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Five hot issues sizzling in new UK Development Secretary Patel's intray

by Saira O’Mallie | ONE
Friday, 22 July 2016 13:26 GMT

A patient waits for anti-tuberculosis drugs whilst carrying her child at a clinic in the Mathare valley slums of Kenya's capital Nairobi. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/file photo

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* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

From better aid in the times of Brexit to the refugee crisis and fighting diseases, Priti Patel has a busy agenda

There will be a slew of competing issues vying for the attention of the new DFID boss, but to help Priti Patel out, here’s five points that should come top of the list:

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s replenishment
One of the most effective organisations in tackling preventable diseases is The Global Fund, which has its replenishment conference in Montreal in September this year. It has set a target of $13 billion in order to help save 8 million lives from the ravages of deadly diseases. Civil society is asking the UK to pledge £1.2 billion – saving 1.1 million of those eight million lives – but it’s up to the new Secretary of State, along with the new Prime Minister Theresa May, to take this decision. They should be made fully aware the Global Fund is a shrewd investment, having already helped save 17 million lives to date, and on track to save 22 million lives by 2020.

Sticking up for UK aid – while making it even better
It’s no secret some MPs and media are critical of UK aid – especially our commitment to invest 0.7% of national income in ODA. Some elements of their complaints such as waste are valid. But UK aid is the most transparent and effective in the world and based on these facts, Patel should stick up for the good our aid does and echo to all how enshrining 0.7% into law remains a firm promise to the world’s poorest: “The UK stands by you and your families, no matter what”.

That’s not to say UK aid can’t do better. To improve,  DFID should commit to giving at least 50% of ODA to the world’s Least Developed Countries, where the majority of people living in extreme poverty will be concentrated within a matter of years. 

This would help achieve maximum ‘value for money’ - having the biggest impact in the places that have the lowest ability to lift themselves out of poverty. Patel’s office must also lobby other departments how spend aid to increase their transparency and improve their IATI rating – the public rightly want to know where our is going. These two things alone would make UK aid go further while addressing the sceptics’ concerns.

All government departments are required to meet IATI standards by 2020 –so perhaps rephrase to acknowledge this; and say she should press them to get there urgently because the public want to know where the aid budget is going.

Brexit and aid
The decision to leave the EU will affect the UK’s international development agenda in both the short and long-term. The immediate impact of Brexit was the $4 billion wiped off the value of our ODA due to a fall in Sterling (though there has been some recovery in its value in recent days). Brexit will also see the EU’s aid budget shrink as it loses the UK’s contribution. The biggest implications are probably around the process of unpicking the tangled links between UK and EU development spending, for instance on how it funds multilaterals, and the inevitable political shift as the UK no longer has any influence over how Europe spends its aid.

Poverty reduction, refugees and migration
The relationship between ODA, refugees and migration is not simple nor apolitical. Yet, it is important for the new Secretary of State to be clear on the purpose of aid: poverty reduction. There has been a trend of providing aid to places where there is a specific political interest, for instance refugee camps in Turkey. It is absolutely correct the international community find funds to support people fleeing humanitarian disasters; what is trickier is making sure that in finding these resources,  it doesn’t leave the world’s poorest with less.

Girls and women
Poverty is sexist, and if Ms Patel is serious about changing this fact, she will have to make sure UK aid actively seeks to change this. Nowhere in the world do women have the same legal, political, social or economic advantages enjoyed by men. Gender was a core issue for Ms Patel’s predecessor Justine Greening, and the focus on it is one of the reasons DFID has been effective in recent years. For the new Development Secretary, it is essential that this legacy is continued.  

Saira O’Mallie is UK Director (interim) of ONE, a campaigning and advocacy organisation of more than seven million people around the world taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa

 

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