These cuts are beyond dangerous – they will destroy survival chances and end lives.
Across the western world, we are seeing a disastrous decline in government spending on international aid. In recent weeks, the USA has almost entirely shut down its foreign aid department, and Belgium, France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have cut international aid budgets by 25%, 37%, 30%, and 40% respectively. The incoming German government has also left foreign aid squarely in the line of fire, with more details expected in the coming months.
While western ‘aid’ is a double-edged sword– often coupled to political hegemonic agendas– for the world’s most marginalized people, it is also often the only source of life-saving humanitarian support.. Fewer people living with HIV will now get the healthcare they need. Fewer people living in poverty will have access to basic human needs like food, water, and shelter. And more people will have their basic human rights denied. We add our voice to growing concern among international organizations that these cuts are beyond dangerous – they will destroy survival chances and end lives.
In a world already plagued by war, and with growing anti-asylum rhetoric in the more privileged ‘safe’ countries, cuts to foreign aid will only lead to more instability. While the best way to reduce forced migration now would be international wealth redistribution, the present trend toward cutting financial support to the most vulnerable exacerbates inequality and moves us in the exact opposite direction.
Musicians Without Borders is not directly financed by governmental aid programs. Our projects will continue as long as individual supporters and our broad base of institutional and private donors continue to believe in the power of music for healing, reconciliation, and community building with people impacted by armed conflict. However, we are well aware that the current trend will impact the entire humanitarian and social change sectors, including many organizations doing fantastic and much needed work. Together with colleague organizations, we raise our voices in protest against these cuts, and urge our friends and supporters to speak out for a robust humanitarian sector with strong partnerships across the globe.
Cuts to foreign aid are part of more sinister developments in Europe: the increase of fear mongering and the propagandizing of war, and the reduction of funding to everything that holds communities together, everything that feeds our development and our cohesion as societies. From education to housing to medical rights, to access to those expressions of humanity that feed our deepest needs. From art to parks. From libraries to music.
At Musicians Without Borders , we understand how fear fuels violence and leads to war. We understand that the strongest antidote to fear is empathy; the ability to identify and feel with ‘the other’. And we understand how music creates empathy, and have learned how to turn this knowledge into lasting change in communities around the globe.
As we speak out against destructive political developments, we continue every day to oppose war and the fear that fuels it, by strengthening empathy and creating connection through music. War divides, Music Connects .
