Security claims spark row as UK redirects overseas aid funding

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell yesterday rejected claims the Government is putting security concerns ahead of aid priorities by trimming the number of countries that will receive assistance from the UK.

A review of international aid has removed 16 countries – including Angola, Vietnam and Cambodia – from the list of those that receive direct help.

Aid charities have raised concerns that the countries which will continue to get support – such as Afghanistan and Somalia – have been chosen because they are considered vital to maintaining UK security.

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World Development Movement head of policy Julian Oram said: “What we are concerned about is the focus on a smaller number of countries, which actually takes money away from some of the world’s poorest countries, like Niger, Angola and Cambodia and channels it into countries where there is deemed to be a higher security risk to the UK.

“The securitisation of aid is a real concern under the outcomes of this review.”

But Mr Mitchell said: “In terms of the suggestion that we are securitising aid, we are dealing with parts of the world where people are doubly cursed – not only because they live in extreme poverty but also because they live in very conflicted societies.”

The areas in which one-third of the overseas aid budget will be spent include countries which see 75 per cent of the world’s maternal deaths in childbirth and 75 per cent of child deaths from malaria, he said.

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The Government has committed the UK to meeting the United Nations target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on aid by 2013.

Total assistance is due to rise from £7bn to £11bn by 2015.

Mr Mitchell denied accusations that some of this increase would be achieved by redefining other activities – such as military protection of reconstruction projects in Afghanistan - as aid spending.

He said the review would “end a culture which has seen large sums of money thrown at problems and focus on the results that the British taxpayer can buy”.

He added: “This is about value for money. It is about ensuring that, for every pound we take off hard-pressed taxpayers, we really do deliver 100p of value.

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“We have got to be able to explain and articulate to the people who are paying for this why we are spending the money.”

The review is expected to see countries such as Russia, China, Serbia, Moldova, Kosovo and Bosnia removed from the list.

The coalition wants to direct as much as 30 per cent of overseas aid towards volatile states such as Afghanistan and Somalia.

Mr Mitchell has also been forced to defend the UK’s continued help to countries such as India at a time when its own economy is booming dramatically amid anger from some Conservative MPs who are opposed to aid budget spending overseas at a time of austerity measures at home.