Parliamentary Committees and Public Enquiries
 Printable version
|
MPs call for FCDO cuts to be paused and poverty reduction plans set out
The International Development Committee has said that plans for restructuring the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) could risk poverty reduction being deprioritised and renewed its calls for the plans to be paused.
The Committee has published an interim report on the Future of UK Aid and Development Assistance, reflecting MPs’ concerns that the pace of change at the FCDO is too rapid.
In the report (attached), MPs have also expressed alarm that Ministers are considering scrapping the UK’s aid watchdog, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI).
Appearing before the Committee last month, International Development Minister Baroness Chapman said that she still sees the core aim of UK overseas aid as “alleviating poverty and stabilising countries to enable them to go on that journey themselves”.
But the report says there is much work to do to realise this ambition. With plans to cut 2,000 UK staff under way, it highlights the potential loss of key personnel needed to deliver the Government's vision for Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The Committee requests that the Government provides details on how it intends to prioritise poverty reduction as it presses ahead with the FCDO 2030 programme, and it calls on the Government to pause the processes currently underway until three specific actions have been completed. These actions include an assessment of the impact of the ODA programming decisions on the extreme poor.
The new report also calls for more detail on the FCDO’s plans to spend a greater proportion of its shrinking ODA pot through multilateral institutions. It comes after the Committee’s Chair recently raised concerns about the FCDO restructuring plans to in a letter sent to the Foreign Secretary.
Chair comment
International Development Committee chair Sarah Champion said:
“The brutal cuts we have seen to Official Development Assistance over successive Governments pose pressing questions about how we will keep supporting some of the world’s poorest countries. As the Government wrestles with these, the International Development Committee has heard from a range of voices; from leaders inside the FCDO to inspirational international community leaders, about how UK taxpayers money can be well spent. It is clear to us that financial and staffing changes at the FCDO are being pushed through far too quickly, with the unintended consequences having the potential of being catastrophic.
“Rather than careering into irreversible changes and losing key experts when we need them most, FCDO should press the pause button now before it is too late. Carrying on regardless could mean devastating consequences for some of the poorest people in the world and a damaging hit to the UK’s global standing.”
Original article link: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/98/international-development-committee/news/211745/mps-call-for-fcdo-cuts-to-be-paused-and-poverty-reduction-plans-set-out/
