Comments made by the development minister at the World Bank conference in Marrakesh reflect the impact of reduced aid budgets.
The damage inflicted by the decision to lower the aid budget as part of the post-pandemic spending cuts has been acknowledged by the country’s development minister, Andrew Mitchell, who also said that Britain needs to rehabilitate its standing as a global leader in aiding poor nations.
Mitchell, who spearheaded a backbench uprising against the government’s decision to forsake its pledge to continue spend 0.7% of national output for aid, said it was imperative that the UK “played its part” when speaking at the World Bank’s annual meeting in Marrakech.
The development minister declared that the UK would generously contribute to the World Bank account that offers grants and no-interest loans to countries with lower incomes, would contribute to an increase in the Bank’s capital, and was pressing for a faster pace of action on debt relief for struggling nations.
“My job is making sure that we rebuild Britain’s good name and position on global development and that we perform the part that always have played in driving ahead the agenda,” he said.
Under David Cameron, Mitchell served as secretary of business at the government’s Department for International Development (DfID), but he has since returned to the federal government in a more subordinate capacity.
Britain has lost its position as the global leader in development as a result of the aid cut, the silencing off of aid funds to pay for the accommodation of migrants and refugees, plus the elimination of DfID as an autonomous department.
Mitchell recalled that the leader of the government, Rishi Sunak, had instructed him to “build back stronger and to do whatever he could to help” when he arrived as a minister of state a year prior. I contend that’s precisely what I’ve done. Whatever the past may have held, Britain is moving forward in its growth.
Britain’s funding for the International Development Association’s (IDA), the World Bank’s grants and soft loan fund, was slashed in half as a result of the aid reductions.