Synopsis of:
To investigate the
extent to which British official aid was poverty-focussed, gender-conscious and
environmentally sensitive. The objective of the exercise was to gather whatever
evidence existed which would shed any light on both the policy motives of the
donors of aid and the effects of aid on those most in need of help. This
includes women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty in the Third World.
The inter-relationship between poverty and the environment was also examined
because the poor are particularly vulnerable to the effects of “development” on
the environment.
·
Consideration
of the role of lobby groups in establishment of aid policy.
·
Analysis
of Parliamentary debates, Parliamentary papers, government publications, aid
pressure group material, press articles, women’s organisations and
environmental lobby group proposals.
·
Interviews
with aid civil servants; two former Ministers of Overseas Development
(Judith Hart and Timothy Raison); Party spokespeople on overseas
development; consultants to the ODA; freelance writers on aid.
·
Analysis
of ODA statistics, including unpublished internal print-outs of aid
sub-sectors.
·
Analysis
of internal ODA “flagship” project documents in the areas of poverty
alleviation, gender and the environment.
The literature
specifically on recent British aid policy and the extent to which it is poverty
focussed is not vast. At the time when this thesis was begun, in January 1988,
there was little comprehensive academic analysis of this subject. Most of what
had been written was in the form of single chapters, articles, reports and
booklets, many of them written by pressure groups rather than academics. It was
therefore felt that a considerable gap existed, and it is hoped that this
thesis will go some way towards filling it.
In terms of the
pre-Thatcher period, some general historical background to British aid can be
gained from D J Morgan's five-volume Official
History of Colonial Development (London, 1979), or his earlier and shorter Colonial Development (London, ODI 1964).
The more recent historical background to the establishment of the Ministry of
Overseas Development in 1964 is provided by Dudley Seers and Paul Streeten in
"Overseas Development Policies Under the Labour Government." in Beckerman,
W, (ed) The Labour Government's Economic
Record 1964-1970 (
An interesting
analysis of the institutional problems of implementing the "More Help for
the Poorest" policy in
One of the best
attempts to assess the achievements of the 1974-79 Labour Government has been
made by Paul Mosley in his article: "Aid for the Poorest: Some Early
Lessons in UK Experience", in the Journal
of Development Studies (January 1981). This was followed by an
Actionaid report: Poverty-Focussed Aid:
The Lessons of Experience (
The pre-1988
academic literature specifically on British official aid in the Thatcher
period, despite being more abundant than the material on the 1974-79 Labour
period, was still scanty and mostly in the form of short articles, reports
often produced by academic/NGO-initiated pressure groups, as we have noted. The
NGOs with charitable status are restricted from becoming too politically
critical of government aid policy. It was for this reason that organisations
like the World Development Movement (WDM) and the Independent Group on British
Aid (IGBA) were set up to promote reform of official aid policy through
lobbying and the publication of critical reports. The NGOs were instrumental in
founding these organisations with a non-charitable status so that they could be
free to criticise government policy without restriction.
The reports
produced by the IGBA, and often authored by leading development academics, have
been a particularly useful source of information about British official aid
policy – much of it highly critical. These reports were: Real Aid: A Strategy for
The first of these
reports does say a little bit about the period of the Labour Government but,
generally speaking, and understandably, it concentrates on the period since
1979. The policy criticisms which these reports expressed have been very much
within a perspective of reforming rather than abolishing official aid. One of
the members of the IGBA, Paul Mosley, presented this perspective in his book, Overseas Aid: Its Defence and Reform (
The Labour Aid and
Development Committee proposed a Programme
For Development (London, 1986), which contained a critical analysis of
current British aid policy and proposed some quite detailed policy reforms for
a future Labour Government on a whole series of development issues other than
aid. These included women and development, the environment, transnationals,
energy, food aid, trade unions and development education.
A paper published
by Oxfam in the late eighties, The Oxfam
White Paper (
An ActionAid report
written by Mark Robinson, Aid for the
Poorest?: UK Aid to Bangladesh. (
A report of the
Select Committee on Foreign Affairs: Bilateral
Aid: Country Programmes. Second Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee
(Session 1986-87, HCP 32) and the related Minutes
of Evidence provided some interesting information: the evidence given by
the IGBA was particularly illuminating in relation to the commercialisation of
British aid under the Thatcher Government.
The best account of
the British Overseas Development Administration (ODA) policy and record on
women is a booklet written by Julia Mazza for War on Want: The British Aid Programme and Development for Women (
Since 1988,
however, a number of works have appeared which have also filled in much of the
gap in the literature on recent British official aid policy. In 1989 Teresa
Hayter published a book largely, but not exclusively, devoted to British aid in
relation to the environment and poverty: Exploited
Earth: Britain's Aid and the Environment (
Another
recently-published book dealing with the period of the Thatcher administration
is a collection of essays edited by Anuradha Bose and Peter Burnell: Britain's Overseas Aid Since 1979: Between
Idealism and Self-Interest (
The most recent
book to be published on British official aid during the Thatcher years is
Morrisey et al: British Aid and
International Trade: Aid Policy Making 1979-89 (
In relation to the
environment, the most detailed critique of projects on the ground in a
particular country has been by made in a booklet by S Percy and M Hall: British Aid to India: What Price? (
·
Background
analysis of Harold Wilson and Judith Hart books on development issues –
one took a religious, “moral” stance in defence of aid (
·
Contrast
with extreme economic liberals such at Peter Bauer, who argued that there
is no moral case for aid.
·
Discussion
of ideas of Bauer and his influences among the Tory right.
·
A
critique of Bauer, including extracts from an interview with him.
·
Discussion
of Nozick’s views attempting to justify inequalities of wealth if “acquired
justly”. Critique of his views and defence of idea of social justice based on
needs. Other writers cited to support this (eg Riddell, Moore Lappe).
·
Discussion
and comparison of different left-wing positions on aid (Judith Hart and
Teresa Hayter). Evolution of Hayter’s views towards accepting need for aid
in certain circumstances. Similarly, Myrdal and Seers evolved in opposite
directions (pro-aid to being more critical).
·
Comparison
of different right-wing views on aid (Bauer vs the export lobby).
·
Discussion
of role of liberal, centrist views on aid – the Brandt Report and the idea of “mutual interests, enlightened self-interest”
between North and South. Critique.
·
The
idea that “self-interest” or “national interest” is paramount. Critique.
·
Environmental
arguments in relation to aid; influence of populist ideas in the environmental
and development lobby. Critique.
·
Discussion
of environmental priorities vs social priorities.
·
Discussion
of problems related to gender. Does the women’s movement in the North have the
right to “interfere” in gender relations in the
·
Family
planning and population issues: is population the cause or effect of poverty?
It is argued that it is the effect of poverty, not the cause.
·
Discussion
of theories of justice in relation to women: women either do not exist or, when
they do, they are relegated to the private, domestic domain where the law does
not apply. Internationally, while their lives are affected by foreign capital,
international moral obligations are disavowed.
·
It is
argued that the Northern women’s movement does have the right to intervene in
the South.
·
Analysis
of 1975 White Paper, “More Help for the Poorest” – relationship to World Bank
policy shift (1973).
·
Limitations
of White Paper
– political and commercial objectives in the
paper contradict developmental objectives;
– local and recurrent cost restrictions
limited a substantial poverty focus;
– sovereignty of recipient nations was used to
limit scope of policy shift;
·
IMF-inspired
cuts in aid budget and controversy surrounding it.
·
Problems
of implementing rural development projects.
·
Commercial
influence on aid resulting from export lobby and underspend on poverty-focussed
projects resulting from local/recurrent costs restrictions, eg Ind
·
Initiation
of the Aid for Trade Programme (ATP) by Judith Hart in return for quantitative
increase in aid. Implications of this in preparing the ground for greater
commercial emphasis of the Thatcher government.
·
Analysis
of other writers’ balance sheets of the Labour aid record – the lessons of the
attempted shift to a poverty-focussed approach.
Chapter 4: Conservative Aid Policy 1979-90
·
Assessment
of the influence of different policy approaches on Thatcher government policy.
– negligible influence of extreme economic
liberals (Bauer et al)
– continuing predominance of export lobby in
policy
– essentially a continuation of Labour policy
“nibbled at edges”. 1975 White Paper not disavowed
– this encapsulated in Marten statement (1980)
to Commons
·
Examples
of commercially motivated aid deals continuing the trend under Labour.
·
Growth
of Aid for Trade Programme (ATP).
·
Origins
of current Malays
·
Comparison
of Raison and Patten periods of office at ODA.
·
Analysis
of a number of critical pressure group reports in this period in response to
quantitative as well as qualitative decline in aid.
·
Foreign
Affairs Committee deliberations on this decline in aid. Weaknesses in final
report despite critical evidence given.
·
Shift
to co-option of critical NGOs under Patten: greater openness, but “carrot and
stick” used to suppress their criticisms.
·
Similar
constraints on consultants in universities and lobby groups as a result of
dependence on ODA funding.
·
Ability
of Patten to adapt to powerful criticisms of gender and environment lobby.
·
Labour
Party press release exposing “doctored” ODA evaluation reports on ATP –
quotations and analysis.
·
Interview
with Timothy Raison (extracts quoted to give background to government
motivations. Critical of Thatcher.
·
British
response to 1984 Ethiop
·
Review
of All-Party Group on Overseas Aid report on African agriculture – devastating
statistics on British record.
·
Declining
contributions to multilateral aid institutions aimed at poorest countries (IDA,
IFAD etc) at time of famine.
·
Interview
with Joan Lestor (Labour spokesperson) and Jim Lestor (dissident
Conservative) – interesting insights into Raison as an individual; also
Chris Patten.
·
Extracts
from interviews with ODA social development advisers and assessment of their
ability to scrutinise projects. Grossly under-staffed. Cannot properly
scrutinise – let alone alter – projects.
·
Actionaid
symposium examined – debate between Patten and development lobby. Absence of
poverty-impact evaluations revealed.
Chapter 5: Quantitative Comparison of Labour and Conservative Aid Policy
1974-90
·
In 1990
Official Development Assistance (ODA) down by a third of its 1979 value.
·
Public
Expenditure on Overseas Aid (PE) cut more than Public Spending as a whole under
Thatcher – in 1990, it was down by 20 per cent on 1979 figures,
indicating low priority to aid.
·
While
ODA declined by a third under Thatcher, Other Official Flows (OOF),
representing less concessional aid on more commercial terms, increased in
percentage terms while purely private flows collapsed as a result of debt
crisis. Voluntary grants from private charities increased their relative
importance within private flows.
·
In
terms of ODA as percentage of GNP, British aid in 1990 was
0.27 per cent – half the 1979 figure. The target is supposed to be
0.7 per cent.
·
The
percentage of total financial flows of GNP was negative for the
first time in 1990. This was embarrassing for Britain, which has always argued
that this was more important than percentage ODA.
·
The
Thatcher period saw multilateral aid increase and bilateral aid decrease,
despite efforts of Thatcher to reverse this trend. The figures reflect cutting
of overall aid while long-term multilateral commitments prevented cuts.
·
Within
bilateral aid, concessional project aid has declined, commercial-terms aid (CDC
aid) has sharply increased. Programme aid has waned despite Thatcher government
pressure to increase this highly conditional form of aid. Debt cancellation did
not rise significantly under the Conservatives, despite the Lawson initiative.
It was higher under Labour.
·
Grants
have increased and loans decreased – this linked to Britain’s desire to keep
trading links with traditional African Commonwealth countries hit hard by debt.
This merely reflected that they simply could not repay the debt.
·
Tying
of British aid has not declined significantly – about two-thirds of aid
continues to be tied.
·
Local
costs have declined consistently as a percentage of bilateral aid since 1983,
when the last projects initiated under Labour were filtering through the
system.
·
There
was a 40 per cent drop in the aid to the poorest 50 countries during
the 1980s. There was also a decrease of 50 per cent in per capita aid
to these countries in the same period.
·
The two
key poverty-related sectors of project aid, Renewable Natural Resources (RNR)
and Social and Community Services (SCS), accounted for less than 30 per cent
of project aid on average over the 1980s.
·
In 1984
a staggering two-thirds of UK project aid to African agriculture went on roads,
paper and rubber schemes; a further 10 per cent went on non-staple
cash crops; while only 1.5 per cent on livestock and
1 per cent on rural water supply. There was a low allocation to
subsistence farming, agricultural research (especially in arid areas), farmer
services and credit.
·
Non-staple
cash crops received more priority than cereals and livestock (critical to subsistence
food supply).
·
The UNDP Human Development Report 1989
claimed that only 8.8 per cent of British aid went to “human
development” priority areas such as pure water supply, sanitation, nutrition,
family planning, primary education and primary health.
·
Primary
education accounted for less than 15 per cent of total education on
average.
·
Primary
health sector aid was largely devoted to family planning – other key aspects of
primary health were neglected.
·
Human
development priorities accounted for 7 per cent or less on average of
total project aid if commercially motivated projects are discounted.
·
There
are massive differences in aid to dependencies compared to non-dependencies.
Ethiopia during the 1984 famine got the same aid as Gibraltar with its much
smaller population.
·
Aid to
“Soviet clients” and radical redistributive regimes (eg Nicaragua under the
Sandinistas) got much less aid (if any) than neighbouring, “friendly” regimes.
·
ATP
distorted significantly the destinations of aid towards the NICs (eg Malaysia!)
– linked to arms sales in some cases.
·
A small
group of companies benefited enormously from ATP – they were also noted for
contributions to Conservative funds.
Chapter 6: British Aid and the Environment
·
The
Bruntland Report, the concept of “sustainable development” and the British
response.
·
Reaction
from environment lobby: the critique of growth. This is in turn criticised.
Instead of “nil growth”, it is argued that it is necessary to replace
“accumulation for accumulation’s sake” with production for need. Wasteful
production undertaken simply because it is profitable should be eliminated.
·
Critique
of population as cause of poverty – as argued by Bruntland, the ODA and the
environmental lobby. It is argued that genuine land reform to alleviate poverty
is what is most needed. This need is obscured by the emphasis on population
growth as cause rather than effect of poverty.
·
Discussion
of relation between migratory and commercial causes of forest destruction. It
is argued that commercial causes are very important. Migration and colonisation
of frontier forest regions does cause destruction, but this migration is a
result of the failure to implement genuine land reform in non-frontier regions.
·
Discussion
and analysis of British policy documents responding to Bruntland – hiding
behind population to evade need for land reform.
·
Account
is given of the debate over social forestry and the environmental lobby’s
criticisms of the ODA Karnataka (India) Social Forestry Project. The role of
eucalyptus in this. Evaluation reports are analysed and the views of
consultants to the project are reported (extracts from interviews).
·
Analysis
and criticism of a subsequent “flagship” forestry project: the Western Ghats
Forestry Project. Contrast is made between two approaches to projects: the
“blueprint” approach and the “process planning” approach typified by the above
two forestry projects.
·
Interviews
with independent freelance writer Steve Percy, who is critical of the
Western Ghats Project.
·
Discussion
of attempts to co-opt Ind
·
Interviews
(extracts) with ODA officials in defence of what they are doing in forestry.
·
Other
ODA flagship projects which promote “green revolution” methods are criticised
because they narrow the genetic base and are only available to middle farmers,
not the poorest or landless.
·
The Ind
·
Critical
National Audit Office reports are analysed in relation to
commercially-orientated ODA projects.
Chapter 7: Gender
·
Effect
of UN Decade for Women and the Nairobi conference proposals, “Forward-Looking
Strategies”, on Britain’s aid policy.
·
Analysis
of ODA Gender booklets setting out the policy, along with a damning critique of
this by War On Want report.
·
Debate
in Parliament on War On Want report is presented.
·
Criticisms
of other development and gender lobby group discussed in relation to need for
an ODA gender unit; special measures needed to correct institutional bias
against women in various areas.
·
Interview
with Timothy Raison (former Minister at ODA) on gender issues: reveals
lack of commitment to this question.
·
This
confirmed in interviews with ODA social development advisers.
·
An
account is given of attempts to integrate gender into ODA by women social
development advisers. Internal documents reveal that only 10 per cent
of projects were at all consciously relevant to women and less than
1 per cent were systematically aimed at women.
·
A
“flagship” gender project was found not to be consciously initiated for women.
References to gender were sporadic. It was typical of a project initiated for
other reasons and into which gender was incorporated on the basis of “damage
limitation”.
·
Discussion
of problem of relating to Third World women when the ODA staff is
overwhelmingly male.
·
Discussion
of how some projects worsen the position of women, such as the effect of shifts
from subsistence production to production for market and some land reforms
which transfer communally-owned land into private male-owned property in a
gender-blind way.
·
Discussion
of need for lower level education and training to benefit women as well as
prioritise the “caring” subjects they tend to study, rather than the
infrastructure and “hardware” related subjects favoured by the ODA aid
projects.
·
Analysis
of ODA research into the above problems.
Chapter 8: Conclusion and Alternative Proposals
·
Comparison
of proposals of “development lobby” and the “Third World solidarity” approach
to aid.
·
What
political forces exist in Britain to effect a change in favour of more help for
the Third World? Discussion.
·
Do
working people in Britain have common interests with their counterparts in the
Third World? It is argued that they do, regardless of subjectively chauvinistic
and “me first” attitudes. There is an objective relationship between working people
North and South which results from the fact that they are both in conflict with
the same northern elite interests (and the neo-colonial elites which are
largely bound up with them). Evidence is provided from British labour history
to support this view – foreign wars and revolutions have helped shape British
labour history. Likewise the Mexican oil expropriations in the 1930s are cited
as an example of this phenomenon across the North-South divide: the rise of the
militant US CIO trade union confederation aided the ability of Mexico to carry
out the oil expropriations.
·
The
concept of aid as a reform is examined. When conditionally given it is
argued that it is not a reform but a lever for Northern interests.
·
The
dangers of “green conditionality” are discussed, and it is rejected on the
grounds of unwarranted “neo-colonialism” as well as expressing naive illusions
in the ability of the North to play a progressive role in the South.
·
It is
concluded that the Third World should avoid all kinds of conditional
aid, and that pressure should be applied in the North to abandon
conditional aid.
·
It is
argued that quantitative increases in aid, without eliminating conditionality,
makes matters worse rather than better.
·
A long
list of alternative proposals for British aid is presented, premised on the
need to eliminate conditional aid. These proposals include briefly:
– vastly increased volumes of non-conditional
aid;
– ending of all commercial and political
influences on aid; abolish ATP;
– increases in poverty-focussed project aid
aimed at the landless and very poor;
– opposition to Structural Adjustment Lending
(SAL);
– more focus on gender questions and an ODA
gender unit to initiate projects aimed at women;
– greater sensitivity to the environment and
opposition to green revolution methods and more emphasis on agricultural
research into rainfed, arid farming.
This is essentially
that there was a continuity of policy from Labour to Conservatives dictated by
DTI, FCO and the Treasury. ATP initiated by Labour laid the basis for the
Thatcher aid policy. It is necessary to say: abandon conditional aid,
but since this will not happen at present we must try to reform it – to remove
as many “strings” as possible.