Nearly 200 charities sign open letter urging Boris Johnson to reverse decision on DfID merger

On June 16, Boris Johnson announced that the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) would be merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in a decision that shocked British charities and drew cross-party condemnation and concern.

It left anti-poverty organisations all over the country aghast at the prospect of the UK aid budget — the sole pot of government money devoted to ending extreme poverty — being diverted away from the world’s poorest communities reportedly in favour of commercial and political interests.

And on Monday, 188 UK aid and development leaders from charities and think tanks across the country came together to publish an urgent open letter to Johnson, asking the prime minister to swiftly reconsider.

It states that the decision to merge DfID with the FCO equates to Britain turning its back on the world’s poorest people.

Many of the signatories of the letter, including Global Citizen, Save the Children, WWF, ActionAid, and more have been campaigning against the DfID/FCO merger for months to protect the value and effectiveness of the aid budget for the taxpayer.

Although Johnson mentioned in his speech to the House of Commons where he announced the merger that one of the drivers for the decision was to “achieve the maximum with every pound we spend”, the evidence suggests that these changes to DfID will actually do the exact opposite.

While the Aid Transparency Index — which independently assesses the work of aid agencies around the world — ranked DfID third-best in the world for transparency and accountability, the FCO came 40th, fourth from bottom. Moreover, the National Audit Office agreed that aid spent outside of DfID was less transparent and accountable. But once the merger is completed in September, the FCO will have full command of the UK aid budget.

Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair, David Cameron, and Gordon Brown, meanwhile, all united to condemn the decision after it was announced last week.

Original source: Global Citizen
Published on 22 June 2020