Aid is not a luxury but a necessity we can’t afford to cut

Temperatures in a remote region of Africa regularly reach 40C. For those already on the brink of starvation and living in fear of malaria, the baking heat is just another hurdle to overcome in their already harsh lives.

Each day thousands set out in search of scarce drinking water, while others walk for miles in the hope of reaching the nearest hospital where food supplements are handed out.

A few days ago, the rains finally came, but as Alistair Fernie, the York man charged with running the UK government’s aid programme in Kenya, knows, that may not be enough to save Somalia from a massive humanitarian crisis.

This summer the first famine of the 21st century was declared there and despite a massive aid effort many of those who are in need of most help remain difficult to reach.

“It’s raining across the region now which is good news in terms of the harvest, but actually what kills most people out here is not starvation, but disease,” he says.

“For many thousands of people home is a crowded refugee camp and in those conditions the potential for measles, cholera and malaria to turn into epidemics is great.

“Over recent months a lot of people have abandoned their fields and their homes and what we need to do is find a way of getting them back there and away from the camps.”

By the end of last month, Alistair and the rest of his team at the Department for International Development, passed something of a landmark, having provided clean water and sanitation to more than 500,000 people, treated more than 300,000 malnourished children and given more than one million measles vaccinations. However, without continued support some 750,000 in the famine-affected regions of Somalia could die before the end of the year.

The amount of aid given by the UK government to Third World countries is a contentious issue. Earlier this year David Cameron defended the commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid by 2013. The announcement came after a survey conducted by think-tank Chatham House showed that many people believed Britain spent too much on overseas aid and far too little on equipping its own army. The results also revealed that 65 per cent thought Britain’s foreign policy had changed for the worse over the past year and a similar number thought much overseas aid was wasted.

Those on the front line like Alistair inevitably see it a little differently. However, the former St Peter’s schoolboy, who has previously worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres and moved out to Nairobi with his young family three years ago, admits that deciding how and where the money should be spent is fraught with difficulties.

Tensions between various communities, corruption and the fact that many in Africa trust only their own traditional medicine mean even the simplest tasks are sometimes made impossible.

“One of my responsibilities is to ensure that British taxpayers’ money has the best possible impact and we do have a detailed plan to how to get the best possible value for money,” says Alistair. “We know that we are incredibly lucky to have such a large aid budget to work with and we know we will be judged on the results that we deliver.

“However, we also have to be realistic about what we can achieve. By working with other international organisations it is relatively easy to get aid and medicine to all the areas in Kenya and Ethiopia that need them, but that’s not the case in Somalia. Aid is getting through, but because of the risk of kidnap it is a much slower process.”

Throughout the Horn of Africa, there have been notable success stories. The number of girls attending school has increased and much effort has been put into reducing the numbers dying in childbirth, but keeping the crisis in the news is key.

“The media spotlight inevitably drifts away, but the problems which exist in the Horn of Africa haven’t gone away,” Alistair says. “However long you work out here you never get used to seeing the mothers who didn’t get to the medical centre in time and watched their children die in their arms or the youngsters using tin cans to scoop what little water they can out of the ground.

“Human suffering on that scale isn’t something you can ever come to terms with, but we can do something about it and the money that Britain gives to the developing world is not a luxury but a necessity.”