“To prevent conflict, international partners must first understand the causes of conflict and ensure their aid does not unintentionally fuel it.” 2006 White Paper, “Making governance work for the poor.”
Alert engages regularly with a wide range of departments across the UK government, particularly in the Department of International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). We work with UK officials both as an individual organisation and also collectively with other conflict prevention NGO partners through the Peace and Security Liaison Group. PSLG members, for example, have been engaged in a process of mapping of the UK Government’s Conflict and Security Policy to look at how the UK Government has responded over the past five years to changing security needs, particularly in its international policy, and to understand how far conflict prevention/ peacebuilding has been integrated into broader government thinking. The PSLG has also sought to influence the Government Public Service Agreement on conflict prevention and resolution from late 2007.
In its individual advocacy, Alert focuses on the UK Government’s policies, funding streams and institutional set-up that determine how effectively it can contribute to peacebuilding, including through the UK’s operationalisation of UN SCR 1325 (see the section on the UN).
DFID has recently launched its fourth White Paper, potentially the most ambitious reform of the way British aid is designed and delivered since 1997.
Ahead of its publication, our Secretary General, Dan Smith, has met with the Secretary of State for International Development to give advice on the options for changing the way the British Government approaches overseas development aid for conflict affected and fragile states. Similar discussions were undertaken with DFID senior officials.
Alert has been calling for a fundamental reform of the way the UK delivers overseas aid to conflict affected countries and this White Paper, while not going as far as we would have liked, does offer a huge opportunity to harness the potential of UK aid to build peace. See our submission to DFID here [2].
Ahead of the General Election taking place in 2010, we recently hosted a series of debates on what sort of support is needed by conflict affected states with parliamentarians at each of the political party conferences. Find out more [3]
Going forward, our work will remain focused on the extent to which this kind of knowledge is integrated into spending plans and programming, and the degree to which the commitments are put into practice.
Read about our aid effectiveness work in the UK:
- International Alert welcomes ambitious rethink on aid [3]
Harnessing the potential of UK aid to build peace; - Development thinking develops [4]
International Alert’s Secretary General comments on DFID’s white paper and what comes next; - How much will UK development policy change under a Conservative government? [5]
A review of the Tories Green Paper by Alert's Secretary General; - Is overseas development aid working? [6]
Alert’s Director of Programmes argues that it is time to reform overseas development aid.