UK aid spending: There are big problems, but the 0.7% level isn’t one of them
Date: 9 June 2016
For years UK aid money has increasingly been going into dubious private sector development projects and into the pockets of wealthy Western consultants, according to a campaign group Global Justice Now, ahead of a parliamentary debate on Monday on aid spending.
The group have released a short briefing ahead of the debate, ‘0.7% on aid: a small contribution towards justice and equality’, which argues that “aid is not reaching those who need it, but ends up furthering the business interests and boosting the profits of multinational companies”. The group goes on to propose that there’s a need to “move away from the idea that aid is charity and towards considering aid to be a form of international wealth redistribution”.
Polly Jones, the head of policy and campaigns at Global Justice Now said:
“UK aid is now being used to help privatise the electricity system in Nigeria and has ended up helping to finance luxury housing. The government’s aid strategy openly talks about aid being “in the national interest” and discusses handing over aid money to the Ministry of Defence.
“These are symptoms of an aid programme that is going in the wrong direction. The problem is not the risk of UK aid money getting into the hands of corrupt elites abroad, it is that aid is increasingly being diverted away from tackling poverty and into the pockets of elite consultancy firms. £600 million has been spent on an African food programme which has just been slammed by the EU for benefitting big business and not tackling poverty for small farmers.
“After the second world war, redistribution of wealth allowed us to build a world class welfare state which transformed life in this country. Redistribution of wealth today can allow other countries to build the next generation of national health services too. This isn’t charity – it’s living in a civilised world.”
DFID’s approach to aid has faced sustained criticism recently. On Monday the International Development Committee held a hearing into their extensive use of private consultants such as Adam Smith international. On the same day in Brussels, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to accept a report that was highly critical of an aid scheme to which DFID had paid £600 million, that promoted big agribusiness companies into new markets in African countries.
Last weekend speaking at the Global Justice Now national gathering, shadow development secretary Diane Abbott said that “Aid has been hijacked by this government, to subsidise big business, military and anti-immigration policies. They should be using aid money to help build public services, providing health and education for millions of people, not filling the coffers of western big business.”
The briefing argues that UK aid money should not be spent on:
- Expensive for-profit consultants
- Helping multinational businesses gain market access to countries in the global south
- Privatisation of public services
- UK national interest
- World Bank and IMF projects
- Projects that require implicit policy conditionality
Download the briefing
Download free photos of a spoof protest of aid consultants demanding more pay
