UNICEF - The UK Government keeps its promise on overseas aid

UNICEF UK are a member of the Robin Hood Tax coalition. This blog was written by Samah Abbasi, International Policy and Research Officer at UNICEF.

Last week, the Government announced that it would meet its commitment to increase aid to 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2013. Given that it also announced significant cuts across other areas of public spending, the coalition certainly deserves praise for sticking to its promises on aid. This puts the UK on track to be the first of the G8 member states to honour this international pledge.

This means that the total amount of UK aid will rise from £8.4 billion this year to £12.6 billion in 2015, mostly going through the Department for International Development (DFID). However, as a percentage of the UK’s GNI, aid will remain at 0.56% for the first few years, and then jump to 0.7% in 2013, staying at this level until 2015.

We were hoping that the Government would commit to a year-on-year increase toward the 0.7 per cent target. If the rise is more gradual, it allows countries to plan and use their money more effectively. The decision to ‘backload’ spending in this way will have a significant impact on the world’s most vulnerable children who are already feeling the effects of the financial crisis and climate change more acutely than others.

We know that aid works. It has already helped protect the rights of millions of children around the world to an education, to health care and to clean water and sanitation. Aid has also helped ensure around 4 million fewer children under five will die this year compared to 1990.

What next?

Well, last week’s announcements have left many questions unanswered:

• DFID will play a role in helping the Government meet its international climate financing commitments, but the amount of funding to come from DFID is yet to be determined.
• Funding for fragile and conflict affected states is set to increase from a quarter to a third of the total aid budget, but we don’t know how this extra money will be raised and what will have to be cut in order to meet this target. . It is crucial that poverty reduction continues to be the focus of UK aid, rather than programmes that contribute to national security goals. There is a danger that countries like Afghanistan will receive increasing amounts of money at the expense of peaceful but equally impoverished countries
• Furthermore, Andrew Mitchell has agreed to reduce DFID’s administration costs to half the average of all donors. Again, it’s not clear how this will happen but it’s extremely likely that DFID will see more staff cuts. This will be a huge challenge for DFID over the coming years: an increasing budget being managed by significantly fewer staff who will be working in more fragile contexts, with a greater need to demonstrate impact.

We must therefore continue to monitor the Government’s spending on aid, keep up the pressure to get the 0.7% commitment translated into legislation and continue to push for a Robin Hood Tax that could raise billions of pounds to alleviate poverty and adapt to the worst impacts of climate change the at home and abroad. Take action and raise awareness of the Robin Hood Tax by writing to your local media - it'll only take five minutes!

Read more from the UNICEF UK Campaigns team >>