Nigeria: As Boko Haram threat grows, USAID cuts cripple the economy and the response
This article is published by the New Humanitarian. Follow the link to see the full article International aid cuts – most dramatically the stop-work orders implemented by the United States – are not only hitting relief programmes worldwide, but they’re also taking their toll on the local economies that support those humanitarian efforts. The city of Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s northeast, is a case in point. For a decade, it has been the centre of aid operations aimed at the victims of a rural insurgency by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which has forced 1.9 million people from their homes and tipped millions more into destitution. A booming service industry – from car hire companies, to security guards, to importers – caters to the needs of the more than 280 registered NGOs and UN relief agencies based in Maiduguri. The state government’s insistence on local employment for humanitarian jobs has also created a class of well-paid graduates tied to the non-profit sector – a limited antidote to a nationwide unemployment epidemic. Maiduguri, the former urban base of Boko Haram, has been revived. The new hotels, the streets choked with traffic, the housing construction: All attest to both the improved security and an economy that has benefitted from the influx of aid workers and relief programmes. “The growth in the last eight to nine years, the hustle and bustle of the markets, the amount of goods coming in, is very much linked to the humanitarian response,” said a senior aid worker, who asked for anonymity so they could speak freely. “Without that, you would expect the same level of stagnation you see in other northern cities [where economic growth is far lower than the rest of the country].” The scale of spending has been significant. The UN launched an appeal in January for $910 million to support 3.6 million people most in need in the northeast, out of an overall vulnerable population of 7.8 million. Between 2021 and 2024, annual humanitarian appeals have totalled more than $3.4 billion – although actual financing has fallen well short of that donor ask. The impact of USAID’s withdrawal The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a key funder, not just financing major agencies like the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, but for many local projects – especially in health and nutrition. USAID’s stop-work orders, issued at the beginning of the year, have not only shuttered those projects, impacting the most needy, but they have also affected the lives of local aid workers that have been laid off. Daniel Hassan, 32, had been a project officer at Supertouch Kindness Foundation (SKF) – a local NGO funded by USAID that serves people with disabilities. His abrupt termination in February was a crushing blow to both his career prospects and his family’s budget.