To think that charity begins at home?

[HappyOrchid]

With all the cuts to various benefits and changing the inflation measures to give lower increases to those on fixed incomes what right does the Government have to ring fence and in fact increase foreign aid?

If I have a couple of quid to spare I will donate it to charity. When things are tight I spend it on fripperies like food and utility bills.

Call me Dave went to USA last week and increased committment to foreign aid to approx £7 BILLION, when the Govt. is trying to cut benefits for citizens of its iwn country by £10bn.

Is it worng to say 'Sorry, but we have to sort out our own economy first'. I know many countries are in poverty, but isn't it the responsibility of their governements to sort it out?
If people feel strongly about charity donations couldn't they make their own.

I think with foreign aid it is a case of 'I scratch your back if you scratch mine'. There is probably some mutually beneficial reason for it if you know what I mean

AID doesn't benefit the "poor abroad" but benefits the country giving the AID. When a government gives AID they are often guranteed major contracts which never benefits the locals. Hence ring fencing foreign AID.

Uganda electricity provider (UMEME) is a perfect example. UK gives AID, UK company gets contract, Ugandans pays high fees and often no electricity (Load shading) for weeks.

We should look at how much interest these countries are paying us and think about slashing that first.

But I would prefer that Afghan schools stayed open, education is vital.

Toombes you seem to have thought long and hard about why foreign aid doesn't work. Have you given any thought as to how the lives of the world's poorest people can be improved or shall we just leave it?

Which countries is that then, that have invaded Britain? And took what resources?
Answers on a postcard please, with a cut off date of 1066.

spotsdots

British aid is untied - recipient countries are under no obligation to buy British goods or contract with British companies. It has been for more than a decade thanks to Claire Short. Whatever the problems with Ugandan electricity, it is not connected to British overseas aid forcing the Ugandans to cotnract with a UK company unless it was a contract from the 1990s.

Toombes

The evaluation I was talking about

2012 Aid Transparency Index

And Bill Gates spoke about exactly this issue yesterday. Worth a listen!

Bill Gates on aid in an age of austerity

Good links.

What I find odd about Foreign Aid, is that a government that is so keen on everything being privatised, doesn't feel the same way about the charities we donate to.

I think there must be something in it for this country somewhere, or more likely that theres something in it for the government. It seems to me that it would have to be a hell of a lot for it to be worth it.

Oh Toombs, I'd love to see your evidence that the Rwandan genocide was mostly carried out using machetes supplied by a Blue Peter appeal... I've never heard such nonsense in my life. In fact a quick google search of "rwanda machetes blue peter" leads only to this page. Much of the weaponry used by the Hutu militia was actually supplied by the French government but why let the facts get in the way of cheap point scoring?

It's in the interest of wealthy nations like the UK to offer international aid to developing countries. More opportunities leads to less economic asylum seeking, better education (particularly for girls) leads to better health and less of a call for aid in the future, better healthcare makes the spread of infectious diseases and global pandemics less likely. Apart from being simply the right thing to do, international aid is also an investment in our own future.

That's not to say though that there shouldn't be more scrutiny of NGOs distributing the aid or what foreign governments do with the money they receive but it's far too simplistic to think that we can just not give aid and all will be right in the UK

If I recall correctly the UK received a lot of food aid from Australia during and after WW2. What goes around...