Aid Dependency: Navigating Trump's Funding Cuts Demands Innovation, Resilience

Dr Michael Sutcliffe

THE post-inauguration and rapid-fire release of executive actions by President Trump appear, on the one hand, to be a significant instance of the Outrage Industrial Complex (OIC). 

It is almost as if President Trump is feeding his desire to always claim he is completely right and those who disagree are wrong and are fools. 

On the other hand, many of these actions have been undertaken swiftly and have had an immediate and negative impact on people. 

Many programmes have been cancelled with immediate effect without any consideration of the effect such actions would have on people and programmes which are trying to find solutions to health, educational, environmental and other global issues.   

There can be no doubt that the impact in South Africa has been serious with Minister of Health Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi arguing that in the case of health programmes, such cuts have been a “train smash”.

Whilst it is difficult to estimate the immediate financial losses, estimates indicate this could be well over R500 million for existing contracts held with US governmental institutions.  The cuts immediately affect services being provided in areas like HIV and TB programmes, and will certainly slow down efforts to develop new tests, treatments, and vaccines for HIV and TB.

The cuts also require large-scale layoffs of researchers, scientists, health professionals and others, all of which could derail the development of the country’s next generation of scientists.

It must be noted that South African institutions have a great record of collaboration with research institutions in the USA, working on cutting-edge discoveries, enablement of talent mobility and supporting skills development.

These cuts will also have a ripple effect across the world.   

And of course, there will be other, as yet undocumented, impacts on US businesses, people and institutions.

President Ramaphosa has correctly cautioned us that this is a crucial moment for the country to strengthen its commitment to self-reliance and to portray a vision of resilience amidst adversity.  

Ramaphosa recognises too, that the USA is not just their President.  We enjoy massive support from a majority of citizens of the USA and they also have over 600 companies in SA accountable for over 143 000 jobs.  

This approach is one President Ramaphosa learnt about as he led us as one of our mass democratic movement leaders in our transition from an apartheid state to a democratic government. Let’s recall and relate some of that history.

In the 1970s, PW Botha established the State Security Council. On 16 August 1979, the National Security Management System (NSMS) was then established which would integrate the efforts of the entire government and its assets towards protecting the state with the SADF, Police and Intelligence services as the core of the system and managed by the Security Council.

As we understood then, US Generals had adopted such strategies and action plans across several Latin American countries.  The strategies of the apartheid state in the early 1980s were then to continue its campaigns of repression coupled with what is known as the “Winning Hearts and Minds” strategies (WHAM). 

At the same time, it supported and deployed planning and engineering companies, such as Van Wyk and Louw, to work directly with the NSMS and security forces to try and win over communities through the provision of social infrastructure in township areas where the greatest resistance was being found.  

In parallel, big capital in South Africa formed institutions such as the Urban Foundation and they also pursued similar aims to this reformist agenda of the apartheid state.  

These processes were a direct response to the growing power of the movements fighting for liberation, including their increasing success in isolating the apartheid state.

The Commission of European Communities (CEC), consisting of 10 powerful European nations in 1985 developed a twin-track policy of “negative” (primarily around non-cooperation with SA’s military) and “positive” measures. 

The latter included the creation of a special fund for the victims of apartheid, with funds channelled through the two major mainstream church groups (SACC and SACBC), the two main trades unions (COSATU and NACTU) and the Kagiso Trust.

The Kagiso Trust was founded in 1986 and grew rapidly from three projects in 1985 to over 300 projects by 1990.  These projects started with a focus on projects designed to ameliorate the impact of apartheid on its victims, but by 1990 the focus changed towards community empowerment, with it seeing itself as a development agent. 

Funds went to a variety of areas: bursaries (31%), general education (19%), community development (15%), social development and health (10%), human rights (6%) and other areas (19%).

As progress towards a negotiated settlement started becoming a reality, Kagiso Trust began a process of not only evaluating its programmes but also recognising the need to become a developmental agent.

On 27 January 1990, for example, a few days before the release of President Mandela, Kagiso Trust held a conference of progressive forces called “From opposing to governing – how ready is the opposition”.  Kagiso Trust decided also to focus on “the effective use of funds at our disposal at present and reducing dependency on outside funding”. 

This meant that Kagiso Trust had to discontinue some 50% of its portfolio, particularly in areas such as media, culture, human rights welfare, etc. 

Kagiso Trust was left with no other option than to change its focus from “amelioration” to “development” through supporting local-level development initiatives, strengthening the capacity of community structures and increasingly involving itself in improving the capacity of civic organisations to manage income-generating projects.

The ANC, and undoubtedly also other progressive movements like the PAC, AZAPO and others who struggled against apartheid, faced the harsh reality that with the unbanning of the liberation movements, the international climate also started to change and international donors felt that, for example, to assist the ANC post-1990 could amount to interference in the affairs of another sovereign state.

As the country digests the drastic action by the Trump administration, it is important to reflect on the following lessons learnt during this period of transition:

• Always retain your independence. 
• Never be overly reliant on outside funding.
• Diversify sources as much as possible and focus as much on building technical and human resources as on finding outside funding. 
• Build constituencies and institutions that own the process and build on their strengths.

Let’s focus our energy of assisting where we can with this short-term challenge, but with our thousands of civil society organisations let us also ensure we assist them with long-term strategies to show our “resilience in such times of adversity”.

* Dr Michael Sutcliffe is a Director of City Insights (PTY) Ltd.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.