The level of aid to India will be frozen The government is to outline plans to stop direct development aid to 16 countries and freeze the level of assistance given to India.
But some nations, such as Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan will get more money, which the coalition says will be "better focused" on the poorest people.
Labour says too much of the UK's aid budget is being mis-spent.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell will unveil the plans to MPs at 1530 GMT.
Meanwhile, the Commons international development committee will take evidence from academics on the Department for International Development's work in India.
The department's overall £7.8bn budget has been unaffected by the government's spending cuts programme.
But the UK is expected to stop direct aid to 16 countries, including Russia, China, Vietnam, Serbia and Iraq. Some, such as Vietnam and Bosnia, are seen to have "graduated" out of poverty.
Others are judged to be adequately served by United Nations agencies.
Source: Department for International Development
The government says it wants greater transparency and accountability in aid spending, with an emphasis on funding programmes that deliver greater results and which, specifically, help girls and women.
Five countries will have their budgets increased substantially: Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan.
By 2014, 30% of UK aid is expected to go to war-torn and unstable countries.
David Loyn, the BBC's international development correspondent, said: "The government is keenly aware of its political vulnerability in ring-fencing the international development budget while cutting spending everywhere else except for health, and it wants to ensure that it is getting value for money."
India is currently one of the biggest recipients of UK development aid, and there have been media campaigns in the UK suggesting an economy growing at nearly 10% a year simply does not need British assistance.
But others point out that nearly half a billion people in India - more than in any other country in the world - are still desperately poor.
The government says the new approach will be more effective in cutting poverty, and assist in reaching the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015.
The Commons international development committee will hear on Tuesday from Gareth Price of the think tank Chatham House, from Malini Mehra, founder of the development group Social Markets, and from Rosalind Eyben of Sussex University.
On Saturday, it emerged that the UK is threatening to switch funding away from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization - which focuses on longer-term projects, such as providing seeds and tools for agriculture - unless its performance improves.
Instead, more funding could go to the World Food Programme, which deals with emergency food aid around the globe.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-politics-12599969
No comments:
Post a Comment