Andrew Mitchell, the development minister, will try to rescue Britain’s soft power reputation by vowing to put poverty alleviation, climate change and long-term partnerships for development at the centre of a new British offer.
In a speech to Chatham House on Thursday he will also rebrand UKAid as UK International Development, a rephrasing designed to show that the UK does not want relationships built on narrow aid handouts but instead on long-term mutually beneficial development partnerships.
Britain’s reputation as an aid superpower has taken a hammering due to successive cuts to the overseas aid budget, and a chaotic downgrading of development within the merged Foreign Office.
Mitchell will also say the international financial system needs to be fundamentally reformed, so countries can access the finance at the scale they need to drive their own development and tackle climate change in the face of global challenges.
Mitchell was a leading critic of the decision to cut UK aid from 0.7 to 0.5% of gross national income as well as the decision to merge the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, but took the personal decision to go back into government six months ago to try to make the best of the £12.8bn resources still available in 2022.
His work has been further hampered by the Home Office swallowing so much of the aid budget to accommodate and feed refugees in the UK. Figures published earlier this month show £3.7bn was spent on in-donor refugee costs in 2022, an increase of 250% (£2.6bn) since 2021 and 487% (£3.1bn) since 2020. This is more than the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spent bilaterally in Africa and Asia combined, and three times larger than the total humanitarian assistance budget.
The new brand, UK International Development, is to suggest that UK development is broader than aid, and is ultimately about working with countries by building mutually beneficial partnerships.
Mitchell is expected to say: “Placing partnership at the heart of the UK’s offer shows that, at its core, international development is not about charity, handouts and dependency. It is about listening to our partners and working together to advance our shared objectives.”
He will announce a new programme designed to get 6 million more girls into school each year by improving education spending in low and lower middle-income countries, and scaling up teacher training and in-class support so there is better access for vulnerable children.
In an attempt to link the British public to the UK’s development work, the minister will also announce that later this year the FCDO will go out to tender on a new international youth volunteering programme, similar to the former International Citizen Service.
In his speech he is expected to say: “It is frankly obscene that in the 21st century and in our world of plenty, children are today slowly starving to death.”
To bring this to the top of the development agenda he will announce a food security event in London later this year to demonstrate the breadth of the UK’s work to tackle hunger and malnutrition, bringing together the expertise and skills of the academic, medical, research, philanthropic and the NGO community.
Stephanie Draper, the chief executive at Bond, the UK network for development NGOs, said: “It is welcome that Andrew Mitchell is keen to return to focusing UK aid on reducing poverty and tackling climate change. For too long, UK aid has been driven by UK political priorities rather than addressing the needs of people facing poverty, climate change and conflict.
“Refugees and asylumseekers urgently need sufficient support, but we urge the minister to address the underlying reasons for why people need to flee in the first place and stop diverting the UK aid budget to reimburse other departments for refugee support costs.
“To truly reclaim its reputation as a global partner, the UK must work in partnership with local communities and organisations and return to spending 0.7% of GNI on UK aid.”
The UK would have an extra £4.7bn available to spend on development in 2022 if the 0.7% target been kept.
Ian Mitchell, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, said: “The minister’s speech today signals the coming of an approach that is a far cry from the chaos of recent years. A move from “aid” to “international development” is an encouraging sign of modernisation alongside a welcome refocus on poverty reduction. These reforms have the potential to improve the UK’s influence, impact and reputation; and could even begin to restore the cross-party consensus on development.
“But unless minister Mitchell is able to persuade the chancellor to shift his position on funding hosting refugees out of the aid budget, these plans will come alongside further cuts.”
