🔗 Share this article

They refer to themselves as the "emergency rescue team". After their sudden termination when foreign assistance was slashed earlier this year, a group of devoted staff opted to establish their own rescue package.

Declining to "dwell on sadness", a former economist, along with like-minded past team members, initiated actions to save some of the essential initiatives that were threatened with termination after the funding decreases.

At present, nearly eighty programmes have been rescued by a facilitation effort managed by the leader and fellow past agency employees, which has secured them in excess of $110 million in fresh financial support. The collective behind the Project Resource Optimization initiative estimates it will assist 40 million people, including many children under five.

After the termination of operations, funds were halted, thousands of employees were laid off, and global initiatives either ended suddenly or were left limping toward what the leader terms "termination points".

He and several team members were reached out to by a philanthropic organization that "sought to figure out how they could make the best use of their limited resources".

They built a selection from the terminated programmes, pinpointing those "offering the most life-saving aid per dollar" and where a new funder could feasibly step in and keep things going.

They soon recognized the demand was broader than that original entity and commenced to reach out to additional possible supporters.

"We dubbed ourselves the lifeboat crew at the beginning," states Rosenbaum. "The ship has been collapsing, and there are too few lifeboats for each programme to get on, and so we're trying to literally protect as many young children as we can, get as many on to these lifeboats as feasible, via the projects that are providing support."

Pro, now operating as part of a international policy center, has obtained financial support for numerous programmes on its roster in more than 30 countries. Three have had initial backing returned. A number were could not be preserved in time.

Backing has been provided by a mix of charitable organizations and private benefactors. Many prefer to stay unnamed.

"The supporters come from varied backgrounds and opinions, but the shared sentiment that we've heard from them is, 'I am appalled by what's unfolding. I sincerely wish to discover an approach to step in,'" says the leader.

"I think that there was an 'eureka moment' for all of us as we began operating on this, that this opened up an opportunity to pivot from the inactivity and despair, wallowing in the misery of everything that was occurring around us, to having a constructive endeavor to fully engage with."

A specific initiative that has obtained support through Pro is work by the Alima to offer support such as nutritional rehabilitation, prenatal and postnatal support and crucial pediatric vaccinations in the West African nation.

It is essential to continue these initiatives, says Rosenbaum, not only because reinitiating work if they ceased would be hugely expensive but also because of how much trust would be lost in the conflict-ravaged areas if the group pulled out.

"They informed us […] 'there is fear that if we withdraw, we may be unable to return.'"

Programmes with future-focused aims, such as strengthening health systems, or in other fields such as education, have not been part of the project's focus. It also does not aim to save the projects indefinitely but to "create a window for the groups and, truthfully, the broader ecosystem, to determine a longer-term solution".

Now that they have obtained backing for all projects on its first selection, Pro says it will now concentrate on helping additional individuals with "established, economical measures".