THE decision to cut international aid is ‘desperately misguided’ and will hit some of the weakest countries during the covid emergency – just when they need help the most.
That’s the view of the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Olivia Graham.
In a tweet last week, she urged her followers to write to MPs to express their concern that “£4 billion of UK aid (has been) cut from water, sanitation and vaccination projects in desperately poor countries in the middle of a global pandemic”.
During last autumn’s the Government’s spending review, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the UK’s aid budget would be reduced from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income – going against a pledge to maintain the rate, made in the Conservative manifesto for the 2019 General Election.
He said at the time that this would be temporary and was a result of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the economy.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that there would be a focus on climate change and biodiversity, covid and global health security, girls’ education, science and technology, open societies and conflict resolution, humanitarian preparedness and response, and trade and economic development.
Mr Raab said: “At all times we will look to improve our delivery of our aid in order to increase the impact that our policy interventions have on the ground, in the countries and communities they are designed to benefit and help.”
But Bishop Olivia, whose see includes churches within Wokingham borough, said: “Last autumn, our government made what I believe to be a desperately misguided and possibly illegal decision to cut our international aid commitment from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%.
“They claim this is only a temporary measure in response to the budgetary squeeze caused by Covid-19. Time will tell.
“It follows on from an earlier decision to merge the Department of International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with all the dangers that carries of aid becoming a tool of foreign policy rather than a means of alleviating suffering and helping the development of some of the poorest countries in the world.”
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She added: “We have just learnt where these cuts are going to fall, and – you couldn’t make this up – in the middle of a global pandemic, we will be cutting aid to health, water, sanitation, and regular vaccination programmes.
“There is something deeply wrong about both of these decisions, which impact the weakest and most marginalised communities in the world at a time when we should be standing in solidarity and love alongside them.
“Every life is worth saving, not just the lives of the rich.
“Even enlightened self-interest would suggest that this is poor decision making: none of us are safe until we are all safe.
“What would Jesus say, I wonder?”
Bishop Olivia’s comments were prompted after Dr Helen Allott, a member of Reading’s Greyfriars Church, contacted her over the issue.
She works with the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET), which has seen a £30 million cut in its budget for health systems partnership, something she says effectively brings the partnership to an end.
“(As a country) we had a legal obligation to give 0.7% to oversea development. It was binding and the government has chosen to renege on that – it’s had very far reaching implications,” she said.
“It seems to me that the cuts that individual organisations are sustaining are not in that proportion.
“It’s really worrying that (this is affecting) institutions which do such good work to save people’s lives.”
She added: “I think as a Christian, for me, that’s, you know, it’s completely contradicting what Jesus told us to do for poor people. So that’s why I care about it so much.
“At the end of the day, it’s not the government’s money, it’s taxpayers’ money, it’s our money.”
Dr Allott said she had written to her MP over the issue and wanted others to do the same.
“It would be good if people did if they share these concerns,” she said.
