Aid budget signals continued commitment to world’s poorest people

Aid budget signals continued commitment to world’s poorest people

Holding firm on its commitment to overseas aid for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people is the right thing for the UK Government to do, World Vision UK's Chief Executive Justin Byworth said today.

“Aid plays a vital role in eradicating poverty, the kind of poverty that still kills more than 22,000 children under five every day in the world’s poorest and most fragile countries.

"These are children who through the chance of birth face dangers no child in the UK has to deal with – dying from dirty water, malaria, simple coughs and infections.

“We know that aid saves lives, and enables the most basic of human rights to be met, when it’s targeted well, delivered effectively and managed efficiently.”

Fragile states

The UK Government today announced as part of its Spending Review that its previous commitments to overseas aid contribution will be protected, with the amount spent on fragile states set to increase.

The particular focus on fragile states is encouraging, given that a disproportionate number of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people live in its most fragile countries, said Byworth.

“This is an important recognition that the issues of state fragility and development are intrinsically linked and that solving them will require increased efforts and a more in-depth understanding of difficult contexts.

“However, I am concerned that the decisions about where and how this aid is spent must be based on humanitarian need alone, and not political, security or any other factors. There are inherent and very real risks to adopting any other approach.

“Millions of children around the world still don’t have access to the most basic of their human rights, and it is these children who need to know and feel the impact of the government’s announcements today.

"Children like eight-year-old John in South Sudan, who isn’t in school because he is an orphan and his uncle can’t afford to send him, and children like 12-year-old Imran in Pakistan, whose family were displaced during last year’s fighting and have no home of their own and are forced to rely on poor family members to house them, must be helped, not because their countries are of strategic importance to the UK, but because they are in need and it is the right thing to do.”

World Vision knows, through its many years of experience in both emergency relief and long-term development, that children are an important indicator of the experience of their societies as a whole, and are key contributors to sustainable change, said Byworth.

“Focus your overseas aid on the wellbeing and rights of children, and the wider community benefits.”

20 October 2010