Saira O’Mallie, UK Director (interim) of The ONE Campaign, said: “By underlining that poverty reduction must be the primary purpose of aid, the IDC have shown that the new UK aid strategy puts us in dangerous water, and risks diluting the UK’s position as a leader in international development. As one of the most transparent Government departments, DFID should closely monitor how others spend overseas aid to ensure that every penny spent is delivering results for the poorest.

“The Government has announced that half of DFID’s budget will go to fragile states, yet the rationale for which countries meet this definition is hazy. By contrast, we have a robustly defined list of the 48 countries that are home to a significant proportion of the world’s poorest. We therefore urge the Government to invest 50% of the aid budget in the countries that have the least.”

ENDS

For all media queries, please contact Chris Mitchell on 020 7434 6935 / 07901 006 799 or email [email protected]

The IDC’s ‘UK aid: allocation of resources: interim report’ is available here.