Proposed Cuts To International Aid Mean Less For The Needy

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) International cooperation organisations have been feeling the pressure since the Swiss government announced cuts in aid to developing countries to free up more money for defence spending. The most vulnerable populations worldwide may have to bear the brunt of this, while the needs on the ground are actually increasing.

Warfare, humanitarian crises, climate change, health... Rachel covers geopolitical issues from international Geneva. As a former environmental journalist, she has developed a keen interest in raw materials and has reported on mining conflicts in the Arctic. She also coordinates the 'Genève Vision' editorial project, a joint venture between SWI Swissinfo, Géopolitis RTS and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

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“We will have to shut down existing projects and cancel some that are at the planning stage,” says Catherine Schümperli Younossian, secretary-general of the Geneva federation for cooperation and development. NGOs working in development and humanitarian aid have been living in uncertainty since the government's announcement of budgetary reductions in international cooperation.

“We've been told to expect cuts of 8% to 20% in the 2025 budget,” she explains, citing the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

On November 13, the finance committee of the House of Representatives voted to cut the international cooperation allocation by CHF250 million ($280 million) for the 2025 budget and to increase the defence allocation by CHF530 million. The Senate had initiated the debate in summer by proposing cuts of CHF2 billion in the aid sector for the budget period 2025-2028. The two houses of parliament are to come to a decision during the winter session.

This is not the only threat to the aid sector, Younossian insists. In its plan for savingsExternal link presented at the end of September, the government proposed to freeze all spending on international cooperation from 2027 on, for a saving of CHF320 million. Only the armed forces would get a budget increase, to the tune of CHF4 billion.

These announcements have been a shock to a country that has traditionally justified its neutralityExternal link in world conflicts by pointing to its humanitarian commitment. Aid for development and peace is a pillar of Switzerland's diplomatic identity.“Bit by bit they are chipping away at aid to the poorest countries,” Younossian says.“Yet world stability depends on including the emerging nations too.”

Closing down development projects, less humanitarian aid, restructuring and job losses – the consequences of budget cuts are hard to predict at this stage.“We're waiting for figures to arrive at the end of this year. Uncertainty is very difficult, and our work goes unnoticed despite the increasing needs,” Younossian says.

The same complaints are to be heard from UN humanitarian organisations and agencies, already facing budget cuts.“Cutting humanitarian aid budgets has serious consequences for people needing vital assistance around the world,” says Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN, based in Geneva. He is expecting reductions in food aid, and planned projects having to be cancelled.

In Afghanistan, 183 health centres have closed this year, limiting access to care for 2.1 million people. In Lebanon, a reduction of 40% in monetary aid leaves 115,500 refugee families without help in meeting their basic needs. Cuts to food aid in Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Afghanistan have aggravated food insecurity there for already fragile communities.“In the end, the most vulnerable groups are the hardest hit,” Laerke says.

The Swiss foreign ministry didn't want to comment on the potential repercussions of these decisions on the activities of the SDC, saying it was too early.“It's currently difficult to predict concrete consequences of any reduction before parliament has its final say,” ministry spokesperson Valentin Clivaz told SWI swissinfo.

In July the foreign ministry estimated that a cut of CHF2 billion, as called for by the Senate, would mean Switzerland withdrawing from six to eight“priority”External link countries. Between now and the end of the year, Switzerland will be shutting down its development and cooperation work in Latin America, reducing the number of priority countries from 46 to 35, in order to concentrate more on Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In its future strategy for international cooperation, the government intends to allocate CHF1.5 billion – 13% of the total cooperation budget – to the reconstruction of Ukraine. This decision has not gone down well with development cooperation organisations.

“The reallocation is being done at the expense of developing countries,” says Younossian. A third of this budget is to be made available to the Swiss private sector to help rebuild Ukraine. This has never happened before in the history of Swiss cooperation efforts.

“We seem to be dealing with a paradigm shift here,” she says.“Instead of giving priority to emerging nations and hard-hit populations, as the federal legislation on cooperation actually envisages, they are cutting aid to the poorest in order to fund a hypothetical reconstruction of Ukraine, to benefit Swiss companies.” She thinks extra funds should be given to Ukraine in the form of a special allocation, as was the case with Eastern European countriesExternal link after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Asked about this, the foreign ministry declined to comment.

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