Australia does what it can as US aid cuts savage PNG
In January last year, Havini Vira was overseeing a climate resilient agriculture project in Papua New Guinea.
The three-year program, funded by the United States, was nearing completion with the distribution of saplings to communities across the country, including Bougainville and the forested highlands of New Guinea.
“It was later terminated,” Mr Vira told AAP.
The CARE International project was sidelined, a victim of Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAID, one of the president’s first acts of his second term.
The once far-reaching agency halted foreign aid as of September; More than 80 percent of humanitarian efforts have been completely canceled amid widespread dismay both at home and abroad.
“We had communities of about 20,000 people ready to set up facilities,” Mr. Vira continues.
“New crops, new technology… were left unplanted.”
The project made sense for Papua New Guinea but was small beer in the context of global disruptions.
The shift in America has seen billions of dollars withheld from the world’s most needy people; Other governments followed suit and made further cuts.
CARE lost $190 million in funding and ended 49 programs affecting an estimated 18.4 million people in 32 countries.
Mr Vira, an experienced development assistant specialist based in Goroka, says the situation has stunned his team.
“At the end of the day, it’s their decision, their money,” he says.
“But there has been a lot of good work done by USAID in the country in the past, with great progress and support across the country over the years.
“It would be great to pack up and leave without notice, you know, without exiting and giving at least six months’ notice so we could prepare our communities and prepare our exit as well.
“This was shocking to me. I’ve never experienced this in all these years.”
The withdrawal affected two CARE International projects in PNG; the other, based in Bougainville, was a development initiative aimed at developing and improving governance in local government.
In the first stage, the project was left unfinished and abandoned, but in the second stage, Australia stepped in.
A school lunch project across the Arafura Sea in East Timor has also been halted.
CARE Australia’s Director of International Programs and Operations, Bianca Collier, said a $26 million program was providing high-protein meals to 70,000 students a day.
“Rates of malnutrition and child stunting are very bad in Timor, and the program was working on improving literacy and improving health outcomes,” he says.
In this example, Australia stepped in again but failed to reach the same level, meaning the project has now helped just 12,000 people from the most vulnerable areas.
“No one can fill the magnitude of the US funding cut,” he says.
Other projects, such as establishing communications networks to help disaster-prone Vanuatu or supporting NGOs across the region, have also now ended.
It’s been a year since the bombshell announcement, and with the industry devastated by disruption, demoralization and uncertainty, professionals are wondering what’s next.
In the Pacific, all eyes are on the Albanian government’s next budget, hoping for a funding boost to match the generosity of other developed countries.
“It’s really stepping into the field and recognizing that aid plays an important role in soft diplomacy, but also recognizing that helping our struggling neighbors is the morally right thing to do,” Ms. Collier says.
Australia’s total official development assistance contribution in PNG is worth approximately $640 million annually, in addition to the $3.1 billion it provides in budget support loans.
