Does Charity Begin at Home?
This week in our series on what to expect from a Labour Government, we looked at Labour’s position on international development. Below is a summary of the discussion, centring around the question of 0.7%, the impact of global elections and the importance of soft power. Please note, this event took place before the election.
Labour’s position on international development
The question seemingly on everyone’s lips at the moment is ‘whether charity begins at home?’ Labour has a manifesto commitment to restore development spending to 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on aid, but only when ‘fiscal circumstances allow’. Notably absent from the manifesto is a timeline for when the 0.7% shall be restored.
Equally, with no mention of re-establishing an independent international development department, it appears that under a Labour government the Foreign Office and Department for International Development will remain under the merged entity of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Whether a separate (development-focused) agency within the FCDO could be set up is a possibility that Labour are rumoured to be exploring in an attempt to mediate the clunky process of de-merging the two departments entirely. Questions over how this may look still remain, though.
Finally, poverty alleviation and women and girls remain high on the agenda for Labour. Lisa Nandy continues to push for a poverty-focused approach to development, aiming to spend the majority of aid budget on least-developed countries and thus reducing the number of foreign countries (particularly middle-income countries) who receive it. Similarly, Nandy has also been very vocal in her support for the women and girl’s agenda, which is now firmly embedded in UK foreign policy and will be key to any international development function moving forward.
The issue of aid spending will likely remain a hot topic, with the balance between national interest and international commitments scrutinised by the opposition.
Geopolitics of aid and the importance of soft power
Soft power made an appearance in the election manifestos for the first time. Labour will introduce a Soft Power Council, bringing together “leading creative and cultural institutions” to enhance the UK’s reputation abroad and cultivate the UK’s image abroad. Soft power will be a key part of the UK’s development offer and international development has a critical role to play within that.
In recent years, however, there has been low public support for an increase in aid spending. Public opinion polling carried out last year by the British Foreign Policy Group (BFPG) showed that just 17% of Britons believe we should increase aid spending to 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI). Those who supported an increase thought this should be for humanitarian aid, focused on humanitarian crises, earthquakes and wars, as opposed to investing in longer-term development projects.
This year is also a big election year for the US and the EU. European Parliament elections were won just about by Ursula von der Leyen’s centre-right party, European People's Party Group, with the Greens suffering heavy losses across the board. There was a huge increase in support for far-right parties in France, Germany and Austria which cements the worrying trend of the rise of the far right across Europe. President Macron then added a surprise national election to an already full year, with India having gone to the polls this spring, the UK on the way sooner than expected, and the US set to choose their next president in November.
The EU is leaning towards the right and away from green policies, suggesting both a prioritisation of domestic issues over the next few years and a deprioritising of the climate agenda. Uncertainty as to EU’s commitments to international development and the climate crisis, which are increasingly interlinked, may lead to the EU becoming a less reliable development partner going forward. Similarly in the US. Despite Trump’s recent conviction, the upcoming US election could still result in another Trump presidency and a more introspective US over the coming years. There could well be backlash against the more global components of its recent foreign policy agenda, and questions about how proactive USAID is and should be. In contrast, a return to 0.7% by the UK, could be a welcome boost for aid spending.
