Britain will not scrap its commitment to protect its overseas aid budget from spending cuts in the face of the economic downturn and mounting domestic pressure, development minister Andrew Mitchell told Emerging Markets.
The financial crisis made it even more important to deliver aid to the poorest, Mitchell said, but he criticised as “slow and frustrating” the delivery of an E20 billion support package agreed by the G8 in May to support nations caught up the Arab Spring.
Mitchell also gave a ringing endorsement to Robert Zoellick, just a day after the World Bank president gave a strong hint that he wanted to stay in the top job when his current term expires in June.
The UK has ringfenced its development spending – despite imposing tough public spending cuts – in order to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid by 2014. The UK is one of the largest contributors to the World Bank’s budget.
“I think the state of the international economy underlines why we have made that decision,” Mitchell said. “It is the poor of the world who suffer first and hardest from economic disruption.
“We made our decision that we would ringfence development, but that imposes a double obligation on us to secure value for money and to be able to demonstrate to taxpayers that for every pound of their hard-earned taxes we spend, we get 100 pence of delivery on the ground.
“The prime minister [David Cameron] has made clear that we will not balance the books on the back of the poorest people in the world.”
Figures for 2005, the latest available, show that the UK was the seventh most generous contributor to aid budgets globally, with 0.48% of gross national income, behind a group of Scandinavian countries but ahead of all other members of the G7 group of rich countries.
The UK has been at the forefront of a push to get the World Bank to shift its focus on results and on value for money. The Bank will today deliver its first corporate scorecard to the Development Committee that rates its achievements against 48 criteria.
Mitchell said a priority for the Development Committee now is to ensure that the $500 million of aid earmarked for the famine-affected Horn of Africa region reached its intended targets.
Asked about delays in getting assistance to the countries affected by the Arab Spring, he said: “It is slow and frustrating, but it will happen and is happening. There’s plenty of money around.
“You have got money from the development banks, money from EU funds and you have got the commitment from the World Bank. They key thing is to make sure that the money is spent really well and that reforms essential to progress being made take place.”
Asked about speculation over succession at the World Bank, Mitchell said he believed Robert Zoellick was doing a “good job” at the helm. On Thursday,
Zoellick said that he would not make any decision on his future until the start of 2012 and pointed to his personal achievements in his first four years.
Mitchell said: “Britain’s priorities for the Bank have to focus on conflict areas and focus on results and these are areas which the Bank, under Bob Zoellick’s leadership, has embraced.
“We are very strong supporters of Bob Zoellick, and my personal view is that I very much hope that he will continue in the post.”