UK’s new approach to international development arouses concerns

UK’s new approach to international development arouses concerns

The UK government has recently published its new strategy on international development, emphasizing its willingness to continue to fight global challenges such as global health, poverty, and climate-related issues, putting at the core of the approach the importance of the safety of women and girls all around the world. However, at the same time, the government has emphasized the importance of bilateral aid over multilateral aid and stated its willingness to use trade and investment policies for international development which has generated alarm within the international community.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has recently published its long-promised International Development Strategy, setting up a novel view of the UK government’s approach to future overseas development. According to the publication, the government has set its priorities that focus on:

  • investment partnerships
  • support for humanitarian assistance
  • investment in the economic development and safety of women and girls
  • building on G7 pledges regarding climate change and universal health

At the same time, the new publication reveals UK’s strong priority for bilateral programs over multilateral aid programs, highlighting the importance of UK foreign policy, trade, and investment preferences. The UK’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, stressing the importance of the new strategy, said:

“In an increasingly geopolitical world, we must use development as a key part of our foreign policy. Malign actors treat economics and development as a means of control, using patronage, investment and debt as a form of economic coercion and political power. We won’t mirror their malign tactics, but we will match them in our resolve to provide an alternative.”

The new strategy promises to deliver honest and trustworthy investment, assisting countries to record economic progress, as well as pledging to provide effective humanitarian aid in response to humanitarian crises. The freedom and safety of women and girls are at the core of the approach, meaning that the government will provide the support necessary for success, creating an appropriate environment for women’s empowerment.

However, while the government prioritizes the importance of safety and freedom for women, different organizations have expressed their concern over the novel strategy. Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, commenting on the approach noted:

“While, in theory, the UK’s new international development strategy prioritizes women and girls, it is unclear how the government will provide ‘the freedom they need to succeed’ while simultaneously cutting billions from the very things that help achieve this, including unhindered access to life-saving sexual and reproductive healthcare which helps keep girls in school, protects them from a lifetime of poverty and helps prevent untimely maternal deaths.”

Concerns have also grown over the UK’s vision regarding the trade for aid strategy. The government’s new strategy emphasizes the importance of trade policy stating that following Brexit the UK now has full control over its trade strategies and will use this to assist countries to achieve long-term economic progress. However, the Chair of the Commons International Development Committee, Sarah Champion, has expressed her concern over the government’s willingness to advocate aid for trade and its preference for direct government-to-government support. She said:

“I fear that adds up to a double whammy against the global poor. Supporting the poorest in the world should not be conditional on a trade deal or agreeing to investment partnerships. The UK has rightly been hugely critical of China for such an approach, so I fail to see why we are following down the same road. It is depressing and disappointing that the UK would devise a strategy like this.”

Director of Institute of Development Studies Professor, Melissa Leach, welcomed the novel strategy, noting that it has progressive components, but still fails as an approach pledging to improve the lives of the most underprivileged. She said:

“We welcome the government’s publication of this strategy after such long delays, and note that it contains some positive elements. However, this new International Development Strategy broadly fails to deliver the new vision needed to improve the lives of the poorest people around the world and fails to restore the UK’s leading global role in development.”

In relation to re-establishing its role as an international donor, the government has expressed its willingness to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on ODA once the fiscal situation in the UK enables them to do so.

The UK ODA GNI ratio was set to 0.7% in both 2019 and 2020 with the total money spent reaching £15,197 million and £14,479 million, respectively. However, in 2020, the government decided to decrease the ratio to 0.5% for the first time since 2013, due to the financial crisis brought about by the pandemic, vowing to return to a 0.7% ratio as soon as the situation would allow this. In 2021, the first year after the reduction, the UK government spent £11,496 million in ODA.