Category: Aid
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Is economic success masking political fault lines in Rwanda?
By Lee Butcher Lee Butcher is a Researcher in the House of Commons for a Labour MP – all points expressed are done so in a personal capacity. In this post, Lee explores whether economic reform is outpacing political reform in Rwanda. The concerns raised by the recent re-election of President Kagame in Rwanda and…
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Conservatives plan foreign office raid on DfID
By Margaret Dantas Araujo Poverty reduction in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries is best achieved when DfID is directing the deployment of our aid budget. However, yet another leaked memo has shed light on Tory intentions to bring Dfid cash under the control of the Foreign Office by requesting that UK security be…
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Mitchell’s ‘ouput-based’ crusade risks trying DfID in knots
by David Taylor, for Left Foot Forward Earlier today Left Foot Forward published a leaked document from the Department for International Development showing a list of nearly 100 public commitments recommended for the chop. But behind the headlines, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell’s “focus on outputs and outcomes” raises two key questions. Firstly, if close to 100…
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Sign up to Robin Hood’s Saving Challenge
Rather than telling the Government how it can hack at public services to lower the deficit, why not take part in a real debate about how the economy could recover? The people over at the Robin Hood Tax are running the Saving Challenge to do just that. A series of taxes on the banks in…
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Millennium Development Goals are in danger of being missed as the world prepares for UN Summit
By Margaret Dantas Araujo The review of the Millennium Development Goals is set for this September at the UN in New York. Heads of State will gather to discuss how to proceed over the next 5 years cognizant of the reality that a concentrated effort will be needed to reach some goals while others will…
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Steve Cockburn asks: value for money – for who?
Writing for Progressonline, Steve Cockburn (LCID executive member), questions whether the recent calls from the Government to get value for money is truthfully aimed at furthering the interests of British foreign policy, rather than alleviating poverty. Some recent Government decisions back up Steve’s argument: One recent warning sign is the decision to spend what could…
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Questions grow over DfID’s ‘ring-fenced’ budget
Rumours over the security of DfID’s budget have been mounting over the last few weeks. Today in the Guardian, Madeleine Bunting raises questions over the pressure coming from the Right for Cameron’s government to change their approach to the international development budget. The Coalition Government came to power promising to ring-fence international development spending, yet…
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Brown calls for new focus on African growth – and a mass roll out of broadband Internet
First published on Labour List Gordon Brown yesterday used his first major speech since leaving office to discuss the issue that has inspired him since childhood – development in Africa. In a speech to African Union leaders at their summit in Kampala, Gordon Brown called for a new approach to growth and aid on the continent.…
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Tony Blair writes about Sierra Leone in The Sun
This week, read Tony Blair piece in The Sun reflecting on Gleneagles five years on and his African Governance Initiative charity’s work in Sierra Leone. As Prime Minister, my first major interaction with Sierra Leone was when it was going through a tragic civil war. Britain stepped in and helped the government there to end…
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Aid is a marathon not a sprint
Douglas Alexander writes in The Guardian today that ‘the coalition has failed to commit fully to international aid, yet it is a policy that remains morally right and in our common interest.’ “Instead of creating straw men to burn ceremoniously in an ill-conceived strategy to placate sceptics on the right of his party, Andrew Mitchell…
Labour Campaign for International Development 