The development minister, Andrew Mitchell, will attempt to restore Britain’s soft power image by promising to make long-term partnerships for development, climate change mitigation, and poverty alleviation the centerpieces of a new British offer.
He will also rename UKAid as UK Global Development in an address to the Chatham House audience on Thursday. This renaming is intended to demonstrate that the UK does not seek relationships based on limited aid transfers, but rather on long-term, mutually advantageous development partnerships.
Due to ongoing reductions in foreign aid funding and a disorganized downsizing of development inside the newly combined Foreign Office, Britain’s position as a superpower in the help sector has taken a beating.
Mitchell will also argue that there has to be a comprehensive overhaul of the worldwide financial system in order for nations to have access to the resources they require to finance their own growth and combat global concerns like climate change.Mitchell was a vocal opponent of the decisions to reduce aid from the United Kingdom from 0.7 to 0.5% of GDP and to combine the Foreign Office as well as the Dept. for Global Development, but he made the personal choice to return to the government six months ago in an effort to maximize the £12.8 billion in resources that will still be available in 2022.
His efforts have been made more difficult by the Home Office’s massive consumption of the humanitarian funding for housing and feeding refugees in Britain. According to data released earlier this month, in-donor refugee costs reached £3.7 billion in 2022, a 250% (£2.6 billion) and 487% (£3.1 billion) increase from 2021 and 2020, respectively. This is three times more than the entire budget for humanitarian aid as well as more that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spends bilaterally in Africa and Asia put together.
The new name, UK Global Development, is meant to imply that UK development goes beyond aid and is eventually about partnering with nations by forming profitable alliances.
Mitchell will likely remark something along the lines of: “Placing collaboration at the very foundation of the UK’s offer illustrates that, at its essence, global development is not about charitable organizations, handouts, and dependency. It involves paying attention to our coworkers and collaborating to further our common goals.
In order to increase education spending in low- and lower-middle-income nations and to increase access for vulnerable children, he will present a new program that aims to enroll 6 million additional females in school annually.
The minister will also reveal that later in the year the FCDO will launch an innovative global youth volunteering programee in an effort to connect the British public with the UK’s development initiatives.
He is anticipated to say in his address that “It is frankly outrageous that children are currently slowly suffering to death in this century and in this world of plenty.”
He plans to announce an upcoming food security event held in the capital later this year to show the breadth of the UK’s work to combat malnutrition and starvation, bringing jointly the expertise and abilities of the scientific, medical, research, philanthropic, and NGO community. His goal is to put this at the forefront of the development agenda.
“It is encouraging that Andrew Mitchell is eager to return to focussing UK aid on alleviating poverty and combating climate change,” said Stephanie Draper, chief executive of Bond, the United Kingdom’s network for developmental NGOs.
For a long time, UK aid have been prioritized by UK politics rather than meeting the needs of those who are affected by violence, poverty, and climate change.
“Refugees and asylum seekers urgently require adequate help, but we implore the minister of state to address the root causes of why people must escape in the first instance and avoid using the UK aid fund to pay additional departments for refugee support expenses.
“The UK must work alongside with regional organizations and communities to get back to spending 0.7% of GNI on UK aid in order to truly regain its credibility as a global partner.”
If the 0.7% objective was met, the United Kingdom would have an additional £4.7 billion ready to spend on advancement by 2022.
An strategy that is a far cry from the instability of previous years is on the horizon, according to Ian Mitchell, a senior policy scholar at the Carnegie Center for Global Development. The change from “aid” to “international development” is a positive indicator of modernization, along with a welcome return to the focus on eradicating poverty. The UK’s influence, impact, and reputation might all be enhanced by these measures, which may even start to revive the cross-party agreement on development.
However, these proposals “will be accompanied by further cuts until minister Mitchell succeeds in trying to convince the chancellor to change his stance on financing providing refugees out of the foreign aid budget.”