Overseas Development Assistance is not charity, nor is it a cost or burden. It is an investment in humanity.
Millions of families, and many more millions of children, have their health, education and homes secured as both the direct and indirect consequences of aid. Their well-being and the economic benefits this promotes increases the likelihood of global peace, stability and opportunity, and very significantly reduces human suffering.
I have seen arguments that equate cuts in aid to increases in defence spending. They are not equivalents. Not in the slightest. And to state that cutting aid is a tough choice cloaks the political self-interest of any Government that indulges its fear of the loss of public support to increasingly enabled extreme prejudices against some of the most vulnerable people. It leaves a very dangerous power vacuum that could well be filled by interests that are working directly against the security of the UK. This is not leadership. It is craven submission.
Children, and those who care for them, are going to die. Cutting the aid budget yet again, and so significantly, constitutes robbery of investment in their lives, and our collective future. It is possibly the most significant act of manslaughter in the modern British experience.
Hope and Homes for Children is calling for:
- the immediate reversal of cuts to the aid budget
- a clear budgetary pathway to achieve a level of 0.7% of GNI
- no portion of the aid budget to be allocated to in-country refugee costs (which are vital but need to come from the Home Office)
- more strategic, innovative thought to be given to finding ways of increasing our national spend on defence in a way that not only enhances our security, but also brings the world with us, rather than dislocating ourselves from it.
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Mark Waddington CBE
Chief Executive Officer, Hope and Homes for Children
