Development Initiatives

'Aid that empowers the poor' – Labour Fringe meeting

There was a great turnout for Development Initiatives fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton last week. Chaired by Hugh Bailey the head of the APPG on Africa, the panel of speakers were invited to address the question of how to use aid to reach the poorest of the poor.

Warren Nyamugasira opened the discussion with a brief overview of the work carried out by African Monitor. Set up in 2006 to monitor commitments to Africa and identify whether the resources are actually reaching the poor. Warren highlighted the importance of aid that empowers individuals and communities with a personal experience of poverty which received a very positive response from the audience. Coming from a poor rural village in South Africa he welcomed British sponsorship of his secondary education. There was no condition tied to this sponsorship only the expectation that when Warren finished his education he would be in a position to help others in the same way. True aid should be about empowering people to use the resources so that they can support themselves and eventually they are able to support somebody else in the same way.

Michael Foster, under-secretary for Department for International Development (DFID), focused our attention on the progress that has been made in international development since 1997 and the Labour Party’s commitment to the poorest countries of the world. He is proud that DFID is considered as a leader in their role and coming good on their commitments. He explained that DFID intends to focus its assistance to conflict affect states - 50% of ODA. ‘Violence does have an impact on poorest and this must be addressed’. He continued with bold commitments on climate change – there will be a limit o 10% of ODA that can be spent on climate change. The poorest should not pay for the affect on climate change caused by others. DFID are also committed to primary education, not just enrolment but also the quality of this education. Sanitation is behind and will be specifically addressed.

Rosemary Kaduru from Development, Research and Training (DRT) furthered the discussion by explaining that although the situation in Africa has improved many people still experience severe chronic poverty. Uganda for example has registered progress in terms of GDP growth and also witnessed development in sectors such as education with support from DFID and other donors. DRT has carried out research along with the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) to investigate how many people are not reached by the policies that are supposed to target the poor. The results showed that 26% of the Uganda’s population is not reached; these people are chronically poor and live in perpetual need. Governments must do something for these people - social protection schemes which target those on or below the poverty line to ensure that they cannot fall further into poverty. DFID are supporting a social protection policy. In the west social protection is present in many sectors.

Judith Randel, one of the directors of Development Initiatives questioned of the proper role of aid in the elimination of poverty. ‘In order to eliminate poverty we need to re-conceptualise how we think about aid and at the same time protect it.’ In addition to the policies that address health, education etc there are further building blocks which can contribute greatly to the reduction of poverty. Access to information – how can the poorest hold governments to account if they are unaware of the money that is being spent in their country. When people have this information it makes a huge difference, Uganda is a good example of this. Personal security – ensuring that people living in marginalised environments and fragile states are protected from shocks is a pre-condition for poverty reduction. Aid allows us to deliver that basic social protection to vulnerable people. Therefore we need to continue to stress the importance of reaching 0.7 % and must make sure that the information about this aid gets into the right hands.

A few questions from the floor focused on the role of accountability in poverty reduction. One speaker highlighted the important role of civil society in holding people to account and that this should be part of the development building blocks. Warren explained that African Monitor works to enhance the capacity of local civil society so that they can hold people to account. Judith stressed that correct data is essential for credibility. Michael Foster outlined that budget support is an effective way of holding many governments t account however the UK public is not keen on budget support as money is seen to be going to ‘dictators’. Just over half UK public are cynical of the spending commitments. This led to further comments and questions related to the public perception of how aid is delivered and its success. Michael Foster – yes we need the success stories but they cannot only come from the DFID due to trust levels, they should also be communicated by NGOs. Rosemary highlighted some success stories from Uganda which could be used to gain further public support. Judith emphasized the need to build solidarity between people in the UK and those in Africa. Many success stories can be read about in a recent report by African Monitor.

At the end of the meeting everyone dashed off to watch the Prime Ministers speech where he promised to legislate for 0.7% of GDP.

Images of the fringe meeting can be found here