On May 12, Australian nongovernmental organizations will be anxiously reviewing the federal government budget to determine what impact the changes will have on their programs.
Early information is that it will not be good — after losing more than 11 billion Australian dollars ($8.7 billion) under the leadership of Tony Abbott, the Australian Council for International Development estimates an additional AU$1 billion will be lost from the foreign aid envelope when the budget is released Tuesday.
Three critical funding programs for NGOs are under threat — the Australian NGO Cooperation Program, Australia-African Community Engagement Scheme and Solomon Islands Partnership Agreement, all administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The ANCP alone is predicted to be cut by at least 20 percent, which could see the 49 NGOs receiving funding under the scheme struggle to maintain existing programs through a shared loss of almost AU$27 million.
