Rwanda's users of many of the programmes that ran under the USAid are feeling the pinch of the agency’s shutdown with hundreds facing job losses.

President Donald Trump’s administration has announced closure of some 83 percent of programmes USAid ran. And some of those 5,200 contracts were in Rwanda.

Geoffrey Kayonde, the country director of Adra Rwanda, and president of International NGOs forum says the effect was almost immediate when USAid suspended operations in February.“To many organisations, the effect was immediate, work had to stop, staff had to be laid off straight away because the bulk of staff salaries were direct project costs funded by USAid, none had any financial buffer to sustain staff even for a month,” Mr Kayonde said.“We are talking of lives that are going to be lost. Some of us have been left with no explanations to the people we are serving on ground.“We don’t get aid to sit in these offices, we get aid to get it to the people, especially in health, nutrition, education, livelihoods and food security, all these are key but the most important is health.”In Rwanda, NGO’s such as Care, Hangakazi, CNF Rwanda, Alight, International alert, Pact World, World Vision, Save the Children and others, that had running projects directly funded by USAid across different sectors have been affected.“The best way forward is to rethink our strategies for humanitarian action, and come up with alternative sources of funding our development.”The funding freeze, which the order said will be reviewed after 90 days, excluded life-saving humanitarian assistance, including HIV treatment and the necessary medical supplies.

Nkurunziza Joseph, the country director of Never Again Rwanda, one of the affected local NGO’s said he had been forced to sack staff.“I have already laid off about 30 percent of my staff, we had to suspend some of the activities under USAid funding to do with citizen participation and governance.“The impact of this funding freeze is huge, livelihoods of hundreds or thousands of laid off staff are in jeopardy, Rwanda's economy will also suffer, this was funding that entered directly into the economy, and distributed across sectors through projects that are implemented, taxes paid locally, and Rwandans employed,” said Mr Nkurunziza.

The staff at Hingaweze, an agriculture and economic development programme which had a $28.9 USAid funded portfolio of projects, are in panic and suspense.“We are under a stop work order, all projects have been frozen, we are just waiting for word from USAid..., everyone is in panic, we don’t know what is going on or going to happen,” said Victor Mugarura, the communications in charge at Hingaweze.

A source at International Organization of Migration (IOM) Rwanda, said that the organization had to “discontinue all activities funded by USAID, which funded up to 70 percent of our work.”“We had Congolese refugees who were undergoing pre-departure process, it was in advanced stages, they had even got air tickets and were expected by their hosts in the US, but everything had to be cancelled, and the refugees went back to their camps, shocked and shattered,” said an employee of IOM who requested to remain anonymous as they were not authorised to speak publicly for the organisation.

In February, Rwanda’s Minister for finance, Yusuf Murangwa said Kigali was closely monitoring the situation in the three-month period to see the gap that may be created.“It means that once we have identified the gap, where necessary, we will cater for it in planning," Murangwa said to parliament late in February."The funding has been important, but, of course, the government is the main player in the development of Rwanda, and there are also many other development partners. We see very many other bilateral partners; we see multilateral partners."This, however, was before some of Rwanda’s development partners, like Belgium, UK, US, Sweden and others cancelled or reduced their aid, putting pressure on Rwanda to pull back its support for M23 rebels who have captured two major cities on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s territory.

The extent at which Rwanda’s economy will be hurt by the aid cuts is not yet determined, but Rwanda has continued to put a brave face.

“In any case we shall continue our path on development, and we will not be swayed by any punitive measures taken by any government on our security.”While responding to a question about USAID funding suspension, President Paul Kagame told CNN last month that he had seen some good in the aid cuts from Washington.“President Trump’s unconventional ways of doing things, I completely agree with him on many things.“I think from being hurt, we might learn some lessons; to do somethings we should be doing. This aid thing I’ve never been a friend of it much as I’ve been a beneficiary of it,” Kagame said.

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