BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//PYVOBJECT//NONSGML Version 1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Africa/Nairobi BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20000101T000000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=1 TZNAME:EAT TZOFFSETFROM:+0300 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20260815T034744Z - 69700@e37c72951f07 DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Nairobi:20250320T170000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Nairobi:20250320T180000 CREATED:20260815T034744Z DESCRIPTION:Impact of Funding Cuts - Benin\nImpact of Fund ing Cuts in BeninA conversation with community leaders and local aid profe ssionals on the brutal impact on the sector and the need for structural ch ange. On March 20\, 2025\, Kuja hosted its first webinar on our newly laun ched site! Panelists Bio Yacoubou Bassirou\, Moustaphaou Imorou\, Djalidou Aboudou Salifou\, and Kader Abdel Sabi Pate—local Benin activists and a id professionals—presented the brutal impact of the USAID funding freeze on Benin. Their firsthand insights shed light on how these cuts have affe cted communities. When the Kuja team first spoke to the panelists\, they w ere hopeful the funding stop would be temporary. However\, by the time of the webinar\, they had come to terms with the reality that their projects had been permanently eliminated. Like many local leaders across the Global South\, they are now navigating the loss of stability and working to adju st despite the immense challenges.The Impact on Benin Francophone Africa i s often overlooked in global aid\, and Benin was already receiving limited funding—only $77 million from USAID in 2024. Additional support came fr om the United States African Development Fund (USADF) and the Millennium C hallenge Corporation (MCC). The Benin panelists shared how their past proj ects had directly impacted nearly four million people and indirectly influ enced about 65% of the population. With the sudden withdrawal of U.S. aid\ , the consequences have been devastating across multiple sectors\, from he alth and infrastructure to economic development and national security. Bio \, one of the panelists\, described this as a “‘cascade effect\,” wa rning of an impending national famine and extreme poverty. For local aid w orkers\, the crisis is compounded by the lack of a safety net and the resp onsibility of supporting large families. Despite these setbacks\, the pane lists shared how they are actively seeking alternative [...] DTSTAMP:20260815T034744Z SUMMARY:Impact of Funding Cuts - Benin END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR