We reported in the last e-bulletin that International Alert has been lobbying for changes in the way that overseas development aid works for conflict affected countries.
Since that report, when we told you that we had met Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, we have met a number of other parliamentarians and advisers who are playing a key role in drafting the forthcoming Department for International Development White Paper. This will be a crucial opportunity to shape the way that future aid is designed and delivered by the UK.
It is fair to say that the UK Government has responded well to our arguments and has itself taken on the challenge of redesigning overseas development aid to genuinely meet the needs of conflict affected countries, something which the way aid currently works fails to do in too many cases.
Challenging not only donor Governments but also the NGO sector, Douglas Alexander recently made a speech in New York at the New Democrat Network, (NDN), outlining the challenges of changing the way aid works.
The Secretary of State emphasised the importance of supporting “lasting political settlements, working towards sustainable peace, helping build effective and legitimate states, and helping states deliver services, jobs and growth.”
These areas are not traditionally addressed by aid donors, but in conflict affected regions they make the difference between peace and violence and are essential pre-steps to reducing poverty. The issue is often overlooked when aid is treated simply as a technical enterprise with no reference to the political situation of the country. And in some cases it makes things much worse for the people it is designed to help.
So we were pleased to hear the Secretary of State argue that “development - at a fundamental level - is about politics… by which I mean the establishment of the right relationships across society.”
The forthcoming White Paper will be a key opportunity for peacebuilders to shape a new way of doing aid. We’ll be taking our advocacy to a new level with a series of meetings in the UK parliament and at the party political conferences in autumn.
We’ve already seen the impact of raising these questions in a sustained way, and we’ll be working hard to achieve the best possible changes in the way that the Department for International Development delivers aid for some of the most vulnerable people in the world. And we’ll keep you posted.