£2.9bn cuts to aid budget are a choice, not a necessity

Date: 23 July 2020
Campaigns: Aid

Reacting to the news the UK government is to make £2.9 billion of cuts to the international aid budget this year [1], Daniel Willis, aid campaigner at Global Justice Now said:

“Make no mistake, cutting the aid budget is a choice, not a necessity, even at a time like this. The global health and economic shock of coronavirus means there has never been a more important time to defend and extend the aid budget. 0.7% is a minimum, not a limit.

“Any cuts should fall on those parts of aid spending that have repeatedly failed to demonstrate they deliver poverty reduction, like CDC Group, the government’s private development bank [2], and the vast amounts still being given to private contractors. Aid has been used to prop up investments in luxury hotels, private hospitals and fossil fuel projects for far too long.

“If the government doesn’t target these cuts at failing institutions like CDC, it will suggest they are using the pandemic as a smokescreen to deepen the corporate hijack of aid.”

[1] UK aid to be cut by £2.9B this year, https://www.devex.com/news/uk-aid-to-be-cut-by-2-9b-this-year-97766

[2] The future of aid after DfID: Shocking development projects supported by the UK, July 2020, https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resources/future-aid-after-dfid-shocking-development-projects-supported-uk

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