Aid to be diverted to 'worlds poorest'

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International development aid will be diverted towards the worlds poorest, Andrew Mitchell said in a debate on global poverty yesterday.

Following on from last week’s Budget announcement that overseas aid spending would be ring fenced, the international development secretary said that there would be a further drive to stamp out inefficiencies by reallocating funding from low priority or underperforming programmes to those more focused on eradicating poverty.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday afternoon he said: "I expect shortly to be able to announce that more than £100 million will be saved from projects that are a low priority or not performing.

"That money will be reallocated to programmes that are more effective in helping the world's poorest people."

Mitchell said that public support for overseas funding would not be maintained unless value for money could be demonstrated.

"Hard-pressed taxpayers need to know that the expenditure of their money is being scrutinised fully and is really delivering results.

We are therefore working to develop an independent aid watchdog, as we consistently promised throughout the past four years, to evaluate the effectiveness of DfID's spending. I expect to report to the House shortly on both of those initiatives."

In addition to the setting up of the independent aid watch dog, Mitchell said that there would be modifications to the way aid programmes were set up, so that there was a greater emphasis on impact and effectiveness from the start.

He said that "well spent aid has achieved miracles around the world." and that tackling the root causes of poverty was "very much in our interest."

"Whether the issue is drug-resistant diseases, economic stability, conflict and insecurity, climate change or migration, it is far more effective to tackle the root cause now than to treat the symptoms later."

He also outlined that the particular attention would be paid to the fight against Malaria in every country in which the department was active.
Reducing the burden of Malaria in the developing world and focusing on the areas of highest infection will be an essential part of our programmes.

He also said that access to and provision of family planning services and contraception would be a key priority for DfID.

But shadow development secretary, Douglas Alexander said the Coalition government’s programme lacked vision and ambition.

He said that aid spending should be administered alongside wider discussions about reforming the global architecture.

"I believe it is vital that the G20 discusses the wider global economic architecture, that the concerns of the poorest countries are at the forefront and that issues such as taxation and the regulation and taxation of the financial markets are treated as development issues, in the way we sought to do at the London G20 summit."

Alexander said it was important that "additional climate finance" be made available to help developing countries combat climate change.

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