Funding reduction exposing some hard realities about aid | Associate Writer

Funding cuts only exposed the inefficiency of aid, whose narratives were used to justify the “need” to remain in specific contexts for decades. Focusing on needs-based approaches and not taking into consideration rights-based approaches. Considering duty-bearers as incapable and creating parallel systems to replace them. Treating communities as recipients of aid and not as active rights holders. Cutting the relationship between the states and their subjects.

Sustainable change after a crisis is possible when duty-bearers are capacitated, supported, and held accountable by international law holders.

Now we contemplate and ask: what to prioritize? Which sectors, which crisis?

We are fighting for the survival of aid agencies. We need to ask: where and when did the system fail to do what it is intended to? And now, how can less funding “fix” what was made more dysfunctional over time?

If we answer these questions, we need to be ready to admit that aid, often through parallel systems, contributed to making duty bearers more dysfunctional and less capable of supporting their communities.