Hi, this is Michelle. Sweeping aid cuts have left the entire aid profession feeling unmoored. In the second part of our series looking at the world of international work in disarray, we learn about an initiative launched by workers for workers to support each other through these turbulent times.

Modest yet powerful, Our StopGap is like a job first aid kit filled with information, sound advice, solidarity and even a pinch of much-needed optimism.

Michelle Langrand

11.07.2025

World of international work

Photo article

Annika Erickson-Pearson currently works as the community organiser for the Community of Practice on Environment, Climate, Conflict and Peace, a global network of experts. (Courtesy of Annika Erickson-Pearson)

Sudden funding shifts – from Washington and beyond – have plunged the world of international organisations and NGOs into deep uncertainty. With jobs vanishing and future prospects unclear, even the most seasoned professionals are left wondering what’s next.

Annika Erickson-Pearson isn’t waiting around to find out. A community organiser by trade, she knows the power of collective action. The peacebuilder, a US national who arrived in Geneva in 2018, teamed up with colleagues to launch Our StopGap – a peer-to-peer support hub built to help fellow professionals navigate the sector’s unravelling and find new prospects.

Our StopGap is a no-frills, information-packed website – an attempt to cut through all the noise while offering as much information as possible. The idea, says Erickson-Pearson, is to meet what she and the rest of the team see as the community’s needs.

Part information tool-kit, part emotional refuge, the website is a one-stop shop for professionals in the international sector trying to make sense of the crisis.

Read the full story on Geneva Solutions.

Also from our series

Photo article

A man arranges USAid humanitarian aid inside a warehouse run by the World Food Programme (WFP) at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana, Kenya Tuesday, June 3, 2025. The UN agency, which counts USAids as its biggest donor, will slash 25 per cent to 30 per cent of its workforce, by next year amid drastic funding cuts. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

🩹Why processing trauma is key to fixing the international development system. The international aid and development system is being shaken right to its foundations and so are people working within it. Recognising trauma is the first step in confronting what comes next, says Katherine Milligan, a thought leader in social entrepreneurship and the co-author of "Healing Systems", published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review last year.

Geneva Solutions

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