Rwanda deal proves our aid policy is foolish
British taxpayers send billions overseas every year, corresponding to 0.7 per cent of our gross domestic product. The UK is one of only a handful of countries to base aid on a spending target rather than on the good it can do on the ground.
Your report last week that Rwanda will sponsor Arsenal is a classic example of the madness of the target. That our money should be sent to a developing country, only to be returned to one of our richest football clubs, is a damning indictment of the system.
It prioritises shovelling cash out of the door as quickly as possible to hit the legal spending requirement, rather than ensuring that taxpayers’ cash actually helps those who truly need it. We must scrap the ludicrous target before any more money is wasted.
In time, the International Trade Department should replace the Department for International Development as the best means for lifting people out of poverty. John O’Connell, Chief Executive, TaxPayers’ Alliance As part of the Rwanda deal with Arsenal, you reported that the country’s leader Paul Kagame and his cronies will have the use of an exclusive hospitality box at the London club’s Emirates Stadium, piles of match-day tickets and access to star players for promotional work. Time after time we see evidence of foreign aid being used to feather the nests of regimes and not helping people it is intended to help. Ministers seem blinkered to how this money is being used.
Foreign aid can be a force for real good and change, but only if it helps people in poverty. This money should help people in Rwanda, not its leader. It is time that the 0.7 per cent figure is reviewed. Nick Fletcher, Malton, North Yorkshire We should stop wasting so much money on foreign aid when it clearly isn’t being spent correctly. And we’ve got to put our foot down to unscrupulous people like Rwandan leader Paul Kagame. Enough is enough. V. de Bheal, London What a pity the Ministry of Defence cannot invoice the Department for International Development when it sends the Royal Navy to the Caribbean after a hurricane, or the Army to Sudan, or the RAF to drop humanitarian supplies over Iraq and Syria (or many other examples of ‘foreign aid’). Elaine Lidgate, Narberth, Pembrokeshire I am African, and I don’t think it is fair to refer to Rwandan president Paul Kagame as a dictator. This is not only insulting to the people of Rwanda but also dangerous, as it could incite protests and violence in the country.
The fact that a nation accepts aid doesn’t mean it cannot invest in ventures that will help it generate enough money to become financially independent. Kagame is a fine leader with good intentions for his people. Frederick Aikins, Tema, Ghana