Foreign Aid budget cut

[MellowBird85]

Do you agree with it?

YANBU - Yes it was the right decision to cut it.
YABU - No they should’ve left it alone.

@thegcatsmother

Military humanitarian aid isn't inc in the FA budget.

Redwoods argument is equally valid whether you cut FA or leave it the same as it is, its already predicted to drop by 2.5 billion because of the drop in GDP, so the 0.2% cut will be more like 6.5billion p.a. compared to last year.

Rainbow
It's only ridiculous because you disagree. Money is needed in this country for the children going hungry or living in awful conditions. People are loosing their jobs. We need the money this year.
Or do people in this country not matter because at least our children get vaccinated.
FFS.

What's ridiculous is people believing it will go on the "starving children" here.

Even after the cut, our contribution will still be more than several ‘rich’ countries pay, and considerably more than some of these.

IMO there’s no need for so much hand-wringing, though of course some MNers do always enjoy making out that the U.K. is worst at absolutely everything.

This is a difficult decision for sure .However we have has the worst recession for 300 years according to Mr Sunak and we need to put money into our own country right now .We are still giving some aid anyway .

@jasjas1973 it used to come from DfIDs though, depending on if it was FCO led. If it was, then they paid.

I'm not sure who funded our military involvement in the Ebola crisis in 2014, but if defence gets part of the FA budget, and it can be used for a hospital ship, or delivering assistance/aid as we did in Sierra Leone, then that is a good thing.

@Rosebel

Rainbow It's only ridiculous because you disagree. Money is needed in this country for the children going hungry or living in awful conditions. People are loosing their jobs. We need the money this year. Or do people in this country not matter because at least our children get vaccinated. FFS.

I've made the point before that it's not one or the other, it's not a choice between looking after society in the UK and foreign aid. Don't be fucking stupid, or pretend I said that the issues here don't matter because our children are vaccinated. I pointed out earlier that it's disgraceful that it takes a footballer to get our fucking government to do anything about school meals. I don't believe it's 'them or us'.

And I do believe it is still crass to compare the issues faced here with the issues faced by people in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Myanmar, just to name a few. And before you twist it, don't try to make out I'm saying that it's easy for everyone here. I'm merely making the point that conflict and state persecution bring a whole new level of shit to life that we are fortunate to not experience in the UK.

Calling it "Aid" is the probem. It makes it seem like a charitable act, a donation, a gift.

It's not. It's a self-serving investment. I would hope that people smarter than I have balanced the cost of such money against the value of the benefit it brings directly to us. But that is probably hoping too much of the curret government, which can barely bring itself to act like adults.

Oh I forgot that the wealth of a country was linked to its square mileage

Fucking stupid.
@RainbowParadise we've spent the last four years or so being told that the UK is an insignificant little island who no one would care to do a trade deal with etc. so it's hardly a new claim, is it?

The 0.7% target made the DFID incredibly dysfunctional. They struggled to find enough projects to spend the money on fast enough, resulting in funds going to some very dubious places. I don't think that anyone would disagree with disaster relief being a worthy cause, nor ensuring access to clean water and sanitation. I think that people could also get behind projects to increase educational opportunities, clear land mines, increase use of renewables and provide alternatives to damaging agricultural practices. These projects make a difference.

However, I fail to see how anyone could defend the money sent to "internationalise" the Chinese film industry or help girl bands in Ethiopia "develop their media platform". These projects won't make a difference to the lives of the world's poorest.

If you just throw money into dictatorships without checking that it is spent well, the children will still starve while the dictator will gain some new gold taps.

What will go? might be a better question than the cut itself

A very fair point - and you can bet it won't be the things which also benefit UK contractors

No doubt some will say that's fair enough, and I get that too because we might as well burn the money as imagine we can influence the developing world's corruption. Try, and I guarantee the howls of "colonialist interference" will be instant and loud

No, but they knew it would play well with the Great British selfish Public, all of whom have resources unknown to most of the world's population. But who cares about them, eh?

Foreign Aid money isn't always very well targetted. A lot can be lost in admin.

The UK spends money helping other countries using funds from different departments. For instance peacekeeping in Afghanistan, not just militarily, but also through training locals, 'hearts and minds' initiatives etc comes out of the Defence budget, cuts in which might be more palatable to MNers.

UK citizens also give money (and time and skills). According to the Charities Aid Foundation, we were the 6th most generous country in the world in 2018. Much of that money will have gone to small 'on the ground' organisations which can use a higher percentage of the funds directly.

Cutting the Foreign Aid commitment doesn't necessarily mean turning our backs on the world's poor.

No, but they knew it would play well with the Great British selfish Public, all of whom have resources unknown to most of the world's population. But who cares about them, eh?

You do realise the budget has been reduced, bringing it in line with most other advanced European economies, not cancelled altogether? As for your perception of the UK public being selfish they donated nearly 10 billion quid last year with nearly 64% of people making a donation. Just because someone has clean running water here it does not mean they don't give a fuck about developing nations or indeed need to feel guilty for having said clean water. Stop being such an unrestrained fanny.

Foreign Aid money isn't always very well targetted. A lot can be lost in admin

True enough, but then the same goes for many initiatives which use public money - as in the PPs example of the DFID scrambling for what to spend it on

With almost no accountability, all too often it doesn't get spent on what's known to matter but on discussing what matters via endless meetings, lots more staff, duplicated reports and sunny "fact finding trips"

Unfortunately it's not just the developing world that suffers graft and waste ...

Foreign aid gets paid to India. India has a space programme. Wtf is that about?! Use it to fund the NHS

Great.

Let's look after our own vulnerable citizens before anyone else.

How can that possibly be argued against.

@Gobbycop

Great.

Let's look after our own vulnerable citizens before anyone else.

How can that possibly be argued against.

You're a fool if you imagine the money saved is going to go to looking after our own vulnerable citizens.

Again, who would disagree with ensuring that foreign aid goes to the people who need it? It surely should be reformed rather than cut. And for the love of god, why do people think it's one or the other, the UK or foreign aid?

By the way, I hope all of you who think that we should completely stop aid because the money should be spent in the UK make your views known at the ballot box. If you vote Tory you are voting for the need for food banks, for children here to end up in poverty and for the destruction of the NHS.

I think it was right. It seems a lot but actually we’ve only decreased from 0.7% to 0.5% and are still the 2nd biggest donated in the G7.

I think of it like this.
You own a house with a mortgage and you give a substantial amount every month to charity. Then you lose your job and you can’t afford to pay both your mortgage AND give the same amount to charity. What do you do? Reduce the charity or lose your house. The Government are trying not to lose the house.

You're a fool if you imagine the money saved is going to go to looking after our own vulnerable citizens.

As are you if you think it helps anyone outside the UK.

@Gobbycop

You're a fool if you imagine the money saved is going to go to looking after our own vulnerable citizens.

As are you if you think it helps anyone outside the UK.

@Gobbycop I work in a related field so believe it or not I know that it does.

How does foreign aid help the working class in the UK? It seems to mostly benefit charity bosses, business CEOs and politicians who do very nicely (career and money wise) out of it.

Who would disagree with ensuring that foreign aid goes to the people who need it? It surely should be reformed rather than cut

Excellent points both, but I've yet to see any workable suggestions for how the widespread corruption could be addressed

It's hard enough getting the UK version to sort their act out, but as said I don't imagine "interference" in others' regimes would be welcome - or to be effecive even if it was

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Who would disagree with ensuring that foreign aid goes to the people who need it? It surely should be reformed rather than cut

Excellent points both, but I've yet to see any workable suggestions for how the widespread corruption could be addressed

It's hard enough getting the UK version to sort their act out, but as said I don't imagine "interference" in others' regimes would be welcome - or to be effecive even if it was

There are models where it can really work, for people in LMICs, and for the UK. I linked this earlier but I doubt anyone who doesn't believe in foreign aid has bothered to read it.

www.ukri.org/our-work/collaborating-internationally/global-challenges-research-fund/

I work in a related field so believe it or not I know that it does

I have spent a considerable amount of time all over Africa in my capacity as an engineer. Even did some NGO agency work after some training with Red R, have had numerous discussions with aid workers from the UN, US peace corps, and dozens of other organisations and while you are right money makes it to the front line the amount of waste is chronic in the extreme. Someone made the point above about expensive 4x4s and it is on the money. You might need some fully speced out £60k land Cruiser when operating in the Eastern DRC but do you really need one in Ghana where the roads are fine and you are just traveling from your residence to the office a few miles down the road.

Thank you, RainbowParadise; I missed the earlier link but have just read this one
It appears to include every cliche there's ever been or ever will be, but I can't actually find any reference to misappropriation of funds - not even under the "challenges" section unless I've missed it?

What does come across among the acronyms/alphabet soup of "research councils", "alliances", "partnerships"and so on is how much funding goes towards talking rather than doing. Obviously some of this is needed since we can't just send workers out clutching a bunch of fivers - but quite so much??