Get ready to push back against the government, US NGOs told

NGOs must prepare for what could be a “permanent shift” in their relationship with the U.S. government, as they come under attack from the Trump administration, according to a panel of experts at a recent Devex Pro Briefing. Over the past year, the sector has faced a hostile environment that has included a catastrophic loss of funding, threats against organizations that are ideologically opposed to the administration, and inflammatory language from some political leaders. That has left many organizations with a dilemma about how to respond — whether to fight back or try to keep their heads down until the next election, when many are hoping the situation can be reversed. “Continuous deterioration is part of these systems, and we must be prepared for that.” --— Veronika Móra, director, Okotars Foundation But it is imperative to understand that a reversal won’t happen without a fight, said Tatyana Margolin, cofounder of anti-authoritarian group STROIKA and former regional director for Open Society Foundations’ Eurasia program. “I don’t think we have a single lesson from history of folks just sitting on the sidelines of rising authoritarianism and it dissipating on its own,” she said, in response to a question at the event about whether NGOs could simply “ride out the storm” until the next election. “This is a marathon. This is not a sprint. This may be a very long-term battle. … I think we should absolutely not be waiting for and expecting things to get better without our pushback,” she said. Veronika Móra, director of the Okotars Foundation in Hungary, noted that in the early years of the Orbán government, many people doubted how far it would go, believing that there were red lines that wouldn’t be crossed. And yet “they crossed each and every red line,” Móra said. “Continuous deterioration is part of these systems, and we must be prepared for that.” Even if there is a change of government at the next election, she noted that it can take a long time “to fight the legacy of the old government.” She pointed to the example of Poland, where a new government struggled to restore democratic structures after a period of backsliding under the Law and Justice party. And legal expert Kay Guinane, the former director of the Charity & Security Network, said U.S. NGOs need to get used to putting resources into building coalitions, holding forums, demanding investigations, and other “proactive ways of pushing back.” “These are things we need to be putting resources into. It needs to be part of our core work, not something that we just do in response to emergencies,” she said.