The aid cuts keep coming – and so do the repercussions

Back in June, I joined hundreds of young people for a “jamboree” in an old supermarket car park in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. It was pouring with rain but the weather did nothing to dampen spirits. Music blared and people danced, sang and played games. The atmosphere was joyful but the reason for the gathering was deadly serious.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Youth Jamboree – to give the event its full title – was organised by a coalition of feminist and LGBTQ+ groups in response to an event taking place over the same two days just a couple of miles away: the Strengthening Families conference, organised by the Mormon church in the city’s ministerial complex.

The risk that these conferences pose to African women’s, children’s and LGBTQ+ rights is well documented – and with aid cuts the threat is growing.

Sweden was the second-largest donor to Liberia – and the biggest champion of women’s rights. But on Monday its decades-long support to the country came to an end. Its withdrawal does not just put vital programmes in jeopardy, it leaves women’s and LGBTQ+ rights groups without a key ally in the fight for equality.

But it is not the only country to cut aid. The US was Liberia’s biggest donor before USAID was dismantled by the Trump administration. It led the effort to combat the 2014-16 Ebola crisis. Its funding made up almost half of the nation’s healthcare budget; it strengthened democratic institutions and built schools. In an opinion piece published this week, a former USAID officer argues that if the American public had been made aware of the positive impact of this sort of funding, the agency might not have been shut down so swiftly and with such devastating consequences.

The activists I met in Monrovia do not lack the will or skill to advance women’s rights – they have been doing it for decades. But without funding and moral support, the gains that the rights community was celebrating in that run-down car park in June are in danger of being lost.
Isabel Choat, commissioning editor, Global development

Main image: Carielle Doe/the Guardian

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