical treatments could cause harm when stopped halfway. Sensitive data could be compromised in a rushed exit, when NGO sites are abandoned. Many of these risks have played out over the last two months as programmes shuttered abruptly. Local aid organisations have warned of increased threats to staff, a loss of hard-earned trust in communities, and big service gaps to fill. More on this below.
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Shutting down is an ethical issue: The US funding cuts underscore the importance of having exit strategies in place, humanitarian health specialist Bruno Abarca Tomás writes: “The way we close projects is a reflection of how much we care about people and their communities.”
“They feel abandoned”: Here’s one example of how sudden closures have evolved in Somalia. Loop, the aid feedback platform, has been receiving questions from communities asking why their cash transfers had stopped. “In every case, the beneficiaries are left in the dark about the reasons for the delay, leading to frustration and anger,” a Loop staffer, describing a range of recent feedback, wrote in a summary the organisation shared with us. “Many express confusion over why they are not informed about the payment issues up front, and they feel abandoned without clear answers or directions on where to ask their questions.”
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Feedback: Loop is a platform that helps communities give feedback about their aid. It also encourages aid groups to respond (hence the “loop”). Aid groups receiving sensitive reports have been less able to respond amid the upheaval of staff cuts and organisational restructures, said Alex Ross, Loop’s lead and founder. ”Our fear is that organisations, as a result of the financial situation, have to just close everything off and leave – close down,” Ross told us. “And you’re left with vulnerable populations that are more vulnerable and no mechanism to report fraud, abuse, et cetera – or reduced capacity of that.” Ross is proposing a slimmed-down version of Loop as a stopgap so that aid groups can continue (or start?) listening.
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What happened to Loop: When last we heard from Loop a year ago, it had just been forced to shut down because of funding and a bit of pushback from some aid groups. Well, life moves fast. Within months, Loop found a bit of new funding, restarted operations in Somalia, floated plans to open elsewhere, then slammed straight into the US funding cuts like most of the international humanitarian sector.
Israel NGO restrictions: Israel’s military has returned to killing civilians with airstrikes and bombing aid workers in Gaza. Overshadowed amid the hundreds of people killed this week: Israeli authorities were set to begin sweeping new restrictions on international NGOs that could leave organisations either compromised or booted out, aid workers warn. Under the guidelines, published this month, NGO registration and employee permits could be revoked for denying “the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”, having anyone connected with an organisation call for a boycott on Israel, or expressing support for legal action against Israelis ”before an international tribunal”. It also calls for NGOs to submit personal details and ID numbers for Palestinian employees, which rights groups say would further endanger these workers.
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“Refuse to submit”: In a statement, the Palestinian NGOs Network called on international groups to not engage “with this coercive registration framework, refuse to submit to conditions that compromise their independence, and stand firm in protecting humanitarian principles and speak out against these measures collectively.” It also called on the UN to “refuse to engage” with the new restrictions, “setting a clear precedent that humanitarian operations must remain independent.” Aid workers have been eyeing the registration rules with concern for weeks; international organisations have so far said little on record.
IOM cuts: Some 6,000 IOM staff will be affected by budget cuts, the UN’s migration agency said on 18 March. It’s a relatively rare self-accounting of the internal impacts of the US funding crisis – though, of course, it comes after extensive media reporting on staff cuts, on how management has handled it, and on IOM’s awkward positioning in the new Trump regime.
Acronymage |
Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week(s) is back for in-person sessions in Geneva starting 24 March, with an uncharacteristic sense of urgency amid the sector’s funding chaos.
“It’s not so much a conference as a festival,” former UN relief chief Martin Griffiths once said. And while “Coachella for humanitarians” never quite took as an unofficial moniker, there are still 300-ish panels to inform, delight, and maybe provoke. Shameless plug: This session on neutrality and Gaza features speakers from the Humanitarian Policy Group, Oxfam, Ground Truth Solutions, and some guy from a humanitarian news outlet.
HNPW is also an opportunity to spot gravity-defying acronyms and abbreviations in the wild. Here are a few:
INSARAG: The venerable International Search and Rescue Advisory Group is UN-mandated to coordinate the world’s many urban search and rescue (USAR) teams. If that sounds too on-the-ground for you, then the Specialist Expert Remote Advisory Group (SERAG) might be more your speed.
WORM: This is relatively new, if slightly contorted: Waste in humanitarian Operations: Reduction and Minimisation. But if “humanitarian” is in your name, surely there must be an H in your acronym?
DRWG: We’ll include the Data Responsibility Working Group, mainly for their binary logo…
IAPG: … and the Inter-Agency Procurement Group, because supply-chain maximisation will be all the rage very soon.
End quote |
“I was told that I would be called, but I have not been contacted since. It is not right for poor people to be registered and then not get back to them.”
Back to Loop: The organisation runs a dashboard of its community feedback stats, which also includes some of the questions, comments, and replies that come in. Sensitive feedback is not displayed.
The messages include a range of urgent requests, commentary, and some heartfelt thanks.
“My farm has not yielded anything recently; they have become drought-prone. I have children in need,” one person said in a voice message. “I am requesting humanitarian aid, especially if I am assisted with breaking the fast this month of Ramadan.”
Some share concerns about not receiving aid despite going through multiple registration processes: “Every Ramadan, they register us, but they do not give us anything. We are requesting that WFP should stop coming to our area,” one person said.
“I was registered with an agency a year and five months ago,” said another. “I was told that I would be called, but I have not been contacted since. It is not right for poor people to be registered and then not get back to them.”
One person called to thank an NGO for their help. “We have received immense support from the ACF organisation, which has been incredibly helpful to us,” she said. “They provide essential animal care products and also support the nutrition of malnourished children by supplying them with Plumpy Nuts.”
An NGO staff member replied: “Thank you for your kind words… Knowing that our efforts are making a difference means a lot to us.”
Have any tips, recommendations, or indecipherable acronyms to share with the Inklings newsletter? Get in touch: [email protected]
