International aid charities have urged the government to continue to use its aid budget to focus on helping the world’s poorest.
Charity leaders were responding to speeches by the prime minister, Theresa May, who is visiting Africa this week and had indicated that after Brexit the UK is keen to grow the amount of trade it does with African countries and said she would use the UK’s international aid budget to support this ambition.
The UK remains committed to speding 0.7 per cent of gross national income on aid.
Christian Aid’s director of policy and public affairs, Christine Allen, said: “Aid must not be used to simply oil the wheels of British business, but instead should prioritise the needs of those it is intended to benefit – the poorest and most marginalised.”
She said that investment in Africa should focus on supporting “clean and green” initiatives and local businesses.
“Aid has been marred for years by donor countries putting their own priorities ahead of the needs of the countries and people who should benefit from that aid. This distorts the purpose of aid and while there may be some areas of overlapping interests, progress does not always involve ‘win-wins’. It would be wrong to put British interests first in ways that harm the poorest. Any attempts to do so will raise questions about how aid policy is being developed and in whose interests,” she said.
Allen also cautioned against exporting “failed investment modes such as public private parternships” to Africa.
“The purpose of aid, enshrined in law, is to tackle poverty,” she said.
“The answer to Africa’s problems must be rooted in global solidarity and self-determination, not in a renewed form of imperialism.”
Claire Godfrey, head of policy and campaigns at Bond, said: “Trade and investment play an important role in helping the world’s poorest people out of poverty and during times of crisis. We would, however, be concerned if these efforts were weighted in favour of UK trade or UK private investors at the cost of helping the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised people in the world.”
She added that the government should focus on “tackling the root causes of poverty, climate change and conflict”.
Meanwhile Girish Menon, chief executive of ActionAid UK, said that “within that aid spending we must see the lives of the poorest women and girls prioritised”.
He added that: “At ActionAid, every day we see how poor aid and badly-designed trade deals can hurt people in poor countries – particularly women and girls. Mrs May must recognise that growth, and job creation can only be truly inclusive if governments work together to address the underlying issues of gender inequality and promote the rights of women and girls.”
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