Some NGOs wary as US resumes aid to Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY — Addressing the root causes of migration has become a central tenet of the Biden administration’s foreign assistance policy for the Northern Triangle in Central America. Previous U.S. administrations — and President Joe Biden himself, when he was vice president — have strived to target foreign aid to improve lives enough that people can thrive at home. But seesawing funding levels over the past several years as U.S. presidential administrations change have blunted the impact of money spent in the region. Moreover, it has shaken the confidence of NGOs that count on the U.S. government — the world’s largest aid donor and previously a reliable source of funding for their projects. And in turn, it has also disrupted NGOs’ relationships with communities they seek to serve. As some groups welcome Biden’s pledge to direct $4 billion to the region, others are wary of accepting U.S. funds that could disappear instantly when the U.S. presidency changes hands again. The Obama administration spotlighted the Northern Triangle amid rising migration levels with the $4 billion Alliance for Prosperity, a plan for investment in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank and conditional on investments from the countries themselves. Development experts say the benefits of such spending can take a decade or more to bear fruit. But former President Donald Trump suspended aid in 2019, claiming the three countries’ governments needed to be doing more to deter their citizens from migrating north to cross the U.S. border. That move had a drastic effect on programs that were in progress, forcing local and international NGOs to scale back activities, lay off staff, and in some cases, cease programming altogether. “There were several things we couldn’t finish, especially investment in community projects which is what was going to happen [in the last year of the project]. We finished some projects, but not at the level we had promised to the people.” --— Jose Aquino, rural development program manager, Mercy Corps Guatemala “It was sort of traumatic because … we had spent about two years coming up with these community development plans and the communities were very ambitious on all the things that they wanted the project to support,” said Rafael Merchan, economic development manager at Catholic Relief Services, which has been implementing a community-led development project when funding was cut off. “We were getting started to try to respond to a lot of those things and then all of a sudden USAID’s like ‘wait a minute, freeze all those plans, and instead come up with an alternative,’” he added. The community-led development project began in 200 communities that outlined their own local priorities for improving life there. But Merchan said in around 40 communities, CRS had to stop core program activities and could only help with very small requests, such as providing generators or furniture to community councils so they could carry out their meetings. “It just brought a lot of uncertainty. It was … hard on the morale of the team,” Merchan said. “A lot of communities were quite upset at us because — especially around infrastructure projects that are big water systems and things like that — we just couldn’t deliver anymore because of the lack of funding.” Mechan said that CRS is applying for a no-cost extension to the project, which remains ongoing, so it can resume some of the activities it had to abandon. Anu Rajaraman, USAID Mission Director in Guatemala, said it was regrettable that some projects had to be scaled back because they ran out of money after the cuts. “Unfortunately, there were some commitments that we weren’t able to meet as a result of that aid suspension. We’re in a much better place now, right? And so when our funding resumed and was turned back on, I think we were able to quickly ramp up, restart activities, expand certain activities,” Rajaraman told Devex. “We have received the resources that we need to keep a number of these activities alive and even to expand them in many cases — those that we feel are having the greatest impact,” she added. Biden’s recent budget request submitted to Congress last month included $861 million for the Northern Triangle. But it did not break down funding that would go to Guatemala specifically. Rajaraman said she cannot predict future funding levels for the country. “We turned a page here, and now it’s all about really making the most of the resources that we do have to achieve the Biden administration’s priorities, which are addressing root causes, expanding legal pathways, and really creating opportunities here in Guatemala so that people don’t feel the need to migrate,” Rajaraman said. The high-profile attention the region has garnered from the top levels of the Biden administration — Vice President Kamala Harris made her first foreign trip to Guatemala and Mexico this week — has raised expectations among organizations and citizens in Guatemala that more help is coming. Mercy Corps Guatemala had multiple U.S.-funded programs that were forced to end under the Trump administration before their project cycles were completed, according to Jose Aquino, the organization’s rural development program manager. One was a violence prevention program, and the other was a community development project working in 80 communities across the country. “There were several things we couldn’t finish, especially investment in community projects which is what was going to happen [in the last year of the project],” Aquino said. “We finished some projects, but not at the level we had promised to the people.” But now, Aquino said, people are eagerly waiting for the money to appear. “There’s a lot of expectations with President Biden,” Aquino said. “There are promises that money is coming to the country, and I think this is going to help a lot. Perhaps not get us out of the crisis, but there is hope of having access to resources.” Merchan said it is a welcome turn away from the Trump policies. “I’m just glad the whole thing is over now,” Merchan said. “The pendulum is swinging the other way.” But while some organizations are eager to see the money flow again, others say the experience under the Trump administration changed the way they look at the reliability of U.S. funding. Not all NGOs will be lining up to bid on U.S. contracts again. Brad Twedt, regional vice president at the International Justice Mission for the Northern Triangle of Central America, based in Guatemala, said his organization was given essentially no notice that their grant from the State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs would be ending as a part of the cuts in 2019. The money — IJM’s first grant from the U.S. — had been supporting the group’s work to strengthen Guatemala’s capacity to respond to sexual assault cases. IJM had to lay off 40% of its staff in Guatemala when it lost the U.S. aid money and could not hire them back, Twedt said. “We weren’t accustomed to depending on U.S. government money. And we learned a lesson,” Twedt said. “We’re designing a new program right now that’s not dependent on U.S. government or any other government funds.”