Global aid in crisis: Can we find sustainability in a precarious funding climate?

The funding landscape as we know it has changed quickly, creating a climate of uncertainty for many civil society organisations and social movements. The ongoing dynamics risk fracturing movements, turning groups against one another in competition for resources and undermining their collective power. The role of Big Tech in deepening the crisis – through unprecedented concentration of power and the amplification of disinformation – places organisations defending digital rights, such as those within the APC network, under growing pressure. In this context, we have been seeking to reflect together on how to assess and respond to these challenges, precisely at a moment when we need more – and not less – international solidarity and joint action.

Funding crises in the development sector

As development assistance becomes more and more aligned with governments’ foreign policy objectives, budgets are tightening all across the sector. In January this year, the US government slashed USAID funding away from assistance and development towards defence and trade wars. Many other bilateral donors such as EU member states and the United Kingdom are increasingly prioritising short-term geopolitical goals over systemic change, tightening compliance rules and reducing funding.[1] Elections are imminent in various European countries and the winds are not blowing towards increased international solidarity, as nationalist agendas and geopolitical tensions continue to be on the rise.

With the upsurge in right-wing politics across the globe, we can expect further clamping down on civic spaces and silencing of civil society and human rights defenders – along with a corresponding decline in funding available for rights work. This trend is accompanied by a dearth of flexible core funding available [2] for grassroots organisations, while project-based grants force them into survival cycles, leading to the loss of skilled staff during funding gaps. Anti-gender movements are also connected to the political shifts being witnessed around the globe towards right-wing populism. Additionally, institutional donors now avoid “controversial” work, such as ceasefire advocacy, abandoning partners in crisis regions. If funding levels resume or are increased, funding will likely be far more restricted, with a deliberate anti-gender and anti-rights agenda, divesting from pressing issues such as climate and social justice, and mitigation of historical inequalities, with grave consequences for marginalised groups like women human rights defenders and LGBTQIA+ activists. 

Concurrently, concentrated private interests are capturing political systems with the monopolistic powers of tech billionaires threatening the future of global democracy, human rights and environmental justice. That concentration of private interest and control and the increasing trend towards promoting national protectionism and interests are impacting the development paradigm, with a clear shift from government agencies towards an approach where development finance is increasingly being made more available to the private sector from donor countries, rather than to the typical recipient countries, humanitarian aid and traditional development work.

These trends pose significant risks to progressive social justice work and activism, as civil society actors rely heavily on Northern funding from both public and private entities. Such dynamics can fracture movements, pitting groups against each other for dwindling resources, and weaken collective action.

Pathways to resistance

Faced with an increasingly fragmented funding ecosystem, civil society needs to rethink their positioning, align their resource mobilisation strategies and find avenues for collective action and advocacy for resistance. Alternatives do exist, as do concrete pathways of resistance that we can follow in this scenario.

At APC, we are exploring a diverse range of strategies to sustain the network and the broader rights and social justice work ecosystem. These strategies include pursuing advocacy to reverse the deprioritisation of human rights and gender equity by donors and prioritise sustainable resource mobilisation strategies to counter shrinking funding pools and shifts by donors away from rights-based work. We are calling for flexible, long-term funding models that sustain grassroots networks. We are amplifying narratives that highlight our role in bridging digital rights, climate justice and feminist movements, while aligning fundraising with our members’ and partners’ needs through collaborative donor advocacy. 

Our strategy includes leveraging information being shared in our network [3] to highlight gaps and needs in the field, advocating with donors to demonstrate how core funding enables systemic change – not just project-based survival. As a network, we are working on more collaborative resource mobilisation so that we are less exposed and vulnerable individually.

Five actions to change the game

While we work to coordinate joint actions to tackle the crisis, we are also engaging with strategic partners, asking them to take action. The funding community – including government funders [4], private foundations and philanthropists – can come together and step up to support civil society, movements and the communities we serve, enabling them to navigate the current uncertain circumstances.

Funders, in particular, can provide direct financing to these movements and efforts and use their political, economic and social influence to promote more effective strategies for long-term systemic change. In this regard, we highlight five actions that key actors with the power to influence this scenario can take: