Plans to restructure the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and significantly slash the UK’s aid budget are too deep in scale and being pushed through far too quickly, parliment’s International Development Select Committee has warned – arguing they could bring “catastrophic” consequences.
The FCDO is currently undergoing a major overhaul as a result of controversial plans to cut the UK overseas aid budget from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), with the government’s own impact assessment warning that the cuts will result in deaths around the world.
Now, in a report on the future of UK aid contributed to by The Independent, the International Development Committee has urged the government to pause the cuts until a review is undertaken – to make sure that future UK aid and development assistance is targeted as effectively as possible.
“The brutal cuts we have seen to Official Development Assistance over successive Governments pose pressing questions about how we will keep supporting some of the world’s poorest countries,” said Sarah Champion, the International Development Committee chair. “It is clear to us that financial and staffing changes at the FCDO are being pushed through far too quickly, with the unintended consequences having the potential of being catastrophic.
“Rather than careering into irreversible changes and losing key experts when we need them most, FDCO should press the pause button now before it is too late,” the Labour MP for Rotherham added. “Carrying on regardless could mean devastating consequences for some of the poorest people in the world and a damaging hit to the UK’s global standing.”
Appearing before the Committee last month, International Development Minister Baroness Chapman said that the core aim of UK overseas aid remains “alleviating poverty and stabilising countries to enable them to go on that journey themselves”.
The new report warns that there remains significant work to do to realise this ambition. With plans to cut 2,000 UK staff under way, the report highlights the potential loss of key personnel needed to deliver the Government’s vision for foreign aid.
MPs have also expressed alarm that Ministers are considering scrapping the UK’s aid watchdog, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), which was established by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2011.
The Committee has requested that Keir Starmer’s government provides details on how it intends to prioritise poverty reduction as it presses ahead with developing a future strategy for UK aid.
“In the coming years, the greatest need will be in fragile and conflict-affected states, and states most vulnerable to climate change. Working in partnership to address these needs mutually benefits the affected countries and the UK,” the report says. “Resourcing decisions… in the coming weeks and months need to accurately reflect where the greatest need is. They also need to reflect where preventative action is likely to have the greatest impact.”
The new report also calls for more detail on the FCDO’s plans to spend a greater proportion of its shrinking overseas aid budget through multilateral institutions like the World Bank or UN. Baroness Chapman has said such a move will help efforts to counter growing threats to international cooperation.
The British development sector is keenly awaiting news of where exactly UK aid cuts are going to fall, with Baroness Chapman suggesting at the meeting that an announcement could be made later in February.
In response to the report, Romilly Greenhill, CEO of Bond, the UK network for NGOs, said: “Today’s interim report confirms what the UK NGO sector has warned: that the speed and scale of changes to the FCDO and the reduction of the UK aid budget, as well as the potential loss of essential scrutiny by ICAI, risk pushing global poverty reduction down the agenda – with devastating consequences for millions of people facing conflict, poverty and insecurity.
“We urge the Government to pause irreversible staffing and funding decisions until we urgently see a full assessment of how the UK aid cuts will impact the world’s most marginalised communities.
“The ongoing cuts to the UK’s aid budget are already costing lives and reversing hard-won progress achieved. It is essential that the Government now act on the Committee’s recommendations.”
This article was produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project