Weekly Action - 15 May 2023 - UK Aid
UK overseas development strategy
Last month, Andrew Mitchell, Minister of State for Development and Africa, set out the British government’s rebooted plans for international development, in a speech at the foreign policy think tank Chatham House.[1] The UK’s approach to international development does badly need a reset. After many years when the UK was an internationally recognised leader in the field, in 2021 the proportion of Gross National Income (GNI) that the UK spends in international aid dropped from 0.7% (the internationally agreed standard that the UK has long championed) to 0.5%. And the aid that remains has been increasingly spent on supporting refugees at home in the UK and furthering UK foreign policy interests, rather than being purely focused on reducing poverty in the world’s poorest countries, as it should be.
UK aid has had a literally lifesaving impact for millions of people around the world over many years. To take just one example, more than 150,000 people, including many malnourished children, in Chad have been provided with emergency food supplies in recent years. Cash assistance has also been given to over 1,600 households in the country, enabling them to purchase food and building materials, and clean safe water was provided for 10,500 people. More than 10,000 people received protective clothing and medical kits to reduce the spread of Covid-19 during the pandemic.[2] In recent months UK aid has supported flood victims in DR Congo, Rwanda and Pakistan, immunizations against deadly tropical diseases, earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, and people suffering drought in East Africa amongst many other areas.
Overseas aid is the most closely and independently scrutinised part of UK government spending, ensuring every pound is used well and not wasted. The new strategy set out by Andrew Mitchell last month does help to put the UK back on a better track with its international development support. However, urgent steps still need to be taken to immediately get back to 0.7% GNI spending on international aid, and to make sure it is all focused solely on tackling poverty.
Reducing poverty around the world
As Christians, we know that that God has a special care for those suffering in extreme poverty, and wants to see all cared for and their poverty ended. As the Psalms say, “He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry … The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow” (Pslam 146: 7 – 9). Arise’s 4 Shifts Report and Campaign looks at the lessons from the Bible, and at what has worked in the past, to successfully lift nations out of poverty. It finds that aid from developed nations like the UK is an important temporary boost to support low-income countries as they develop themselves, until they can move beyond the need for aid. For countries to do this, two key shifts are essential. 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. This mean developing a proactive national industrial and economic development strategy that uses a range of policies to create a diverse national economy that progressively moves up the value chain from agriculture to manufacturing to services to the knowledge economy. 2) They can then tax this economy to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare and education, to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. All nations that have developed successfully and lifted themselves permanently out of poverty have followed this route.
Will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts Campaign this week, and urge the UK to immediately return to providing 0.7% of GNI as international aid, and to use this to support developing nations to lift themselves out of poverty?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Write to Andrew Mitchell, Minister of State for Development and Africa, in your own words asking the government to:
1. Immediately scale up overseas aid back to 0.7% of GNI, and focus much of this on supporting nations to lift themselves permanently out of poverty by developing a proactive national industrial and economic development strategy to create a diverse national economy that progressively moves up the value chain from agriculture to manufacturing to services to the knowledge economy.
2. Provide technical advice and support to developing nations as they develop and implement these national industrial and economic development strategies.
His contact details are:
Mr Andrew Mitchell MP
Minister of State for Development and Africa
FCDO
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
andrew.mitchell.mp@parliament.uk
Pray
Pray for all those living in extreme poverty. Pray their nations will develop, creating booming economies, jobs, good wages, and key public services like education and healthcare to lift them permanently out of poverty. Pray the UK will immediately scale up overseas aid back to 0.7% of GNI and focus this entirely on reducing poverty.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like Christian Aid, Cafod, Tearfund or World Vision who do crucial work supporting the most marginalised and reducing poverty in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Practical Action
Arise is looking for volunteers to join our Council of Reference, and help strengthen our movement to lift nations permanently out of poverty. Contact us at info@ariseuk.org if you are interested.
Ethical Consumption
Support developing nation economies by buying products and services with the Fairtrade mark, where a much higher proportion of your money goes to producers in the developing world.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.
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[1] Can rhetoric match reality? Britain’s international development future, Chatham House, (27 Apr 2023), https://www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/members-event/can-rhetoric-match-reality-britains-international-development-future
[2] UK aid support vulnerable people in Chad using millions of pounds recovered during corruption case, Gov.UK, (29 Nov 2021), https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-aid-supports-vulnerable-people-in-chad-using-millions-of-pounds-recovered-during-corruption-case