Hi John,
Yesterday the Prime Minister announced plans to hand over control of UK aid to the Foreign Office. We need your support to push back against these plans and to oppose the long-term corporate takeover of aid that lies behind them.
Boris Johnson’s speech on the future of 'Global Britain' confirmed what we have long feared: that the Department for International Development (DfID) will be abolished later this year.
This is a terrible decision that will destroy aid effectiveness and transparency, hinder public scrutiny of development policy, and see aid being used to boost British businesses rather than tackling global inequalities.
After the election in December, we warned that such a move could happen and that the merger was part of a longer term trend of the UK government using aid to set up future trading relationships. Abolishing DfID will take us back to the bad old days of ‘aid for trade’ when development funds were directed to governments who were best placed to buy British exports.
The most infamous case was the Pergau Dam Scandal when UK aid financed the construction of a Malaysian dam in return for the purchase of British arms exports. The World Development Movement (as we were known then) took the government to court and proved that their actions were unlawful. We’ve won before, now we need your help to win again!
Will you support our campaign opposing the DfID merger and the long-term corporate takeover of aid?
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With DfID gone, we will see more aid money being spent across other departments, by unaccountable cross-government funds, and by the UK’s development bank CDC Group. Just last week, MPs warned that the effectiveness and transparency of aid spent by other departments was far lower than it was in DfID.
In 2017, the government passed legislation allowing them to give more aid money to CDC Group, the government’s development bank - a potential eightfold increase. As we warned in February, this means that CDC Group represents the future of UK aid without DfD.
That means more money given to private schools, for-profit hospitals, fossil fuel infrastructure, private equity funds and companies accused of human rights abuses.
We have to call time on this approach before it is too late, and campaign for a new vision of development that promotes strong public services, vastly reduced global inequalities and improved international cooperation.
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In solidarity,
Daniel Willis
International development campaigner
Global Justice Now
Read more
1. This is the real reason Boris Johnson wants to give the Foreign Office control over overseas aid, The Independent, December 2019
2. Making Development a Business, Tribune, January 2020
3. Doing more harm than good: Why CDC must reform for people and planet, Global Justice Now, February 2020
4. 'Empire 2.0 here we come' - reaction to DFID being scrapped, Global Justice Now, 16 June 2020
5. Boris Johnson Shuts Department For International Development, Huffington Post, 16 June 2020
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