Policy Updates

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BOND sets out manifesto for new UK government

March 24, 2024 | UK, Education, Agriculture, Gender Equality, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Family Planning, WASH & Sanitation, Climate, Global Health, Security policy | Share this update

On March 24, 2024, BOND published a new manifesto setting out the steps the next UK government should take to help deliver on the SDGs and work in solidarity with its partners.

The manifesto is based around seven key asks:

  • Act as a responsible and ambitious development partner. This includes returning ODA to 0.7% of GNI and providing new and additional resources for meeting global climate finance and ensuring the ODA program is headed by a cabinet-level minister with dedicated and well-resourced staff;
  • Create an equitable and sustainable international financial system that works for people, nature, and the climate. This includes supporting a UN sovereign debt workout mechanism to deal with unsustainable debt in lower-income countries, pursuing an ambitious MDB reform agenda that increases their provision of resources and makes their governance more representative, and supporting a universal UN Framework Convention on tax;
  • Recommit to the SDGs and ‘leaving no one behind. This includes ensuring UK development programs focus on those most in need, promoting gender transformative approaches to sustainable development, acknowledging care as an economic issue and a right and build the care economy in line with the 5Rs framework{title"recognition, reduction, redistribution, representation and reward"} for care work, and scaling up efforts to deliver universal access to basic services;
  • Do our fair share to tackle the global climate and biodiversity crises. This includes ensuring all ODA is aligned with the Paris Agreement, providing genuinely new and additional grant finance for the Loss and Damage Fund;
  • Develop a new approach to UK trade and private sector investment. This includes introducing new legislation that mandates companies, the financial sector, and the public sector operating in the UK to carry out human rights and environmental due diligence. It also holds them to account for failures, reduce the volume of UK funding being used to capitalize BII until it reforms to ensure it does more to contribute to poverty reduction;
  • Promoting stability, security and effective crisis responses. This includes providing the UK’s fair share to support humanitarian crises, championing locally led approaches to anticipatory crisis prevention, action and resilience, establishing a prevention-focused national security outlook which focuses on preventing crises as well as responding to them; and
  • Protect and promote rights, freedoms and civic space. This includes prioritizing meaningful partnerships with human rights defenders, including indigenous communities, women, LGBTQI+ advocates, migrant rights advocates and environmental defenders, removing restrictions on civil society campaigning domestically, and working with other governments to reverse restrictions on civic space in public debate and policymaking.
Report - BOND

UK ambassador highlights importance of defending SRHR

March 19, 2024 | UK, Gender Equality, Family Planning | Share this update

On March 19, 2024, UK Ambassador Archie Young called for the need to support women and girls’ sexual health rights in his speech to the UN’s 68th Commission on the Status of Women.

Young noted how fundamental these rights are to eradicating poverty and empowering women, and noted that women's and girl's rights are a personal priority of the UK Foreign Minister. Young stated that the UK is committed to widening the international coalition of support for SRHR, strengthening international commitments and actions in support of SRHR, and tackling disinformation about SRHR in the multilateral space.

Press release - UK Government

UK launches new digital development strategy

March 15, 2024 | UK, Gender Equality | Share this update

On March 18, 2024, UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell launched the FCDO’s new digital development strategy for 2024-2030, which is slated to help close the technological divide in LICs.

The strategy is focused on 4 key areas:

  • Promoting connectivity in remote, low-income areas: The UK will focus its support on driving policy and regulatory improvements, scalable technology and business models, and by supporting local solutions such as community networks. The stated goal of the program is to help at least 20 countries improve connectivity in remote areas by 2030;
  • Supporting DPI: The UK has committed to developing a new DPI project that shares the UK’s experience on digitalization of public services with partner countries. The UK will also explore a high-level partnership with G20 members and other key stakeholders on the principles for good DPI;
  • Strengthening capacity on AI in Africa: The UK will deliver its new flagship program on AI for Development, aimed at building local capacity to develop and apply AI responsibly with a strong focus on Africa. The strategy commits the UK to have helped to create a responsible regulatory framework for AI in at least 10 partner countries and to have created or scaled up at least 8 AI research labs at African universities by 2030; and
  • Supporting women and girls to a safe digital experience: The UK is slated to support women and girls to improve access to the Internet, develop their digital skills, and support a safe digital experience. The FCDO will work through the cross-governmental digital inclusion program, the UK’s Cyber Inclusion Campaign, and the UK membership of the Global Partnership for Action on Online Gender-Based Harassment and Abuse to achieve these goals. The strategy commits the UK to have supported at least 50 million women and girls to participate safely and meaningfully in the digital world through digital training by 2030.

In addition to these priorities, the UK will focus on investing in a digital economy in developing countries in partnership with BII with a focus on providing a better regulatory and business environments for public and private investment into digital infrastructure and the digital economy of partner countries.

The UK is also slated to emphasize digital democracy and will support the design and use of digital solutions to support fundamentals and democratic frees. It intends to actively contribute to the Freedom Online Coalition and key international processes on digital democracy.

Mitchell further expressed an interest in cybersecurity and supporting the cybersecurity capacity of governments, businesses, and users in low- and middle-income countries. He also highlighted the UK's focus on Green Digital, through the new Digital Sustainability Programme, which will include a focus on digital platforms for a sustainable economy, e-waste management, and renewable energy solutions for last-mile connectivity models.

Report - UK government

Canada, UK launch new climate resilience projects Africa, Asia-Pacific regions

March 11, 2024 | Canada, UK, Agriculture, Climate, Global Health, Gender Equality | Share this update

On March 11, 2024, the CLARE partnership between the UK and Canada’s IDRC launched 17 research projects designed to build climate resilience and reduce vulnerability in LICs and LMICs, valued at CAD180 million (US$133 million).

The research projects aim to support socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards in African partners and the Asia-Pacific region. Researchers in recipient countries are leading or co-leading the research, which will embed gender equality and inclusion principles and will address a wide range of climate change issues in the fields of agriculture, health, urban adaptation, water security, among others.

Press release - International Development Research Centre

Oxfam calls for UK Labour to center global solidarity in international development vision

December 13, 2023 | UK, Gender Equality, Nutritious Food Systems, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Family Planning, Climate, Global health R&D, Global Health | Share this update

On December 13, 2023, departing Chief Executive of Oxfam Great Britain Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah called on the UK Labour Party to ensure it puts global solidarity at the center of their international development policy.

Sriskandarajah noted the need to target ODA where it is needed and supporting strong public health systems. He advocated against UK ODA being used as a foreign and trade policy instrument and also advocated against the practice of counting in-donor refugee costs as ODA.

Sriskandarajah also called on the Labour Party to stop addressing development, climate, and migration as separate policy areas rather than interlocking issues. He recommended that Labour should work to dismantle vested interests blocking efforts to cut emissions, invest in helping refugees, and find innovative ways of raising funding to tackle big climate issues, including through fair-share pollution taxes and increased wealth taxes.

Sriskandarajah also called on the Labour Party to show leadership on debt relief for poor countries by enforcing private creditor responsibility through changes to UK law, supporting a new convention on tax to reduce tax avoidance, and responding constructively to growing calls for reparations by forging partnerships based on the pursuit of equitable development and racial justice.

The Guardian

UK launches new White Paper on International Development

November 20, 2023 | UK, Education, Gender Equality, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, WASH & Sanitation, Climate | Share this update

On November 20, 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched a new White Paper on International Development, the first since 2009, which set out a progressive, whole-of-government approach to accelerate the delivery of the SDGs over the next seven years.

The White Paper provided a return to focusing UK development on the goal of eradicating poverty, which experts noted was largely neglected by previous strategies. It presented two further key goals: tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. The paper called for a new approach to partnerships based on country ownership, accountability, and transparency.

Though experts noted that the paper seemed to signal that the UK has recommitted to international development, it did not make new major financial commitments. The focus of the paper was on mobilizing resources beyond ODA for development, including the City of London’s private finance and expertise, stretching multilateral finance, and tackling trade, tax and illicit flows, as well as outlining policy priorities.

A return to delivering 0.7% ODA/GNI when fiscally feasible was mentioned briefly in the paper. Neither the Foreign Secretary nor the Minister for Development mentioned 0.7% ODA/GNI as a goal in their respective prefaces.

Six key themes from the paper included:

  • Mobilizing international finance (public and private) for climate and development with a focus that includes the City of London, pension funds, and investors;
  • Reforming the international system, with a strong focus on debt relief, trade, tax, and illicit flows, areas where the UK has in the past had strong expertise;
  • Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss and enabling sustainable economic growth;
  • Ensuring opportunities for all, including gender and broader equality and rights, global health, education, water, and social protection;
  • Tackling conflict, disasters, and food insecurity through preparedness and resilience. The only new financial commitment in the document reserved GBP1 billion (US$1.2 billion) in the budget for humanitarian spending each year, in line with current spending, and established a GBP150 million (US$179 million) disaster fund; and
  • Harnessing innovation and technology. R&D remains core to the UK offer on development, with a resurgence in interest in digital transformation and a strong interest in harnessing AI for development.

One of the most significant commitments was the aim to spend 50% of UK bilateral ODA in LDCs, prioritizing ODA resources to LICs. In 2021, the UK only provided 19.1% of resources to LDCs and has never exceeded 33% since 2013. A commitment to 50% is seen by experts as a monumental change in bilateral allocations. The White Paper also committed the BII to invest half of its resources in so-called poor and fragile states by 2030.

The 2024 UK election sets a narrow timeframe for the current Conservative government to implement the goals laid out by the paper. The progressive and broad framing, however, indicated to experts that the paper may not necessarily be jettisoned by a potential Labor government.

Development NGOs in the UK have been broadly welcoming of the document, but have criticized the government for ODA cuts and called for a return to 0.7% ODA/GNI.

Report - UK government Press release - ONE

UK pledges US$46 million to AI-powed development partnership in Africa

November 1, 2023 | UK, Education, Agriculture, Gender Equality, Nutritious Food Systems, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Family Planning, Agricultural R&D, WASH & Sanitation, Climate, Global health R&D, Global Health | Share this update

On November 1, 2023, the UK government announced that it will provide GBP38 million (US$46 million) to a new GBP80 million (US$96 million) global initiative to speed up the use of AI to support international development.

The announcement was made at the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, UK. The initiative, which is also being supported by Canada, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US, and partners in Africa, aims to utilize AI to combat inequality and boost prosperity, primarily in Africa. It will focus on building the capacity of and supporting African AI expertise to address long-standing development challenges.

The UK’s funding will come from a new phase of the UK AI for Development Programme. The following goals were listed as priorities until 2028:

  • Funding post-graduate training and fellowships in AI in African universities;
  • Investing in innovators building models with data that accurately represent the African continent;
  • Fostering responsible AI governance to help African countries mitigate the risks of AI; and
  • Enhancing the Sub-Saharan African voice on how to use AI to further the UN SDGs.
Press release - UK government

UK Labour outlines development aspirations, prioritizes women, girls

October 9, 2023 | UK, Gender Equality | Share this update

On October 9, 2023, UK Labour's recently appointed Shadow Development Minister Lisa Nandy outlined her vision for Labour’s development policy at its Party Conference, emphasizing restoring the UK’s reputation as a reliable development partner and prioritizing policy supporting women and girls.

Nandy noted that women and girls would be at the core of the Labour party development offer as a key part of the effort to achieve the UN SDGs. She asserted that Labour would focus on delivering innovation for development, supporting capacity building, and leveraging UK R&D expertise in cooperation with development partners.

Nandy highlighted the desire for Labour to focus on systemic change. She stated that Labour has ambitions to help countries to solve their own long-term problems through UK empowerment and support.

Critics noted that Nandy stopped short of promising to reverse current Conservative spending cuts if Labour were to be elected to government in 2024.

News article - Devex

UK Conservative Party remains quiet on development goals

October 4, 2023 | UK, Global Health, Gender Equality, Education, Climate | Share this update

Between October 1-4, 2023, the UK Conservative Party held a party conference which failed to feature international development on the main agenda.

UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly made no mention of development, which falls under his portfolio after the merge of DFID into the FCO in 2020. Cleverly focused entirely on foreign affairs in his lengthy speech. There was also no mention of a return to 0.7% ODA/GNI when fiscally appropriate, despite it being part of Conservative party policy.

UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell spoke at a conference on development and hinted at the new White Paper on International Development. Mitchell stated that the paper would include a focus on cracking down on illicit funds stolen from Africa. He noted that GBP88 billion (US$105 billion) disappeared last year, dwarfing ODA flows to the continent, with 40% of these funds funneled through the City of London and the UK’s overseas territories. Mitchell also noted that the paper would explore how to tap into US$60 trillion of pension funds to address sustainable development.

A number of international development NGOs held events at the fringes of the conference, including CAFOD and Global Prosperity. One event focused on the impact of climate change on humanitarian emergencies. Global Prosperity held an event with the Global Partnership for Education on the importance of girls' education in UK foreign policy. Malaria No More held an event exploring how British-backed science is leading the campaign to end malaria.

News article - DEVEX

Report calls on UK to invest in SRHR services

October 3, 2023 | UK, Global Health, Gender Equality | Share this update

On October 3, 2023, the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Ranne Thakar called on the UK government to invest more in SRHR at the global level, following the Royal College’s new report highlighting the devastating impact of the recent cuts to the UK’s ODA budget on SRHR services around the world.

The report highlighted that bilateral spending on SRHR decreased by more than 50%, from GBP515 million (US$617 million) in 2019 to GBP242 million (US$290 million) in 2021, with further cuts due in upcoming years. The report noted that these cuts have reduced vital services and have come at a vulnerable time for many partner countries. Clinicians in Pakistan told the Royal College that the cuts resulted in health services left unable to support those displaced by extreme flooding and refugees from neighboring Afghanistan.

Thankar called for UK spending on SRHR programs to be restored to pre-budget cut levels, which amounted to approximately 4% of UK ODA.

British Medical Journal

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