US funding for overseas nongovernment organizations (NGOs) is now at risk. Due to a global gag rule that the Trump administration introduced early in 2026, government funding for certain foreign aid programs is subject to more stringent restrictions on activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); abortion access; and what the Trump administration calls “gender ideology” (which includes gender-affirming counseling and care, as well as basic inclusion of and respect for transgender people). These restrictions are all occurring under what the State Department calls the Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance policy.

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a leading NGO doing land mine removal and disarmament work around the world, announced it will decline U.S. funding due to these new restrictions. In a press release, NPA Secretary General Raymond Johansen said the new requirements run contrary to the organization’s commitment to its core values including gender equality and diversity; therefore, it was forced to forego critical U.S. government support.

“We comply with Norwegian law and Norwegian policy, and our values are not for sale,” Johansen said.

The loss of financial support will have a major impact on NPA’s work removing anti-personnel land mines, cluster munitions, and unexploded ordnance left over from past wars and conflicts. The loss of 400 million Norwegian kroners (NOK) — around $42 million in U.S. dollars — in support from the State Department represents around 40 percent of NPA’s budget for clearing mines and bombs in 20 countries.

Overseas funding restrictions have existed under past presidents going back to the Reagan administration in 1984, but with the expansion of the gag rule, new requirements won’t only affect funding for U.S. programs, but will impact all NPA programs, Gry Ballestad, NPA’s director of policy and communications, told Truthout in an interview. “It will affect everything we do globally and this is what makes it different,” Ballestad said. NPA expects the loss of funding to result in 1,700 job cuts globally, including over 1,000 staff in Laos.

Although U.S. government funding for NPA is limited to mine removal programs, the new requirements could impact its global work, which includes international development programs and working with women’s organizations that may support abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and anti-racism activities in Norway and elsewhere. NPA programs include refugee and integration, support for humanitarian aid, and addressing gender wealth disparities.

The loss of U.S. funding will have a major impact not only on NPA mine programs, but on the entire organization, Ballestad said, adding that while most donors impose conditions, the new restrictions run contrary to past requirements and may contradict those of other donors. She called the imposition of these funding requirements a political decision which has the potential to wield control over 400 million NOK for mine removal programs — and which could place NPA’s total budget of more than 1.6 billion NOK in legal jeopardy.

Ballestad said this represents a greater challenge to norms and regulations going back many decades: “We’ve never seen this before from a donor putting requirements that will affect the rest of your funding.”

Speaking Out for Democracy and Freedom

After months of legal consultations with lawyers in the U.S. and an unsuccessful attempt to receive a waiver for Southeast Asia where it does the majority of its mine work, NPA determined it had no choice but to uphold its principles, values, and obligations to its membership. “We can’t just change that because there’s a new American administration that comes up with new regulations … We’re a democratic organization,” Ballestad said. NPA’s outspoken position has received widespread support from labor unions and the Norwegian public.

Jon Jensen, NPA’s section leader of the Middle East and Central Asia, told Truthout in an interview that the loss of State Department funding will mean a significant reduction of field operations like clearing areas contaminated by cluster munitions and explosive ordnance. This includes working with other mine action operators and Laotian government authorities mapping and identifying hazardous areas based on data and consultations with local communities.

According to a Mine Action Review Report, NPA surveyed more than 5.3 million square meters for cluster munition contamination in 2025. Now that work will end.

“As of now, we have stopped all field operations in Laos and sent out termination notices to around a thousand staff,” Jensen said.

Although the loss of U.S. government funding will force the closure of some programs or reduce mine-clearing activities, Ballestad said 60 percent of NPA’s mine action work will continue as it searches for alternate funding sources. Hardest hit will be Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Pacific nation of Palau.

Where possible, NPA plans to hand over staff, materials, and equipment to other organizations, but the process isn’t easy, and not all organizations do the same kind of work. Jensen added that although NPA was unable to accept funding under the new conditions, it was still cooperating with the State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement to coordinate a smooth handover to different operators who could take on some of NPA’s work, trying to minimize the negative impacts for communities polluted by explosive remnants of war.

The State Department did not provide a response to multiple requests from Truthout seeking comment for this story.

NPA is not alone in rejecting U.S. funding under the new requirements: Organizations like Save the Children Norway also face foreign aid cuts while Norwegian Church Aid took a similar position to NPA in declining funding under the new Trump administration conditions. In a statement, its secretary general, Anne Cecilie Kaltenborn, said, “humanitarian principles are not for sale.”

Legacy of War

NPA began international humanitarian mine removal efforts in Cambodia in 1992 and has received U.S. funding since the mid-1990s. Since that time, NPA says it has cleared more than 2 million land mines and explosives in 45 countries from Iraq, Yemen, and Ukraine to Angola and Peru.

The group’s mine work currently includes 20 countries with major field operations in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. According to NPA, in the 1960s and ’70s, the United States dropped more than 400,000 tons of cluster bombs on Vietnam, while neighboring Cambodia and Laos are among the most heavily mined and bombed countries in the world. According to an estimate from the government of Laos, the U.S. military dropped more than 270 million submunitions over nine years of secret warfare (1964-1973).

Today, buried munitions which did not detonate continue to maim and kill civilians, more than half of them children, frequently while in villages and rice fields. Some 12,000 unexploded ordnance accidents have been documented in Laos since 1973, according to government of Laos data.

Decades after wars in Southeast Asia ended, the remnants of war continue to hinder economic development and pose significant risks to civilians, a danger which increases as aging weapons grow more unstable over time, said Jensen, adding, “most of the contamination that we are addressing with U.S. funding also has a U.S. origin.”

The use of land mines in Southeast Asia is not limited to long-ago wars. As recently as 2025, mines were allegedly used on the border between Cambodia and Thailand, sparking deadly clashes.

Despite the need to continue mine-clearing work, NPA insists it will not betray its own values and those of members and supporters. “If somebody gives us money, it is because they support our work and the values that we stand for,” Ballestad says. “However, if private donors in any country give us money, they will be under the regulations of a U.S. administration that may be contradicting what those donors want to support. I think people understand that and they don’t think it’s right.”

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