UK government actions since 2019 have had a profound and damaging impact on UK aid, compounding the pressure that has resulted from COVID, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine, a report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) has found.
ICAI’s review of the last four years found that the impact of external shocks was compounded by frequent changes of political leadership, as well as through the UK government’s redeployment of staff to prepare for Brexit, its merger of DFID and FCO, and its series of budget reductions.
The aid watchdog concludes that while there have been many positive examples of aid making a difference around the world, this work has been impaired by a lack of clear long-term strategy, with continual changes of direction driven by short-term financial imperatives amid a volatile political and economic context in the UK as well as a changing global environment.
The majority of ICAI reviews have awarded positive scores for the effectiveness of UK aid over the period from around 2015. However, ICAI also highlights concerns as to whether the conditions are still in place to sustain this quality of programming in the future.
ICAI Chief Commissioner, Dr Tamsyn Barton, said:
“The past four years of this Commission have been a turbulent time for the aid programme, with the disruptive merger of DFID and FCO coming at a time when Whitehall was already under extreme pressure managing the impact of the pandemic and successive sharp reductions to the budget.
“ICAI’s work has shown time and again how UK aid can make a real difference if the approach is right, and as the government moves forward with its new International Development White Paper, it is important to retain a strong focus on ensuring aid is being used effectively and reaching communities that need it most around the world.”
Findings in detail
Brexit & COVID
The redeployment of civil servants to Operation Yellowhammer, the government’s contingency planning for a possible no-deal Brexit, led to development work being deprioritised, including the UK’s engagement with United Nations agencies on humanitarian crises.
COVID-19 also restricted the UK’s ability to deliver aid on the ground, with the government implementing a mandatory withdrawal of UK staff from 36 countries for three to six months.
FCO & DFID merger
The September 2020 merger was poorly timed with both DFID and FCO then dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns and mobilising the UK’s global response to the crisis.
Ambitions for the merger were also scaled back, and three years on there have been a series of revisions to the original structure, which raise questions about the initial vision. Issues relating to the new joint finance, HR, records and transparency systems are still not fully resolved. ICAI says the practical challenges of the merger left FCDO “inward-focused and distracted”.
Loss of development expertise in the new department was another key concern, with several ICAI reviews noting an erosion in technical capacity and institutional memory. Staffing was impacted by an initial hiring freeze and then barriers to external recruitment. Local staff working overseas reported feeling less valued in the merged department.
Budget reductions
UK aid faced a series of budget reductions throughout 2020-2023 with the contraction of the UK economy due to the pandemic first necessitating a cut in spending. The target was then lowered from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI, intended as a temporary measure to ease ongoing economic pressures. At the same time, aid resources were increasingly diverted from the poorest countries towards meeting the costs of hosting refugees in the UK, with 29% of the budget being used for this in 2022.
ICAI found that these reductions have impaired the UK’s ability to respond to global crises and emerging challenges with UK bilateral humanitarian aid falling by half between 2020 and 2021.
Restoring UK aid
While there are no formal recommendations, ICAI suggests some key measures that could be taken in the coming years to restore the quality and reputation of UK aid:
- Reducing the volatility of the UK aid budget and facilitating a return to multi-annual planning, to restore the UK’s reputation as a reliable development partner.
- Renewing FCDO’s commitment to ending extreme poverty and placing vulnerable people at the heart of its work, in keeping with the SDGs and the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’.
- Restoring transparency and opportunities for internal and external challenge to the management of UK aid.
- Protecting, rebuilding and making effective use of development expertise, including that of country-based staff.
- Restoring the commitment to evidence-based decision-making that focuses on development outcomes.
- Strengthening measures to prevent and tackle fraud and other risks in the delivery of UK aid so that aid reaches those who need it most.
- Restoring the reliability and quality of UK engagement with key multilateral partners.
Sector response
In reaction to the review, Gideon Rabinowitz, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Bond, the UK network for NGOs, said:
“The UK aid cuts and the rushed FCDO merger have harmed the UK’s reputation and caused disruption to the sector.
“The lack of a long-term strategy and the use of nearly a third of the UK aid budget by other departments for housing refugees has weakened the UK’s ability to effectively respond to urgent crises, such as the heightened humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the ongoing food crisis in East Africa.
“The UK government needs to strengthen its engagement with local communities and work long-term with partner countries to truly restore its reputation as a global partner in development. We would also like to see a credible plan to return UK aid spending to 0.7% of GNI.”
ActionAid UK has also responded to the review, with Chief Executive Dr. Halima Begum, commenting:
“The findings of the ICAI review are nothing short of disastrous for those whose lives are supported by UK aid. They also represent a serious setback for a country whose competence and commitment to delivering international aid made us a world leader. Sadly, this report reveals that over the last three years since DFID was dismantled, the FCDO has presided over a series of cuts and own goals that leave little doubt Britain’s reputation in the world has been diminished and sent progress in areas like gender equality into reverse.
“From ActionAid’s perspective, the cuts represent a devastating body blow to women and girls’ rights. After the pandemic and amid an ongoing global cost of living crisis, this vulnerable group is being more and more sidelined by a government that, for instance, is increasingly blurring the lines between aid and trade rather than prioritising long-term and meaningful action on issues like gender equality.
“ICAI’s report makes clear the life-saving impact of ODA. In betraying its promises to women and girls, the Government has massively undermined its credibility as a champion of gender equality and as a ‘development superpower’. It needs to act fast and with conviction if that reputation is to be restored.
“The evidence in this independent report is incontrovertible. We would urge the Prime Minister to consider the country’s reputation and to end the dog whistle politics that so undermine the discourse around refugees. We need to live up to our responsibilities and reverse the damaging cuts to the ODA budget that now risk Britain being complicit in harming lives rather than saving them.”
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