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Blog Post
October 12, 2021
The phrase “giving with one hand while taking with the other” has never been more apt than when applied to the UK’s recent approach to aid.
Under current plans, the UK will intentionally reduce the total amount of aid it makes available to developing countries by increasing its contributions to a...
Blog Post
September 27, 2021
There are a plausible set of circumstances under which the UK’s status as a serious bilateral donor would be under existential threat. They would take the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) from having slightly more than £8 billion in 2019 over which it has full flexibility to spe...
Blog Post
September 21, 2021
The new foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will meet with the chancellor in the coming weeks to determine her department’s budget over the coming three years. If the chancellor maintains his current stance on counting aid spend even where it has no fiscal cost, and also treating the aid target as a ...
Blog Post
September 01, 2021
A year ago, the UK Government announced the integration of the Department for International Development (DFID) into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which became the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Soon after the merger, the UK’s development budget was cut by £4.5 billi...
Blog Post
August 16, 2021
The recent $5 billion overnight cut in UK foreign aid highlights the importance of understanding the politics of aid spending. This blog explores the role of international travel by rich country citizens to poorer countries in determining attitudes towards aid, and the potential value of volunteer t...
Blog Post
August 05, 2021
The case against the cuts to the UK’s aid budget is well-rehearsed. We know they damage the UK’s contribution to its own priorities, that the stated aim to revivify the budget when “fiscal conditions allow” is barely coherent, and that it leaves a laundry list of good causes going wanting.
Blog Post
July 21, 2021
After deciding that the UK can only afford to spend around £10 billion in aid, the Treasury is reportedly proposing further cuts in real aid spending solely to accommodate some unusual (but ODA-eligible) accounting items under the 0.5 percent target. These accounting items have no bearing on the aff...
Blog Post
June 30, 2021
If B3W is to be the better Belt and Road, it will have to embrace the role of government in infrastructure provision and ensure private sector infrastructure projects are designed and run in the public interest. Otherwise, and despite the denials-, low- and middle-income countries would be right to ...
Blog Post
May 26, 2021
Since the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) began implementing the steep cuts to the UK’s aid budget imposed upon it by the Treasury, much of the immediate reaction has focused on the immense human cost of reducing aid during a global pandemic. What has not been clear, however, is ...