Economic stimulus packages, NGOs and protecting children from harm: Child Protection in the age of COVID-19

Why this is important!

International Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) are at the forefront of efforts to protect children from violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect in developing countries, yet, COVID-19 is posing a real threat to their very existence. This in turn is threatening their ability to provide the protection that children so desperately need. With the European Union and 19 of the wealthiest countries (G20) accounting for 85 per cent of the World economy and investing more than $8 trillion in national economic stimulus packages, is it too much to ask that these packages do more to bolster the work of these NGOs?

COVID-19 has unleashed a funding crisis on NGOs when they are most needed

With around one billion children globally experiencing some form of emotional, physical, or sexual violence each year, and with governments everywhere primarily relying on NGOs to deliver child protection related aid, COVID-19 has unleashed a funding crisis on international NGOs when they are needed most. This means that NGOs require urgent support not only to maintain their operations but to expand the reach of their services to counter the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable.

NGOs mobilise their resources for international aid from their citizens, the corporate sector and from governments .But the cruel reality is that many citizens are now out of work and consequently out of pocket; the corporate sector in most countries is in free fall; and governments everywhere are under pressure to direct their resources and stimulus packages elsewhere.

In the United Kingdom, Bond, a network for organisations working in international development, reports that 86 per cent of its members are cutting back or considering cutting back in-country programmes. This includes postponing programme implementation, closing country offices and limiting income to global programmes. Looking forward, only 37 per cent of its members say they could survive longer than six months without an injection of emergency funding.

In Australia, a consortium of six international aid agencies is calling on the Australian government to provide emergency support while the Australian Council for International AID, (ACFID), Australia’s peak organization for international aid agencies is fearful that its members will struggle to pay staff, to fundraise, and to maintain cash-flows, all of which threaten their ability to fulfill projects and plan future activities.

NGOs globally are calling on their respective governments to fund a range of measures to bolster their work. This includes increasing incentives for people to give to charities (such as increasing the tax deductibility of donations); providing interest free loans to help stabilize and mange cash flows and help with liquidity; and to increase flexibility in current grant agreements.

Yet, it seems that not all governments are hearing these calls with many instead shifting their economic efforts closer to home to bolster their own faltering economies.

Economic stimulus packages should include measures to fix the COVID-19 funding crisis facing NGOs

The fact that most governments fund NGOs as partners in their overall international aid programmes is evidence that these partnerships are valuable and needed. For example, NGOs are responsible for delivering about 25 per cent of the Australian and New Zealand governments’ humanitarian aid to the Pacific according to a report by Terence Wood, in Devpolicy Blog.

2019 was a bumper year for international aid with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reporting that international development aid reached its highest level at $152.8 billion. However, 2020 will no doubt mark the beginning of a steep decline with the World Economic Forum predicting in a recent post that the COVID-19 economic downturn will mean a reduction in future aid budgets and donations.

Action is required now to ensure that this downturn does not see a winding back of the essential services that NGOs provide to vulnerable children and their families.

Some of the positive steps taken thus far by the Australian Government are noteworthy and may resonate beyond its borders. It amended its ‘jobkeeper’ economic stimulus package to include international development and humanitarian NGOs. This change means that NGOs that have experienced a reduction of income of 15 per cent or more (rather than the 30 per cent eligibility criteria set for the private sector) will receive a subsidy from the government to pay salaries. In addition, it passed legislation to provide temporary cash flow support during the economic downturn associated with COVID-19. Eligible agencies will receive tax-free cash flow boosts of between AUD 20,000 and AUD 100,000.  These measures go a long way towards addressing the liquidity concerns expressed by NGOs and will allow them to keep staff and cover operational costs in the short term. But, much more needs to be done.

Some other good news. As recently 1 May, the UK Government announced measures to support  organizations in the development sector. These measures will include funding NGOs in advance and providing cash flow support for existing funding agreements, including in-country staff costs and overheads for programmes that are currently unable to operate. Bond has welcomed these steps but has criticized the government for its piecemeal approach

What is needed is for all governments everywhere to develop well-designed stimulus packages in collaboration with the NGO aid sectors in their respective countries. These packages should ensure that NGOs can maintain their operations for the duration of this crisis, which is likely to be long term, and come out the other side of the crisis on a strong economic footing, while being able to also scale up their interventions to counter the impact of the pandemic.  

As the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres said, this is not the time for governments to not honour their broader commitments to aid and the full realization of the SDGs.

Upcoming blogs and collaboration

Upcoming blogs will continue to look at different dimensions of child protection in the age of COVID-19 as well as broader issues relating to child protection in international development. Ideas for future blogs are most welcome as are offers to collaborate on writing blogs and think pieces.

A note about the author

Bruce Grant is an international child protection adviser and consultant, based in Sydney Australia. As a retired staff member of UNICEF, he has served as chief of child protection in some of the toughest development and humanitarian contexts in which UNICEF works. In 2020 he founded Child Protection in International Development, a website for sharing resources and generating and promoting new knowledge in child protection in international development. The website also serves as a platform for promoting the services he provides as an adviser and consultant. In addition to writing blogs, he writes think pieces and papers and publishes the occasional podcast. His last blog was Five strategies for protecting children in detention from the pandemic: Child Protection in the age of COVID-19