Last week, after an equality impact assessment was made public, ministers said that aid cuts would impact millions of women and girls in Africa. I am here to tell you that is not true. I am on the frontline of the work the Foreign Office says it funds and I can tell you UK aid funding to “help end female genital mutilation” (FGM) has no evidence that a penny given has actually saved a girl from FGM.
It is really hard for me to say this because I am a supporter of UK aid, but the truth is what we give has never truly achieved what it could. That’s because how we give it is discriminatory — and disorganised. Those whose lives we want to impact apparently can’t be trusted to get the money directly themselves so we create ridiculous consultant-led consortiums where local organisations are marginalised.
Before I stepped into the international development world as an activist I truly believed the stats given by our departments that all our international development aid was saving lives and making the world a better place.
I naïvely believed that we were giving billions to those in need and that it was near-criminal to criticise the UK
I naïvely believed that we were giving billions to those in need and that it was practically criminal to criticise our international development department. But my mind was soon changed when I helped develop the programme that is referred to as the UK’s “largest” investment in ending FGM.
During that process I saw how little to nothing of the money I thought was going straight to save girls from the horrific act of FGM (which I was subjected to) had reached them and was instead mostly spent in London on salaries and bonuses for the consultant organisations DFID sub-contracted.
I left that role heartbroken but committed to change things and that’s why I help set up The Five Foundation which works at the systemic level to advocate for better funding streams to women on the African continent and beyond.
And to show that funding women directly is possible we launched a fund for grassroots activists using the latest evidence of what works to end FGM. We initially focused on three regions of Kenya, with plans under way for Somaliland and Djibouti. The impact real and direct funding — rather than promised funding — has to those at the grassroots is eye-opening indeed.
I hope the Government will finally listen to real experts and work with us, that is, people on the ground, rather than against us when it comes to how we give aid.
International development is core to our own national interest. It is also the right thing to do, when we give with purpose and see people that we fund as partners rather than our dependents.
Because the truth is that as much as I welcome the promised uplifts in the planned allocations for 2024/25, if we don’t use this moment to start doing things differently, then the public will truly lose confidence in the system. Governments will have to start listening properly.
Change is possible but it is not inevitable and I hope that the Prime Minister — who I know cares about development — listens to people on the frontline like me and thinks about UK giving differently, because if he does he would be driving for the UK and the world. Our aid has never reached those they use on the cover of their reports and it’s time to be honest.
I am currently in Somaliland with my mum and sister working on ending FGM which is something I could not have imagined when I started the campaign with the Evening Standard.
I want to see Amanda on the Strictly dancefloor
Some Strictly Come Dancing fans have said they will boycott the 2023 series after actress Amanda Abbington was confirmed as being in the line-up. Why are they boycotting you may ask? Well, it seems it’s because Abbington is being accused of being transphobic, which she denied in an Instagram post last night.
The row was over a children appearing in drag performance. Abbington said in her video she was a fan of drag, but that “my tweet back in March was regarding a 12-year-old who was doing it in front of adults. And it just upset me because I saw a kid, a little kid, a 12-year-old, doing something very over-sexualised and I didn’t think it was right.”
She added: “I didn’t associate that with the trans community.” But we live in such a sensitive world that anyone can be shamed in minutes for a perceived slight. It’s ridiculous.
I really hope this stupid outcry does not mean that we do not get to see Amanda on the dancefloor.
Nimco Ali is an activist
