DEVELOPMENT-BRITAIN: Aid Programme Changes Course

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 7 2002 (IPS) - Britain’s international aid programme is changing course to direct more of its aid to poor countries – and to governments in those countries rather than independent projects.

”We are getting away from the old fashioned notions of aid,” Short told media representatives at the Foreign Press Association in London Thursday. ”Where finance ministries and government projects were thought weak, it was usual to set up projects outside the government system,” she said. ”But that would only weaken the capacity of the state further.”

The development aid provided by Britain is now channelled more to governments ”to support the institutions of the countries to work for themselves,” Short said. This means also less government support to the large Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and more to local governments and local civil societies, Short said.

Clare Short’s new policies have been welcomed by several NGOs. ”Developing countries’ governments must play a central role in aid from rich nations like Britain,” a spokesperson for ActionAid told IPS. ”Our agency and others can help in distribution and through work with the poor to ensure they have a say to ensure the aid improves their lives.”

The spokesman said the third world sees this issue as significant – not least in Afghanistan, where Clare Short has just visited. British development funds are being used to strengthen police and judicial systems. ”Direct budget support to governments committed to tackling poverty helps to strengthen local institutions and to speed up development,” Short said. ”The only way to make Afghanistan secure is to make it a well governed country.”

The new policy is being implemented in Afghanistan and Pakistan to combine development support with political aims. ”There is a serious problem with young men in Pakistan getting education in Madrassas (Islamic schools) where they are not taught by properly educated teachers,” she said. This has led to ”a growing extremist opinion.” British development funds are now going into government projects "to build up a national education system," Short said.

In Afghanistan too, British aid is supporting education projects. Short said it had been refreshing to see ”little girls running around with books” during her recent visit to Afghanistan. British aid will be used in Afghanistan also to make areas outside Kabul and other cities more secure, she said. Such support is again being channelled through the Afghani government.

The Department for Industrial Development (DFID), that Clare Short heads, is also channelling aid in support of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, an African led initiative to end conflict and improve economic and social development.

Short achieved a historic breakthrough in aid programmes earlier in the year when she pushed through a new Act of Parliament that made tied aid illegal. ”British aid would be used to promote British business,” she said. ”That was an enormous deficiency, and we’ve got rid of that.”

The International Development Act which, received royal assent in February, establishes that the primary aim of development assistance is poverty reduction. ”This clarity of purpose if one of the DFID’s great strengths,” she said. The department sees that as a significant step in moving towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Short now plans to take on the European Union (EU) and to ”improve the focus of the EU development budget which absorbs a quarter of UK development assistance, but spends an ever declining percentage of its budget in poor countries.” Short has begun to direct much of the DFID’s budget to the poorest countries rather than to countries in central and eastern Europe as the EU does.

The pioneering developments in British development aid have challenged prevailing practices of tied aid in many other countries, the ActionAid spokesperson said. The EU is reconsidering its aid policies as a result.

British development aid has become significant also because it is now an ever increasing packet. The British government increased its aid budget to 0.4 per cent of its gross national product (GNP) from 0.32 per cent in July this year. This means aid to combat international poverty will be raised over the next four years to 7.7 billion dollars a year from the current 5.2 billion dollars a year.

The increase in aid was welcomed by non-governmental organisations in Britain, though it is still short of the 0.7 per cent of GNP recommended by the UN (United Nations).

The 2.5 billion dollar increase provides the British government substantial new resources to support a wide range of aid projects being promoted by governments in developing countries.

DEVELOPMENT-BRITAIN: Aid Programme Changes Course

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 7 2002 (IPS) - Britain’s international aid programme is changing course to direct more of its aid to poor countries – and to governments in those countries rather than independent projects.
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