We’ve been a bit quiet here at CICED news for the past month.
The war in Ukraine has consumed the focus and energy of CICED’s board members.
Now, however, we’re back with news and updates.
Out in the world, far from Europe, work on our projects continues, but we begin with a commentary on how the war in Ukraine affects Danish aid.
As most of our readers have probably already seen, the Danish government has decided that the costs for the many Ukrainian refugees will be financed by aid funds. CICED, like many other actors in development work in the South, has protested against this.
Below is an update from CISU with a good reference to further information on Global News. CICED is fully aligned with the analysis and views in the CISU update:
As many of you have probably seen, the Minister for Development Cooperation has now presented where the two billion of development aid, which is to be used to pay temporary asylum to Ukrainian refugees in Denmark, will be saved.
In this article on Globalnyt.dk you can see an overview of the savings.
The overall conclusion is that 1.869 billion is found through reprioritization, while the remaining 146 million is found through so-called cancellations, which are not described in detail.
Pool schemes and the funds allocated to Danish organizations that have a strategic partnership with the MFA are exempt. Humanitarian aid will not be cut either.
Here are some other points of attention for you about the cuts:
– An equal amount is cut from each ‘pillar’ of Sharing the World – i.e. from the ‘Fight for climate, nature and environment’ and ‘We create hope’ (neighborhood, migration and fragile states) pillars
– The cuts hit vulnerable target groups, both through the cuts in the pillars in general and especially through the cuts in Burkina Faso and the entire Sahel region as well as Syria.
– Part of the funding for the DAPP – The Arab Partnership Program is ‘postponed’.
– Themes that some of CISU’s member organizations are working on,such as productivehealth and means for peace and stabilization, are also being cut or postponed.
At CISU, we still believe that it is important to help Ukrainian refugees coming to Denmark, but that it is both morally and practically very wrong for Denmark to make the poorest in the world pay for it.
In the short term, this will mean that a number of existing and upcoming crises in e.g. The Sahel, MENA and Syria are being left behind – with negative consequences. Just like poor people in other remote areas such as Bangladesh will pay a fine.
We will therefore continue to criticize the cuts and stand in solidarity with the many important actors in development cooperation and the world’s poorest who are affected.
We at CISU continue to monitor the situation closely and will continue to encourage you to contact us if you hear that the specific cuts may affect other parts of your work than what is financed by CISU’s funds.
Best regards
Jeef Bech
Head of Secretariat, CISU
