The world’s most vulnerable need help more than ever – Labour needs to restore international aid spending

The world’s most vulnerable need help more than ever – Labour needs to restore international aid spending A staged return to a restored and fit-for-purpose aid budget should be part of Andy Burnham’s long-term vision writes Labour MP Fleur Anderson. But, the world's challenges are too large to be met by increased donor funding; we need to also use Britian’s influence - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Last year, aid from the world's wealthiest countries fell by more than a fifth, the steepest annual drop on record and it happened just as humanitarian need was surging to historic levels. Across the world we see climate change fuelling droughts and extreme weather, wars forcing millions from their homes and debt and economic insecurity leaving vulnerable countries with fewer options to respond. We know these crises do not stay contained within borders. They affect food and energy security, drive displacement and migration and create the conditions in which instability spreads. And a less stable world eventually reaches everyone. Recently the debate about development has too often been focused on discussion on how to divide a shrinking pot. But if we truly want to tackle the challenges of growing global instability, we should be honest about what is required and how we got here. In the UK the last Conservative government cut the aid budget from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of Gross National income (GNI) and abolished the Department for International Development. The Labour government unfortunately then made a further significant reduction, to 0.3 per cent. This cut was made under genuine fiscal and geopolitical pressure but honesty requires us to be clear that retreating from development to fund defence priorities was always a false choice. A more unstable world does not become safer because wealthy countries disengage from tackling the conditions that drive instability. And hope that markets and private finance can somehow fill the gap is misplaced. Private capital, quite reasonably, seeks stability, predictability and a return on investment, but the countries facing the greatest poverty, fragility and climate risk are often precisely those least able to offer these conditions. That is why aid still matters. It is one of the few forms of finance specifically designed to reach the people and places that markets cannot. While this is not a challenge Britain created, or can solve, alone, we cannot show true global leadership and call for greater international ambition while stepping back ourselves. We need to lead by example and that requires a long-term plan. Effective development cannot be delivered by short-termism and the uncertainty of yearly budgets. It takes patience and predictability to build health systems, strengthening institutions or helping a country recover from conflict. Labour’s manifesto promised a return to 0.7 per cent spending on international aid. As the prime minister develops his ten-year plan for government, a staged return to a restored and fit-for-purpose aid budget should be part of that vision. And just restoring aid in isolation will not be enough. The world's challenges are too large to be met by increased donor funding; we need to also use Britian’s influence, especially at key moments like our upcoming Presidencies of the G20 and G7, to reshape the wider system of how we finance development. I saw the power of political ambition through my work with the Jubilee Debt Campaign in the early 2000s, when large-scale debt cancellation was dismissed by many as impossible. Campaigners, governments and citizens built enough pressure to make it happen, securing around $100 billion in debt cancellation for some of the world's poorest countries. The lesson was simple: global systems are not set in stone. They change when political leaders decide they must. That lesson matters today. Britain should push for fairer and faster debt restructuring, tackle the illicit financial flows that drain resources from developing economies, and use its influence over multilateral development banks to expand their ability to lend and take on risk where private capital remains reluctant. This is not simply charity to those in need. It is a strategy to make us all more secure. Yes, rebuilding a stronger Britain means investing in our economy and public services at home. But it also means recognising that our prosperity and security depend on what happens beyond our borders. Britain has the experience, influence and institutions to shape what comes next, and our upcoming G7 and G20 presidencies give us a rare opportunity to do so. The new government should seize this moment to rebuild Britain's international role, and show that, in an ever more precarious world, we are still willing and able to work to build a better one. Fleur Anderson is a member of parliament’s foreign affairs select committee and Labour MP for Putney This article is based upon an essay by Ms Anderson that is part of the ‘Rethinking the UK’s Role in a Fractured World’ collection that will be released by the New Economics Foundation and Aid Alliance in the coming weeks This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments