200 UK NGOs protest Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’ plans to deprioritise health, climate change and conflict prevention in new strategy

More than 200 UK NGOs have signed an open letter to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after civil servants warned of a “radical” review of the Government’s international development strategy, which will seeglobal health, climate change and conflict prevention deprioritised.

Ms Truss hasordered changes in the way the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spends aid funding, prompting concerns from her own officials and 201 UK NGOs working in international development.

The open letter to Ms Truss, coordinatedby Bond, the UK network of NGOs, said:
“It would be short-sighted to drop critical issues like global health, climate change and conflict prevention from the forthcoming International Development Strategy. It would also cost lives.
“These are areas where the UK has a strong track record of impact and significant expertise and this move will undermine the UK’s ability to play our part globally in tackling urgent challenges, increasing security, and eradicating poverty.
“Withdrawing funding from one crisis to pay for another simply displaces the problem and ultimately does not reduce the costs. The right decision would be to restore the UK’s 0.7% GNI on Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment.”

ENDS

Notes to editor:

Bond is the UK network for organisations working in international development. Bond unites and supports a diverse network of over 400 civil society organisations from across the UK, and allies to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice.
The open letter can be read, in full, here
More information on the reported changes to the international development strategy can be found in this Telegraph article, published last night.
More information on the FCDO reshuffle last week can be found in this Devex article.
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