Srikandi Sejati Foundation relies on USAid funding to pay monthly salaries and operational expenses. - SRIKANDI SEJATI FOUNDATION
JAKARTA: Located in the heart of a residential community in East Jakarta, the office of Srikandi Sejati Foundation is usually abuzz with activity after lunchtime.
On a typical day, staff arrive to submit their reports after a morning of fieldwork, interviews and providing support for people with HIV/Aids. Volunteers and those in the community would also gather at the centre for the day’s activities.
But for the most part since late January, such activity has ceased, the foundation’s programme manager Kamel, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told The Straits Times.
United States President Donald Trump froze the bulk of US foreign assistance for three months on returning to office in January, leaving global development programmes related to the US Agency for International Development (USAid) scrambling to deal with the fallout.
While a US federal judge on Feb 14 was reported to have ordered the Trump administration to restore foreign-aid funding, the situation remains uncertain, going forward.
And Indonesian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as the Srikandi Sejati Foundation which receives regular funding from USAid through a third-party organisation, are already feeling the ill effects, with disruptions in health programmes and fears of job losses among aid workers.
The local foundation, which relies on USAid funding to pay monthly salaries and operational expenses, laid off staff at its Jakarta office in early February. This has disrupted the HIV/Aids-related work it does, from helping with access to treatment, to advocacy and education on health issues.
The United States is the world’s largest provider of official development assistance, with most funds directed through USAid.
Established in 1961, the agency has an annual budget of over US$40 billion (S$53.7 billion), used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, representing 42 per cent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.
Since 2020, USAid has committed to investments totalling US$800 million in Indonesia for programmes covering health, governance and democracy, economic development and environmental sustainability.
According to US government data, USAid disbursed some US$153 million to Indonesia in 2024 with the most funding going to health, followed by humanitarian assistance and economic development.
Funding freeze will hit healthcare sector hardest
A US freeze on foreign aid could strain Indonesia’s efforts to fight against HIV/Aids and tuberculosis.
Besides providing assistance to HIV/Aids programmes, USAid also supports Indonesia’s efforts in tuberculosis eradication.
The infectious disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and Indonesia has the second-highest number of tuberculosis infections in the world, according to a 2023 WHO report. Tuberculosis eradication is also a key priority of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration.
“That is (all) on hold. Not stopped,” Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Feb 6, referring to the country’s projects with USAid.
“We don’t know if it’s confirmed to be erased or still under assessment,” he said, adding that he may have more clarity in the next 90 days.
But Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto told the media on Feb 5 that there were “no relatively big USAid projects, so we are not overly impacted”.
“USAid ranks fifth as (a) donor for development aid to Indonesia. This indicates that the impact should not be too big, but doesn’t mean there’s none,” Dr Asra Virgianita from the University of Indonesia’s international relations department told ST.
The disruption will affect mainly programmes in the healthcare sector, which has been the USAid’s main focus internationally and in Indonesia. This is especially so for services to treat infectious diseases, malaria, stunting, as well as child and maternal health, said Dr Asra, adding that the aid freeze happened too abruptly.
“The impact (of the aid freeze) was exacerbated... because it happened suddenly, which makes many people unprepared, to anticipate the situation,” she said.
If this carries on, it could mean that thousands of Indonesians might be cut off from essential services such as HIV/Aids testing, public education and medication, Indonesia Aids Coalition executive director Aditya Wardhana told ST.
The Indonesia Aids Coalition and Srikandi Sejati Foundation assist those afflicted with HIV/Aids to gain access to testing and regular medication.
Treatment such as anti-retroviral therapy – which involves daily medication – can improve the immune system and suppress the virus to undetectable levels.
Missing treatments can result in increased resilience of the virus, weakening of the immune system, and greater vulnerability to other diseases.
There are also operational concerns. Since early February, an estimated more than 500 outreach officers from several local NGOs overseen by the Indonesia Aids Coalition have been laid off, said Aditya.
“They (remaining staff and those who have been let go) don’t know whether they will get their salaries this month,” he said.
At the Srikandi Sejati Foundation, the 20 laid-off employees have continued coming into work, said Kamel, adding that many of them have worked there for more than a decade.
“We don’t know how to find (them) jobs, moreover, we have many transwomen staff who are also middle-aged and who face social stigma in society,” she said.
Finding ways to plug the shortfall
The Indonesian government aims to find other sources to fill the shortfall in aid funding.
Budi said on Feb 6 that the government hopes to plug the financing gap with sources other than the US.
“We still have donors from other countries. Yesterday, I went to Australia, we have secured commitment for A$130 million (US$83 million). I will further search to find other donors,” the health minister told media.
According to think-tank Lowy Institute, China was Indonesia’s largest development partner between 2015 and 2022, disbursing US$2.3 billion annually, representing 21 per cent of the official development finance aid received by the South-east Asian country during this period.
Other major foreign aid donors to Indonesia include the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, as well as South Korea, Japan, Germany and Australia.
Some analysts say the USAid freeze is a wake-up call for Indonesia to look for other funding sources and reassess its dependence on foreign aid.
Dr Sidrotun Naim, head of the MBA programme at Jakarta’s IPMI Institute and former adviser to the government, said that Indonesia should look beyond intergovernmental relations to find new sources of development aid.
“This is the time to strengthen our people-to-people diplomacy,” she said.
She suggested looking at possible support from philanthropic organisations such as the Walton Family Foundation and the Gates Foundation.
Closer to home, she said: “Indonesia is actually not a poor country. If we can maximise funding resources domestically, we can tackle this (aid) issue.” - The Straits Times/ANN
