Time to reform aid

We now know that British agencies were warned 10 years ago that survivors of disasters were selling sex to aid workers. It’s a damning indictment of an industry, parts of which are accused of failing to safeguard, being slow and circumspect in its actions and showing insufficient shame. Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s chief executive, has expressed surprise at the “ferocity” of the criticism of his organisation, adding: “What did we do? We murdered babies in their cots?”

This type of arrogance is buttressed by public financing. The decision to ring-fence the British aid budget in 2010 – all part of David Cameron’s attempt to woo Left-wing voters – was a disaster. Vast sums of taxpayer money have gone abroad since, some of it spent in countries that don’t need it, on projects that don’t deserve it and through agencies, like Oxfam, that also have the gall to campaign against the free-market principles that would actually make poor people less dependent upon the West.

The problems can be traced back to 1997, when New Labour separated aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Oversight was reduced. A new Leviathan was created that diverts criticism by asserting it works solely for the benefit of victims. The allegations of Oxfam workers paying Haitians for sex shake that organisation’s reputation and call into question the way Britain does aid.

Reform is needed. It’s time to get back to the old, common sense understanding of what aid is for: disaster relief, liberalisation of developing economies, helping people to stand on their own two feet and advancing British interests.