🔗 Share this article

They call themselves as the "emergency rescue team". Following their sudden termination when overseas aid faced cuts recently, a group of committed staff decided to launch their own support program.

Declining to "dwell on sadness", an ex-staffer, along with equally dedicated past team members, initiated efforts to save some of the vital projects that were at risk after the cuts.

Now, nearly eighty initiatives have been saved by a facilitation effort operated by the economist and other former agency employees, which has secured them more than $110 million in fresh financial support. The team behind the resource optimization project effort projects it will assist millions of people, including many children under five.

Following the termination of operations, spending was frozen, thousands of employees were laid off, and global initiatives either came to a shuddering halt or were barely continuing toward what the leader terms "drop-dead dates".

The former staffer and several team members were reached out to by a foundation that "wanted to understand how they could make the best use of their constrained funds".

They built a selection from the ended initiatives, identifying those "delivering the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a alternative supporter could feasibly step in and keep things going.

They soon realised the requirement was wider than that original foundation and started to contact further funding sources.

"We called ourselves the rescue team at the beginning," states the economist. "The ship has been collapsing, and there are insufficient emergency options for each programme to board, and so we're trying to actually protect as many babies as we can, secure spots for these lifeboats as feasible, via the programmes that are providing support."

The initiative, now working as part of a global development thinktank, has obtained financial support for seventy-nine initiatives on its selection in more than 30 regions. Several have had original funding restored. Several others were not able to be saved in time.

Funding has come from a combination of philanthropic foundations and affluent donors. The majority choose to be unidentified.

"These donors come from very different backgrounds and opinions, but the unifying theme that we've encountered from them is, 'I am appalled by what's unfolding. I sincerely wish to figure out a way to step in,'" notes Rosenbaum.

"I think that there was an 'lightbulb moment' for everyone involved as we started working on this, that this created an opportunity to shift from the inactivity and despair, remaining in the distress of everything that was occurring around us, to having something productive to really sink our teeth into."

An example programme that has found backing through the initiative is work by the Alliance for International Medical Action to offer support encompassing care for malnourished children, maternity services and vital childhood vaccines in the West African nation.

It is essential to maintain these operations, explains Rosenbaum, not only because reinitiating work if they stopped would be extremely costly but also because of how much confidence would be forfeited in the conflict-ravaged areas if the group withdrew.

"They informed us […] 'there is fear that if we walk away, we may lose our place.'"

Initiatives with extended objectives, such as bolstering healthcare networks, or in different sectors such as education, have remained outside Pro's work. It also does not seek to preserve programmes forever but to "create a window for the groups and, honestly, the wider community, to determine a longer-term solution".

Having found support for each programme on its initial list, the initiative states it will now concentrate on reaching further populations with "proven, cost-effective interventions".