Naimatullah Sawand
Published July 13, 2025
DAWN
Relief workers taking part in rescue efforts during the 2022 floods in Pakistan
| Welt Hunger Hilfe
For the last seven years, Amanullah Dayo had been part of a project on tuberculosis (TB) control of the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in Sukkur. “I built my life around this work,” says Dayo, who was serving as a coordinator until the project was abruptly halted. “Over 135 employees lost their jobs overnight,” Dayo tells Eos.
Mohammad Dittal Kalhoro, the executive director of SRSO, says they were forced to shut down “all three of their US-funded health initiatives.” It included the one on TB, another on climate-smart agriculture, valued at $24 million, and the third on building healthy families — part of an $86 million nationwide project, called the Integrated Health Systems Strengthening and Service Delivery Initiative.
Further south in the small town of Matiari, four out of eight projects on domestic violence, run by the Legal Aid Society, had to be put on hold, says Muhammad Asif, who works as a protection officer. A vocational training project for women in Mirpurkhas met the same fate, as did another on community mobilisation in Umerkot.
At the other end of the country, in the merged tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a project to improve governance and administrative systems valued at $40 million has also been halted. Another one, for the rehabilitation of Mangla Dam, valued at $150 million, went the same way.
Pakistan’s humanitarian workers spent years preaching resilience to vulnerable communities. But when the US pulled the plug on their fundings, they discovered their own sector had none…
In each instance, the shutting down of the project resulted in dismissals, including mass layoffs such as the one carried out by SRSO.
“Three years of work experience, various trainings and nothing today, not even a reference letter,” one disgruntled youth officer from Umerkot tells Eos. “It’s as if we were disposable,” he adds.
OVERNIGHT FREEZE
The abrupt project closure and mass layoffs are a result of an order by US President Donald Trump — made soon after his return to office in January this year — to cut funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which officially closed its doors earlier this month. According to official data, the USAID’s budget in 2023 was around $40 billion, with the vast majority of it spent on Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The heavily criticised decision has had global ramifications and, according to a warning published by researchers in the Lancet medical journal, the aid cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
In Pakistan, the decision led to the suspension of 39 major projects across sectors, worth $845 million. At the same time, the UN began a global downsizing of its operations. For years, donor-backed programmes served as a lifeline for communities vulnerable to disasters and poverty. But now, they are vanishing. Programmes focused on women’s rights, healthcare, education for girls and income support for climate-hit communities have come to a halt.
A BLEAK FUTURE
In Sindh, the pain is concentrated. The Christian Workers’ Solidarity Association had to let go of 32 staff members. Organisations like HANDS and the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) have made sweeping staff reductions.
The brunt of this collapse is falling on women, who make up a large part of the humanitarian workforce in Sindh. Female project officers, nutrition experts, disaster preparedness trainers and community workers — many serving in far-flung areas — are now jobless, dragging entire families back into hardship. According to one former employee, 70 percent of those laid off by SRSO were women.
Meanwhile, the UN system is also shrinking. Restructuring within the UN is cutting into offices in Karachi and rural Sindh, weakening coordination and service delivery. For a province already battling poverty and climate-related displacement, this couldn’t come at a worse time.
After the floods of 2010, and again in the wake of the 2022 climate emergency, the development and relief sector opened doors. For many young graduates — especially women — these programmes were more than just jobs. They offered a pathway to financial independence and social recognition.
Now, the very professionals trained to support vulnerable Pakistanis have themselves become victims of decisions made far beyond their control. This is more than just a story about job losses. It is a story of broken hopes, abandoned services and lives left hanging in the balance. In Pakistan, when those who help others are in need themselves, there is no safety net to catch them.
THE RESILIENCE PARADOX
There’s a bitter irony in this unfolding crisis. For years, international agencies and NGOs urged communities to “build resilience”— to diversify income, prepare for future shocks and cope. But when the crisis struck the aid sector, it exposed a painful truth: it had failed to build any resilience within.
When the US cut aid and the UN slashed budgets, there were no safety nets for those on the front lines. Many were laid off without warning or support. How can institutions preach resilience to villages if they themselves collapse under pressure? The sector remains tied to a narrow donor base. When funding stops, entire programmes vanish. Careers, hopes and the livelihoods of thousands — especially women and youth — disappear with them.
There has been little investment in internal strength: no local fundraising, no contingency plans. This gap between policy and practice is now eroding trust.
The cracks run deeper than budget cuts. USAID alone provided nearly 20 percent of global humanitarian funding managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The abrupt halt of over $845 million and sweeping job cuts in UN agencies reveal just how fragile the sector truly is.
The tragedy is not only in the loss of services, but in the gap between what’s preached and what’s practised. This disconnect is not just operational; it is ethical. Trust is breaking down inside organisations and across communities.
The 2025 crisis is not the first. A similar funding shock occurred in 2018, when the US decided to hold back $300 million in aid to Pakistan. Yet, many UN agencies and NGOs were again caught off guard this time. Why didn’t they prepare?
There were no back-up plans, staff protections or efforts to diversify donors. The entire sector remains vulnerable to politics abroad. What’s needed now is change. Aid organisations must support their staff, create emergency plans and find more stable local funding. If not, the next foreign policy shift will again leave workers — and the people they serve — without support.
The writer is a development practitioner working with SRSO. He can be contacted at naimatullah@iba-suk.edu.pk
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 13th, 2025
For the last seven years, Amanullah Dayo had been part of a project on tuberculosis (TB) control of the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) in Sukkur. “I built my life around this work,” says Dayo, who was serving as a coordinator until the project was abruptly halted. “Over 135 employees lost their jobs overnight,” Dayo tells Eos.
Mohammad Dittal Kalhoro, the executive director of SRSO, says they were forced to shut down “all three of their US-funded health initiatives.” It included the one on TB, another on climate-smart agriculture, valued at $24 million, and the third on building healthy families — part of an $86 million nationwide project, called the Integrated Health Systems Strengthening and Service Delivery Initiative.
Further south in the small town of Matiari, four out of eight projects on domestic violence, run by the Legal Aid Society, had to be put on hold, says Muhammad Asif, who works as a protection officer. A vocational training project for women in Mirpurkhas met the same fate, as did another on community mobilisation in Umerkot.
At the other end of the country, in the merged tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a project to improve governance and administrative systems valued at $40 million has also been halted. Another one, for the rehabilitation of Mangla Dam, valued at $150 million, went the same way.
Pakistan’s humanitarian workers spent years preaching resilience to vulnerable communities. But when the US pulled the plug on their fundings, they discovered their own sector had none…
In each instance, the shutting down of the project resulted in dismissals, including mass layoffs such as the one carried out by SRSO.
“Three years of work experience, various trainings and nothing today, not even a reference letter,” one disgruntled youth officer from Umerkot tells Eos. “It’s as if we were disposable,” he adds.
OVERNIGHT FREEZE
The abrupt project closure and mass layoffs are a result of an order by US President Donald Trump — made soon after his return to office in January this year — to cut funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which officially closed its doors earlier this month. According to official data, the USAID’s budget in 2023 was around $40 billion, with the vast majority of it spent on Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The heavily criticised decision has had global ramifications and, according to a warning published by researchers in the Lancet medical journal, the aid cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
In Pakistan, the decision led to the suspension of 39 major projects across sectors, worth $845 million. At the same time, the UN began a global downsizing of its operations. For years, donor-backed programmes served as a lifeline for communities vulnerable to disasters and poverty. But now, they are vanishing. Programmes focused on women’s rights, healthcare, education for girls and income support for climate-hit communities have come to a halt.
A BLEAK FUTURE
In Sindh, the pain is concentrated. The Christian Workers’ Solidarity Association had to let go of 32 staff members. Organisations like HANDS and the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) have made sweeping staff reductions.
The brunt of this collapse is falling on women, who make up a large part of the humanitarian workforce in Sindh. Female project officers, nutrition experts, disaster preparedness trainers and community workers — many serving in far-flung areas — are now jobless, dragging entire families back into hardship. According to one former employee, 70 percent of those laid off by SRSO were women.
Meanwhile, the UN system is also shrinking. Restructuring within the UN is cutting into offices in Karachi and rural Sindh, weakening coordination and service delivery. For a province already battling poverty and climate-related displacement, this couldn’t come at a worse time.
After the floods of 2010, and again in the wake of the 2022 climate emergency, the development and relief sector opened doors. For many young graduates — especially women — these programmes were more than just jobs. They offered a pathway to financial independence and social recognition.
Now, the very professionals trained to support vulnerable Pakistanis have themselves become victims of decisions made far beyond their control. This is more than just a story about job losses. It is a story of broken hopes, abandoned services and lives left hanging in the balance. In Pakistan, when those who help others are in need themselves, there is no safety net to catch them.
THE RESILIENCE PARADOX
There’s a bitter irony in this unfolding crisis. For years, international agencies and NGOs urged communities to “build resilience”— to diversify income, prepare for future shocks and cope. But when the crisis struck the aid sector, it exposed a painful truth: it had failed to build any resilience within.
When the US cut aid and the UN slashed budgets, there were no safety nets for those on the front lines. Many were laid off without warning or support. How can institutions preach resilience to villages if they themselves collapse under pressure? The sector remains tied to a narrow donor base. When funding stops, entire programmes vanish. Careers, hopes and the livelihoods of thousands — especially women and youth — disappear with them.
There has been little investment in internal strength: no local fundraising, no contingency plans. This gap between policy and practice is now eroding trust.
The cracks run deeper than budget cuts. USAID alone provided nearly 20 percent of global humanitarian funding managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The abrupt halt of over $845 million and sweeping job cuts in UN agencies reveal just how fragile the sector truly is.
The tragedy is not only in the loss of services, but in the gap between what’s preached and what’s practised. This disconnect is not just operational; it is ethical. Trust is breaking down inside organisations and across communities.
The 2025 crisis is not the first. A similar funding shock occurred in 2018, when the US decided to hold back $300 million in aid to Pakistan. Yet, many UN agencies and NGOs were again caught off guard this time. Why didn’t they prepare?
There were no back-up plans, staff protections or efforts to diversify donors. The entire sector remains vulnerable to politics abroad. What’s needed now is change. Aid organisations must support their staff, create emergency plans and find more stable local funding. If not, the next foreign policy shift will again leave workers — and the people they serve — without support.
The writer is a development practitioner working with SRSO. He can be contacted at naimatullah@iba-suk.edu.pk
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 13th, 2025
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