Foreign aid to bypass charities
£14bn fund for ‘Brexit values’
THE UK’s controversial £14billion aid budget faces a big shake-up with less cash being funnelled through scandal-hit charities.
New International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said spending would be guided by “Brexit values” of “freedom and democracy.”
The re-think follows an outcry over sexual harassment by aid workers at charities including Oxfam.
Her department’s focus will now be on encouraging UK exporters and pension funds to invest directly in poorer parts of Asia and Africa. There will also be greater transparency in how resources are used.
Setting out her vision, Ms Mordaunt vowed to stop bankrolling countries who can afford to help their own people but “choose not to”.
She also pledged the Government will only give to projects if it’s sure the money “could not be better spent”.
Ms Mordaunt repeated a promise to change rules which last year prevented aid money from helping hurricane-hit Caribbean islands as they were deemed “too wealthy”.
But, in a passionate defence of overseas aid, she said the Govern- ment was putting up “a shield called UK Aid” against uncontrolled economic migration, pandemic disease, organised crime, poverty and the terrorism it breeds.
Ms Mordaunt promised to “deliver on the public’s concerns” while helping the world’s poorest people.
Officials yesterday refused to say if the Department for International Development will end funding for Oxfam permanently.
The foreign aid budget has soared after it was set at 0.7% of GDP by former Tory PM David Cameron.