Radio 4 on UK’s aid business

Date: 3 July 2015

Future UK governments will now be legally obliged to give at least 0.7% of our gross national income in aid. This is great news, but unfortunately an increasing amount of aid money is going to support privatisation and private profits.

This investigation by BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 shows how huge amounts of the aid budget is being spent on expensive consultants and ineffective projects. One of the consultancy firms making the most from UK aid is Adam Smith International, which was set up by free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute and has been involved in a number of controversial projects, including writing a pop song to promote a disastrous water privatisation scheme in Tanzania.

The programme features Ken Henshaw, a Nigerian energy activist who we have been working with expose the impacts energy privatisation in Nigeria which has been supported through a UK aid project implemented by Adam Smith International. This has seen Nigerians suffer more power cuts and higher prices, while thousands of workers have been made redundant.

We must step up the fight to ensure that this money supports communities and not big business.

Have a listen to the programme online

Read our briefing on Nigeria, UK aid and energy privatisation