The four big Dutch aid organisations Oxfam Novib, Cordaid, Hivos and Icco plan to sack between 25% and half their personnel because of government budget cuts, the Volkskrant says on Wednesday.

The four organisations are withdrawing from countries such as Rwanda and Bangladesh because of the cuts and this means hundreds of staff will lose their jobs, the paper says.

From January 2016, the aid groups will lose more than 80% of their structural government support. They currently receive around €50m a year in state subsidies but this is being cut to between €7m and €10m, the paper says. Oxfam Novib will retain €15.6m.

Until now the four organisations have been regarded as official government partners in terms of distributing aid and managing projects but this is now changing, resulting in smaller budgets and fewer projects.

Aid minister Lilianne Ploumen is shifting money away from traditional development aid towards initiatives which help people in developing countries stand up for their rights in what she calls ‘lobby and advocacy’.

Hivos, for example, is cutting its headquarter workforce from 145 to 95 and will stop its successful project against female circumcision in Iraqi Kurdistan. Icco, where the workforce will shrink from 350 to 175, is pulling out of South Africa, Colombia, Peru and Brazil.