Time to rethink how foreign aid is spent

sir – William Hague (Comment, February 13) makes a strong case for spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on supporting emerging nations. He cites the splendid work that people in those countries do.

However, there is a question over which aid agencies we should support. Oxfam and other large organisations spend a huge amount of money not on delivering aid but on campaigning about a variety of issues, such as climate change, on which they take a definite political line.

Government funds would be better spent if they were directed towards the many smaller charities that concentrate wholly on the sort of work Mr Hague admires.

James Pullen

St Ives, Cambridgeshire

sir – The Oxfam scandal is multilayered. The first layer is obviously the behaviour of some representatives of the charity. Then there is the scandal of government money going to back up the charity, when we all assumed that charities were supported by voluntary giving.

A third layer is the whole concept of aid promoting development. There is much evidence that it does not do this, and that trade with other countries is the best way to energise them and use their resources efficiently.

Professor Arthur Morris

Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire

sir – The following proverb should perhaps influence aid policy: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Simon Mcilroy

Croydon, Surrey

sir – I have been a lifetime supporter of Oxfam and, while I am deeply disturbed by the Haiti revelations, they will not dissuade me from continuing my support. Nor should they undermine Oxfam’s work in relieving suffering, supporting development and raising awareness of poverty.

Oxfam must be held to account, of course – but we must recognise, too, that it is staffed by ordinary human beings, not saints.

Trevor Rigg

Edinburgh