Anglican Alliance director calls on UK government to rethink plans to cut spending to the poorest co

From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:16:03 -0800

Posted On : March 2, 2011 10:21 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO
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Anglican Alliance director calls on UK government
to rethink plans to cut spending to the poorest countries.


By ACNS staff


The UK government's aid arm, the Department for
International Development (DFID), in its report
?Changing Lives, Delivering Results? has proposed
cutbacks in funding for some multilateral
agencies, and also cuts in spending to some
developing countries. Director of the Anglican
Communion's Anglican Alliance for Development,
Relief and Advocacy Sally Keeble has today asked
for a meeting with DFID officials to go through
details of the proposed cuts which would have a
serious impact on people in some very poor  countries.

In a letter to Secretary of State for

International Development, Andrew Mitchell, she
writes: ?In particular the decision not to fund
work in Burundi, Lesotho, Niger, Cameroon, Angola
and the Gambia puts  pressure on some of the
poorest countries, which have very particular
challenges in terms of size, geography and in
some instances conflict. Lesotho, for example,
has suffered major loss of its adult population
through HIV and Aids and its geography makes
economic diversification problematic.

"The position of Burundi has been put to your
department recently by Archbishop Bernard
Ntahoturi [Primate of the Anglican Church of
Burundi]. The direction of relatively small
amounts of money away from these countries will
have a disproportionate and negative effect. I
would ask that you look again at the detail of
the priorities for spending so that the lowest
income countries may be given an opportunity to
meet the concerns of DFID about their capacity to
deliver, or that funds could be delivered through
different, and more effective mechanisms.

"It would be especially helpful to have a meeting
with your officials to go through the details of
the methodologies that led to the conclusions to
withdraw funds from these very low income
countries, and to know what opportunities there might be to restore funding ."

The full text of Sally Keeble's letter can be found below.


ENDS


For an more information or an interview with
Sally Keeble contact Mr Jan Butter on +447889400889


Notes to Editors:


·         The Anglican Alliance for development,
relief and advocacy is the international
initiative that brings together work across the
communion. Its mission is to build on the work
already being undertaken across the communion,
build capacity, co-ordinate and provide a clear
voice for the Communion in international development.
·         The Department for International
Development (DFID) is the part of the UK
government that manages Britain's aid to poor
countries and works to get rid of extreme
poverty. As well as headquarters in London and
East Kilbride, near Glasgow, DFID has offices in
around 40 developing countries and provides aid to around 90 countries.
·         The Anglican Communion Office serves
the Anglican Communion, comprising around 80
million members in 44 regional and national
member churches around the globe in more than 160
countries. http://www.anglicancommunion.org/

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP

Secretary of State for International Development


DFID
1 Palace St
London    SW1



Dear Andrew



RE: DFID Aid Review


I am writing in response to the report published
today of the DFID review, ?Changing Lives, Delivering Results.?


The decision by the Coalition Government to
retain the commitment to international
development, and to achieve the 0.7 per cent of
GDP spending target for the aid budget was
laudable, especially at a time of fiscal
constraint .It sets a standard for the rest of
the international community.  It is also
important to ensure that public spending is
properly targeted, and this too becomes, as you
have rightly said, especially important at times
when people in the UK see the spending on their local services being cut.


However, there are points of concern within the
Anglican Communion about the results of the
review, and the impact on people in some very
poor countries. In particular the decision not to
fund work in Burundi, Lesotho, Niger, Cameroon,
Angola and the Gambia puts particular pressure on
some of the poorest countries, which have very
particular challenges in terms of size, geography
and in some instances conflict. The DFID
methodology considered the capacity of countries
to spend aid effectively, and it is of course
important that UK taxpayers money does not
disappear into budgetary support for ineffective governments or programmes.

However, it is also important that there is an
opportunity for some countries to improve their
capacity, or for aid to be committed but
delivered through different channels. Lesotho,
for example, has suffered major loss of its adult
population through HIV and Aids and its geography
makes economic diversification problematic. The
position of Burundi has been put to your
department recently by Archbishop Bernard
Ntahoturi. The direction of relatively small
amounts of money away from these countries will
have a disproportionate and negative effect.

I would ask that you look again at the detail of
the priorities for spending so that the lowest
income countries may be given an opportunity to
meet the concerns of DFID about their capacity to
deliver, or that funds could be delivered through
different, and more effective mechanisms.

It would be especially helpful to have a meeting
with your officials to go through the details of
the methodologies that led to the conclusions to
withdraw funds from these very low income
countries, and to know what opportunities there might be to restore funding.
UK Aid has been very highly regarded
internationally, especially as it is accompanied
by high quality advice and support: its loss will
be a major blow to the countries concerned.


Yours sincerely,



Sally Keeble



Director, Anglican Alliance