Coronavirus ‘could undo 30 years of UK’s international development work’

Impact of pandemic could be felt by world’s poorest for years to come, international development secretary tells MPs

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to undo 30 years of international development work, with a bleak picture for the world’s poorest, the international development secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told MPs.

Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into the effectiveness of UK aid, Trevelyan said her biggest fear was that the secondary impact of the health crisis would be felt by the world’s poorest for years to come.

“We have before us a health crisis, a humanitarian crisis and an economic crisis which threaten to undo 30 years of international development work,” she said. “The devastating impacts are already being seen both at home and abroad. My personal profoundest concern is that the secondary impacts will be felt for years to come for the poorest, most disproportionately affected.”

“The reality is that no one if safe until we are all safe. So finding treatments and a vaccine will be critical to allow the world’s economic activity to go back to some sort of new normal.”

Trevelyan told MPs she was really proud that the UK was at the forefront of the global response and had been repurposing aid and expertise to work on solutions in the UK and across the world.

The UK is a leading donor to coronavirus research for testing and developing a vaccine, and has pledged £744m towards the international response to developing countries in the Covid-19 crisis.

Trevelyan said: “The reality is that the humanitarian picture is bleak right now. The threat of famines, exacerbated by the worst locust plague for 70 years, weak healthcare system allowing the spread of the disease and economic disruptions hitting the world’s poorest and threatening a global recession and a much longer and harder road back to recovery.”

Last week, the head of the UN’s food agency warned of widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Members of the international development committee, in its first virtual evidence session, asked Trevelyan about the plans to merge the Department for International Development (DfID) with the FCO Foreign Office (FCO) and whether poverty reduction would remain a priority.

Last month, Boris Johnson was accused by Labour and charities of taking British aid policy backwards by linking aid to the UK’s trade goals and insisting DfID missions in other countries report to FCO ambassadors.

Trevelyan was asked if the new reporting arrangements were intended to be a merged “by the back door”, she said: “No, I wouldn’t agree with that statement. That isn’t what it is.”

Asked whether poverty reduction would remain a priority, in a refreshed DfID strategy, she said it would be.

Nick Dyer, acting permanent secretary for DfID, told the committee that Covid-19 was a perfect example of how the new joint ministerial arrangements made sense, because it brought diplomatic and development levers together.

Trevelyan said the government remained committed to the 0.7% of gross national income target for aid funding, despite the health crisis and she believed that having DfID separate from the FCO, with two secretaries of state, was good for global leadership and presented a “really good message to the rest of the world”.

The committee, chaired by MP Sarah Champion, also asked Trevelyan whether the government was considering its own definition of overseas development assistance (ODA).

The secretary of state replied that she believed the ODA rules are “sensible, really broad and countries are using them in different ways”.

Earlier, James Cleverly, joint FCO/DfID minister of state for the Middle East and North Africa, told MPs that the “UK does not have tied aid”.