Karachi:
The Trump Administration’s sudden decision to terminate foreign aid, including funding through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), delivered a reputation to Pakistan’s social sector, forcing many organizations to stop projects, dismissing staff and scaling back operations.
Days after the beginning of his second period in January, Trump announced a break in all foreign aid under his “America First” policy. The move further elaborated on an already challenging financing environment in Pakistan, where donor fatigue and changing priorities have been tiling away in global aid flows in recent years.
Still, Pakistan’s development sector has managed to absorb the original shocks. Experts say a shift in strategy, strengthened by growing support from the Pakistani Diaspora and the domestic government contributions, has helped NGOs keep their work alive.
“Pakistan’s decades old development sector, especially the major NGOs, is deeply rooted and pursuing a multisector and multi-donor approach to avoid dependence on one or a few donors,” said Naseer Memon, an Islamabad-based social sector expert.
Although USID was not the only donor of Pakistan’s development initiatives, its sudden withdrawal disturbed several important health, education and communities’ welfare projects, Memon told Anadolu.
However, local NGOs adapted quickly by diversifying their sources of financing and rely more on domestic and diaspora-based support to avoid a full collapse.
European nations have also funded programs that are focused on religious harmony and democratic governance in Pakistan, especially during the war after 9/11 “” Terror “, which helped expand the country’s donor landscape, Memon added.
Restructuring and resilience
Another factor that has helped local NGOs, according to Memon, is Pakistani government financing for a number of social sector projects.
An important recipient of USAID (Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) was forced to close three health projects in the southern province of financing – two of which were in full swing and one just got started.
Mohammad Dital Kalhoro, SRSO’s head, said his organization had to let go of more employees, but almost 90% were employed within months of project structure and cost savings.
“We have either detained or reinforced employees (influenced by USAID cuts) for other projects where we had a certain pillow or new projects that we launched later,” Kalhoro told Anadolu.
One of the previously stopped projects was restored by USAID in June, enabling further redevelopment and expansion, he added.
Diaspora steps up
Increasingly, Pakistani NGOs rely on the means of the diaspora. More than 8 million Pakistanis live abroad, mainly in the United States, Europe and the Gulf States, and send home over $ 30 billion in transfers each year.
This economic lifeline now helps charities and NGOs with complete health, education and water-related projects, especially in undervalued rural areas, Memon said.
Ali Mohsin, a Pakistani-Canadian engineer, has raised money for an eye hospital in DIR, a district in the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province near the Afghan border. Between 2012 and 2024, Canadian Pakistanis helped to implement 12 major projects in health, education and clean water, while another 10 are underway this year alone, said Mohsin, who works with the Al-Khidmat Foundation, the charity wing of the socio-religious party Jamaat-e-Islami.
Umair Idris, director of the fund, also emphasized the importance of diaspora financing and said that 35% of the charity budget now comes from overseas Pakistanis -a 10% increase from 2020 levels.
Citizens Foundation, which runs a network of more than 2,000 schools nationwide, has also seen sky -high diaspora support.
“In the past, we would receive 30% of our total funding from overseas Pakistanis,” Mushtaq Kassim Chhapra, the organization’s basic director, told Anadolu.
“This share has sprung to about 40% to 42% in the last few years, especially because they (overseas Pakistanis) have confidence and trust in our work.”
Global aid
The tribe in Pakistan’s social sector is part of a larger global trend. Trump’s freezing on the help of the United States, long the world’s largest donor pool, triggered similar budget cuts from other countries, leaving the international development community crunch.
The Geneva-based Global Fund recently announced that it would cut $ 1.4 billion from previously approved grants, with reference to uncertainty about donor obligations.
