UK overseas aid budget

[ColchesterFC]

I've no problem with the UK having an overseas aid budget but when certain stories emerge it does make me wonder if the money is being targeted at the right countries. Over the next two years we will be giving £98 million in foreign aid to India. That might seem fair enough with them having 230 million people living in poverty but it looks a bit different when you consider that they are spending £95 million on a space mission and actually have their own foreign aid budget. In 2015/16 India received £254 million in foreign aid but gave away £912 million.

Are there any rules on what the money we give them can be spent on? It seems absurd to be giving almost £100 million in foreign aid to a country that is giving away over £900 million in foreign aid to other countries. Surely that money could be better directed towards countries that actually need it. Discuss.

 

[PIng]

It makes no sense to me - surely it wouldn't have anything to do with trade deals?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I can't disagree with your logic. I suspect an awful lot of aid is related to other matters and is not down to pure need. The sad thing is there are so many genuine cases out there where aid could make a huge difference but they don't get it because the budget is shot.

Giving aid to a country with so many millionaires and billionaires in it, one with a space agency, is just crazy.

 

[Tashyboy]

I honestly cannot get my head around it. I am more of the ilk that money and aid should be given to disasters like the Haiti hurricane. Refugee problems in Asia and South America etc.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I dont think we should give anything to India, or China come to that. Seems to me a thrwoback to days of yor, and not relevent to the modern world.
Sadly I feel too much aid monies end up in the pockets of the top ministers or rulers of the countries recieving our money, and never gets anywhere near those it's intended for. Then theres the aid charities creaming their piece off too.

It all needs revisiting and starting afresh

 

[Hobbit]

When you read a number of stories of the Overseas Development Agency having to spend xx million pounds or miss their spending targets, and then spending it on a girls band in Egypt and a no smoking campaign in Nigeria you've really got to question the stupidity of it all.

 

[Mudball]

Don’t blame India.. India has already turned down UK aid in the past.

However aid can be complex issue. From memory India turned down some of the blanket ‘developmental’ loans but the U.K. via DFID provides some targeted loan eg. Women health/education type ones. Some of the loans may be part of Global Red Cross loans which may be sent to Indian Red Cross. Some may be directed at natural disasters - the UAE just gave a 100m or so for the recent flooding.

The Indian space program is a red herring. I was involved in a BBC radio debate on the subject. My favourite nugget about the Indian successful Mars project was that the cost of sending up the Mars satellite was less than (less than) the budget for Gravity - the Movie!!

The Indian space program is very successful and very low cost. I believe last year they also launched a small British satellite.

Every country gets aid, it may be deemed differently. We in the UK get money from the EU for various things like Forestery, Farming, fast Internet, Wales or Medicine. This despite what we pay to the EU.. it’s a weird idea.

What I can’t get my head around is why did someone come up with the idea that x% will be given as aid while local councils are declaring bankruptcy.. Somerset just took a major hit this week..

 

[MegaSteve]

I may have the figures incorrect but I believe 'we' gave Rwanda £30M who then handed £18M of that to the Gooners to promote Visit Rwanda...

 

[USER1999]

I may have the figures incorrect but I believe 'we' gave Rwanda £30M who then handed £18M of that to the Gooners to promote Visit Rwanda...

That is not quite how it worked. It was totally different cash, raised from a different source, and I saw a lady on tv from Rawanda present a business model for the Arsenal sponsorship, and it was pretty sound.

 

[3offTheTee]

I would stop all aid. Thought it was something like £14 billion per annum and rising in line with GDP. Unfair to some I realise but this would be a gradual reduction over 10 years

 

[CliveW]

Charity begins at home. Simple!

 

[Crazyface]

Strangely I was thinking about this yesterday afternoon, not the OP specifically but in general. An ad came on for Guide Dogs for the blind and it just made me think, why the hell do we have a charity for this????? Why do we not have the infrastructure to look after our elderly and infirm. Why do we have homlessness. Why do we have ex-soldiers on the streets etc etc etc. WE ARE A MEGGA RICH COUNTRY!!!!! We should be looking after all these people. All the money should being sent anywhere in the world should be stopped with immediate effect and we should build, not just homes, but communities, for the elderly and look after them!!! The homeless should be removed and, put into homes and helped. The out of work should be given paid jobs to clean the streets of all the litter the dirty animals that live in them drop everywhere. It's disgusting round my way.
I've decided to spoil every vote I have from now on, by writing a protest on it, until this has been done.
It's all a conspiracy, I'm convinced of this. We are only given just enough to survive, whilst the megga rich get even richer. There are more Mercs and Audis on the roads,where once there was Ford Fiestas and Fiat 126's, shudder. WE ARE A RICH COUNTRY ! Why is nothing done about all our problems??? It's not difficult. Hell fire if any of the governments think it is let me have a got at running everything. I'd be like Donald Trump. Hated, but getting things done!

 

[Mudball]

Thinking of foreign aid in only financial terms is a very simple approach. Aid is also a political tool to drive influence in a country/region.
When you sit down to negotiate our new deals with countries in Africa, providing ‘aid’ is table stakes. They would happily deal with China which provides lots of aid and loans.
Don’t be surprised if we start providing ‘economic aid’ to Venuzeala in the post Brexit world because we need new trade deals in South America
Finally, as someone already mentioned, not all aid reaches the ground .. it does get siphoned off

 

[Crazyface]

Thinking of foreign aid in only financial terms is a very simple approach. Aid is also a political tool to drive influence in a country/region.
When you sit down to negotiate our new deals with countries in Africa, providing ‘aid’ is table stakes. They would happily deal with China which provides lots of aid and loans.
Don’t be surprised if we start providing ‘economic aid’ to Venuzeala in the post Brexit world because we need new trade deals in South America
Finally, as someone already mentioned, not all aid reaches the ground .. it does get siphoned off

And THIS is why we should stop it.

 

[Mudball]

My challenge with UK Overseas aid is more to do with whats happening at home. Child poverty is record high, Fuel poverty kicks in every winter, food banks usage is increasing. While I dont have time for benefit scroungers, Dignity is a basic human right and unfortunately it is being denied in our country. Charities here are seeing a surge in those needing their services. Yet we have a pretentious view of what we should do elsewhere. <rant over>

And THIS is why we should stop it.

There is no 100% fool proof way of doing it unless you are on the ground yourself... which is a logistical challenge of being in many places at the same time.

On that note: I do a bit via a microlending site called https://www.lendwithcare.org I give them about £100 as charity. You can then choose who you want to lend to. Loans are about £15-£75 at a time and is to some marginal traders in deprived countries.. In the past 5 years, I ahvent lost any money - I dont get any interest o it (but that is not the purpose). Now the whole website could be a fraud, but there is no way for me to check. So i have to believe it is all working and that I am helping out.

 

[CliveW]

Strangely I was thinking about this yesterday afternoon, not the OP specifically but in general. An ad came on for Guide Dogs for the blind and it just made me think, why the hell do we have a charity for this????? Why do we not have the infrastructure to look after our elderly and infirm. Why do we have homlessness. Why do we have ex-soldiers on the streets etc etc etc. WE ARE A MEGGA RICH COUNTRY!!!!! We should be looking after all these people. All the money should being sent anywhere in the world should be stopped with immediate effect and we should build, not just homes, but communities, for the elderly and look after them!!! The homeless should be removed and, put into homes and helped. The out of work should be given paid jobs to clean the streets of all the litter the dirty animals that live in them drop everywhere. It's disgusting round my way.
I've decided to spoil every vote I have from now on, by writing a protest on it, until this has been done.
It's all a conspiracy, I'm convinced of this. We are only given just enough to survive, whilst the megga rich get even richer. There are more Mercs and Audis on the roads,where once there was Ford Fiestas and Fiat 126's, shudder. WE ARE A RICH COUNTRY ! Why is nothing done about all our problems??? It's not difficult. Hell fire if any of the governments think it is let me have a got at running everything. I'd be like Donald Trump. Hated, but getting things done!

We are not. The UK National Debt currently stands at £1.78 Trillion!!!

 

[MegaSteve]

That is not quite how it worked. It was totally different cash, raised from a different source, and I saw a lady on tv from Rawanda present a business model for the Arsenal sponsorship, and it was pretty sound.

I'll have to adopt my own advice to others...
Don't listen to 'rant radio' and take, as gospel, any views expressed on it ...

 

[hors limite]

Aid adding up to countless billions has been flowing to Africa through the government and charities like Oxfam for at least the past 50 years. I think it's right to say that the principal basic need is clean drinking water and yet despite all this aid there tens of millions who don't have access - why?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Charity begins at home. Simple!

Even if charity were equivalent to grants, funding and welfare (and it isn't) 'charity' - as in giving - does not end at home

Through the social services spending and the benefits system - much is provided to those of us in the UK - but we cannot at any time just simply choose to forget our wider responsibilities - as a wealthy nation - to those overseas who have much less than any and all of us. For it is only in giving can we truly appreciate that which we have and sa a wealthy country meet our wider obligations.

 

[IanM]

Budget as a % of GDP is fine and the right thing to do....

But, where we spend it seems questionable at best. Anyone with satellites and nuclear weapons shouldnt get any.