Devex: Opinion: How we can win the argument for overseas aid
Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, chief executive at Oxfam Great Britain

“…At a time when aid spending is falling globally, as the new OECD figures show, it’s more important than ever that the U.K. and a few other countries are keeping our promises to support those in need around the world. This should be a matter of national pride. … [A] decade of austerity at home, topped off by Brexit, is leading some to question Britain’s role on the international stage and to increasingly challenge the previously watertight moral case for making good on our longstanding aid commitments. … We urgently need to make radical changes to our international development infrastructure and funding mechanisms. … Aspects of the current system, entrench, rather than ameliorate inequality. … [W]e also need to protect — fiercely — what is good at the heart of our current development system. Our government has made a commitment to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to leave no-one behind. This is what aid is for. We don’t need to direct overseas aid to our own trading relationships to make it in the national interest. Aid is a ‘win-win’ for the U.K. when it is all about lifting people out of poverty. When the world is a more equal place, everyone wins” (4/26).