Following the decision by the United States government to suspend with immediate effect from the 24th of January 2025, all funding, contracts, programs and activities, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Botswana including Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) members, have not been spared. This funding suspension has had a ripple effect, severely impacting critical services provided by CSOs in various sectors, including healthcare, education, social protection, and democratic governance. As a result, many organisations have not only been forced to halt service provision but have also had to lay off staff. Some CSOs currently have their programs and projects terminated, some which were suspended are operating under a 90-day waver which is about to end.
According to BOCONGO’s rapid assessment of the impact of the funding suspension, the most affected types of services include critical healthcare, such as HIV testing, prevention, and treatment, tuberculosis screening, and clinical responses to gender-based violence as well as social protection programs including emergency support for orphans and vulnerable children and legal and policy advocacy for LGBTQIA+ rights. Apart from these critical support programs for vulnerable populations, democratic strengthening initiatives have also been affected.
The funding freeze comes at a time where many of the donors and development partners who for many years have been sources of support for the sector, have shifted their focus to lower income and developing countries, whereas Botswana has been classified as an upper middle-income country. This status implies that Botswana as a country is able to fully resource its entire development without the support of such partners, including the important work done by civil society organizations. However, this is not the case in Botswana as civil society organizations are grappling with severe resource gaps, with many that are providing critical services such as child protection threatened with discontinuation of their services.