Please take a minute to read our story in Gaza, after I lost my home for the third time, we lost our work, and we are in a tragic situation.
This sums up my daughter's situation with her four siblings. She cannot continue living without your help. Donate, share the story and send it to your friends. Any small amount helps save my children's lives, share now on your account.
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By 2027, the current Labour Government in the UK plans to reduce the foreign aid budget to 0.3% of Gross National Income - the lowest level since 1999.
This reduction carries on a pre-existing trends from the previous Tory government which reduced the foreign aid budget from 0.7% of GNI to 0.3% of GNI.
However, this latest reduction in the foreign aid budget comes as a result of a desire to increase defence spending. This is - honestly - a ridiculous justification considering that in 2023, the UK spent £15.3 billion on foreign aid and that only composed 0.58% of Gross National Income. Reducing the aid budget to 0.3% of GNI would only give the UK government an extra £6.1 billion to work with. This reduction would barely finance 1/20th of the previously discussed refurbishment of the UK's nuclear submarines.
So, the domestic benefit of reducing the aid budget is practically negligible when it comes to the stated purpose.
Yet the public seems to support this shift, as Jenny Chapman said in an interview with the Guardian, "...the truth is that the confidence that the public once had in this agenda has faded...". Going by her word, it appears that the issue of public support is one that stems from a lack of understanding of what the UK actually does with its foreign aid and the positives/benefits it brings. While it is valid to criticise the way the 'Global West' provides aid (being nothing more than a continuation of the idea of the 'White Man's Burden) the aid itself is arguably vital.
Now to all the people who think the UK providing foreign aid is bad actually and doesn't benefit the nation, let us take a look at the damage this £6.1 billion reduction would cause both to the UK and the world:
For every £1 the UK puts into organisations such as the World Bank, it gets a return on investment worth £10 due to the improved socio-economic wellbeing of the globe.
To quote Save the Children, "Cutting aid does not make the world safer. Poverty, conflict, and climate disasters don’t stay contained. They lead to more displaced people, increased instability, and bigger threats to international peace - including for the UK. Slashing aid makes the world less safe."
Clinics and medical facilities will be shut down across the globe at a time when 1 in 11 children need life saving assistance - do these children not have the right to live?
Behind the USA, the UK and the Netherlands were the largest providers of aid for family planning programmes. As Elizabeth Sully (principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute) stated, "This loss of funding means that the rights, dignity and lives of people around the world, particularly women and girls, are even more at risk.”
UK is turning its back on communities facing poverty, conflict and insecurity...damaging its credibility on the global stage. Soon, no one will want to associate with the UK in the developing world.
These shifts in foreign aid budgets are not actually being used to re-examine the system of aid that currently exists in which dependencies are created within countries on loans from the high income world.
We are simply taking away the only lifeline many countries suffering crisis are experiencing rather than making any progress in promoting self-reliability.
Nations such as China are rushing in to fill the gaps left by the withdrawal of European and American aid in continents like Africa - as stated by Ed Davey, leader of the Liber Democrats. (not to say that China is any worse than the 'Global West' in how it provides aid but still, if we are looking purely from the perspective of the UK this will be a massive blow to the nation's soft diplomatic power which, considering the state of its military, remains its only viable means of remaining influential in global politics).
Thus, it should be evident that the UK cutting it's foreign aid is a terrible thing to do. Not only is it arguably immoral, but it is also something which compromises the international interests of the country. Therefore, I want to ask people - does it seem like a good idea to be moving away from providing international aid and instead using the thin pickings of funds taken from such programmes to instead create weapons of war.
...
I hope pretty much everyone can agree with me on this: PEOPLE DO NOT WANT WAR.
After the shitshow that was Russia's attempted invasion of Ukraine turned World War I re-enactment, it should be obvious that no matter how many guns the government tries to produce, there will not be enough people willing to conscript and use them.
1.4 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 4,000 deaths a day or one every 20 seconds. (WHO)
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Welcome to the new and improved onecampus. 2015 is shaping up to be an incredible year and we thought, what better way to celebrate such a pivotal year than to revamp our tumblr? Check out our updated blog design and get ready for awesome blog content to populate your dash, starting with this excellent video from action/2015. What world do you want to live in? Reblog with your answer! #demandbetter
