Organisations want UK government pledge
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to invest in international development after more than 100 Scots charities signed a letter to Boris Johnston.
Some 127 seperate signatories from across civic life in Scotland have written to the prime minister setting out four criteria they say are vital in order for the UK government’s new Foreign and Development Office to build on the UK’s world leading reputation in international development.
The call comes following the widely opposed merger of the Department for International Development (DFID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
The four commitments are: commitment to poverty eradication and aid effectiveness; commitment to accountability, transparency and scrutiny; commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; and commitment to safeguarding DFID’s expertise.
The call is backed by a wide range of Scottish-based organisations, including senior representatives from Scotland’s universities, diaspora groups, faith-leaders, businesses and NGOs.
They are being led by Scotland’s International Development Alliance, which represents a broad range of Scottish based groups engaged in global development activity across over 100 countries. including international NGOs, faith-based organisations, companies, universities, charitable trusts and individuals.
Jane Salmonson, chief executive of the alliance, said: “The merging of DFID and the FCO has caused many to raise concerns that the UK’s national interest could skew the development policy agenda.
“Now is the time for UK government to ally those concerns by demonstrating its renewed commitment to the world’s poorest.
“Poverty eradication is of vital importance to the UK and the world, whatever your politics”
“We look forward to working closely with government, with our network of members and with the public in continuing to make the case for principled, accountable aid spending”.
Johnson has previously stated that the UK’s £14 billion aid spending must come “more in line with Britain’s political, commercial and diplomatic interests”.
Charities and campaign groups worry what this will mean in practice for the world’s poorest people – raising the spectre of the UK turning its back on them.
They warn that this could be the reality if aid spending is aligned to political expediency, and potentially cut, through a merger.
Aid organisations have also warned that DFID’s work could be compromised through a merger with the FCO, which would diminish its “expertise and experience”.
The department was separated from the FCO and given an independent remit in 1997 by the Labour government – but it has been a target of some Tory ideologues.
Not least Johnson, who told the Financial Times that DFID should be brought into the FCO, saying: “We can’t keep spending huge sums of British taxpayers’ money as though we were some independent Scandinavian NGO.”
