Jane Salmonson says powerful and vocal elements of society can't be allowed to use Oxfam crisis as an excuse to cut aid UK budget
Listening to the First Minister’s speech from the SCVO Gathering this morning was the most heartening moment I have experienced since the recent revelations of abuse in the international aid and development sector began. Thank you First Minister for not climbing on to the bandwagon of moral outrage.
It takes something a bit more reasoned and rational, to take a step back from the collective disgust, to talk about the distorting effects of the barrage of negative media coverage.
As the First Minister said in her speech, the Scottish Government has been contacting all its partners involved in the delivery of its international development programmes. For our part, at Scotland’s International Development Alliance, we have been collecting up examples of best practice in safeguarding, whistleblowing, reporting and compliance with statutory and donor requirements, to make available online and to offer in training and information events to our members.
I am fearful for the future of the UK’s aid and development work as I watch how this episode is being weaponised
Jane Salmonson
There is a paramount and urgent need now to support our members and their implementing partners overseas, to create a genuinely do-able set of practices that will realise an organisational culture of zero tolerance. What I would like to be able to say at this stage is never again. Unfortunately, I can’t. People are people and the human species has some flaws. We employ people not robots.
What I can say is that the current crisis in our sector, caused by some disgraceful and inexcusable actions, can leave us all better equipped in the months and years ahead to identify abuse and deal with it quickly and correctly.
The First Minister also talked about the use that can be made by elements of the right wing in press and in politics for their own political ends. She is right and I am fearful for the future of the UK’s aid and development work as I watch how this episode is being weaponised.
There is a powerful and vocal element in society calling for a reduction in our aid and development budgets and work, epitomised for me by the photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg standing smiling in front of Number 10, holding a copy of the newspaper that generated 100,000 signatures for its Stop the Foreign Aid Madness campaign.
Many aid and development agencies share the widely felt shock at the recent horrible stories of gross misconduct. I think the time has now come to move out of shock and accept that these stories tragically distort the true picture, which is one of many thousands of our employees, volunteers and partners around the world, quietly working away meeting the needs of some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.
The world is a big place but Scotland is a small one. The First Minister referred to this in her speech this morning. She said our smallness actually brought some advantages. The big challenges we face across the world can be cracked and resolved and we will do it best if we do it together.
I look forward to seeing the international aid and development sector in Scotland step back up to the place, with confidence, to take its part in meeting those challenges.
Jane Salmonson is chief executive of Scotland’s International Development Alliance
