Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), one of Norway’s largest humanitarian organizations, has announced that it faces a huge loss of US funding and will need to lay off hundreds of foreign aid workers. The loss comes after NPA refused to go along with the US Department of State’s new restrictions on programs that promote equality and diversity.
The new restrictions would have required NPA “to abandon our commitment to equality and diversity,” claimed Raymond Johansen, the organization’s secretary general and a former top Norwegian politician. “We cannot accept that,” he added, even though it means the loss of as much as NOK 400 million (USD 40 million) and as many as 1,700 aid workers in several countries from Ukraine to Iraq.
Johansen said the US’ new conditions would have applied not only to programs that the US has funded “but across all our work, including activities supported by other donors.” He stressed that the organization instead must comply with Norwegian law and Norwegian policy, and that “our values are not for sale.”
The US state department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement has been the largest donor to NPA’s work to remove landmines and engage in other disarmament efforts. It has provided as much as 40 percent of NPA’s mine-clearing work over the years and been what NPA called a “long-standing partner … to help protect thousands of people from landmines and redevelop communities affected by armed conflict.”
After Donald Trump became US president, however, US programs have been disrupted and rules changed to push Trump’s conservative agenda. NPA reports that the changes included new “restrictions” that are “incompatible” with NPA’s own values.
Johansen and his colleagues are thus turning down the US funding even though that will make its work “extremely difficult.” He said NPA sought exemptions from the US that would have allowed the mine-clearing work to continue “without compromising NPA’s and Norway’s own principles and commitments.” Those efforts were unsuccessful.
“Equality, dignity and diversity are not threats,” Johansen stated, “they are values that strengthen our work and help make societies better, values that we will keep fighting for.” He’s encouraged that at least 60 percent of the mine-clearing work can continue and hopes other donors including the Norwegian government itself will step in and help cover some of the loss.
Johansen, a former mayor of Oslo from the Labour Party who also has held high positions in Norway’s foreign ministry, said he remains “deeply concerned about the consequences for our staff and, above all, for all the civilians who continue to live with the threat of land mines and other explosives long after conflicts have ended. Nevertheless, this is a line we have to draw.” He said that accepting the new US conditions “would risk opening the door to further restrictions on fundamental rights.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
