The UK electorate will cast their vote on the 4 July and soon after a new government will be formed and a new parliament will begin. Inevitably, there will be a full in-tray of domestic issues to address, including the cost-of-living crisis and the green energy transition – many of which are increasingly interconnected with issues of international policy.
Climate change, hunger and food insecurity, global health, and conflict and humanitarian assistance – not least the humanitarian crises in Gaza and Sudan –are all pressing international development issues that have an impact on the UK, and UK government, in various ways.
To help address them, we believe a new government should attend to the following priorities for international development:
1. Build strong international development partnerships
Building strong international partnerships with the Global South are crucial for successful development but in recent years sudden funding cuts – dismantling project partnerships overnight – has undermined trust in the UK as a reliable, effective partner.
Equitable partnerships are required to co-create the research and knowledge to underpin priority-setting and delivery, for supporting local ‘bottom up’ solutions, for building soft power, and for tackling global challenges through international cooperation and mutual learning.
To restore the UK’s global reputation as an international partner, a new government must quickly signal its commitment by implementing long-term partnerships with governments, civil society organisations and businesses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This should be done as part of a ‘patient’ and equitable development approach.
It will also need to acknowledge current and historical unequal power relations and move away from language such as ‘development superpower’ towards a humbler facilitator of locally and nationally owned processes. As my former colleague, Professor Melissa Leach put it, ‘we need to stop telling the global south what to do’.
2. Restore 0.7
In the short-term, the most effective way of restoring the UK’s reputation as a reliable, trusted development partner is to return to investing 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) into Official Development Assistance (ODA). Reducing the UK’s ODA budget from 0.7 percent of GNI to 0.5 percent dramatically reduced the UK’s ability to deliver the high-quality aid and interdisciplinary research essential to improving the lives of people around the world.
At minimum a timeline for when the ODA budget will be restored to 0.7 should be published, rather than falling back on the ‘when fiscal rules allow’ argument.
To prevent even further erosion of the ODA budget, a new government must prevent over a quarter of it (27 percent) subsidising the Home Office to house asylum seekers in the UK, plus ensure a Minister for International Development attends Cabinet.
3. Invest in international research
Recently the UK’s reputation for international research has waned. The Brexit impact, the development research expertise lost during the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) merger, and the UKRI’s International Science Partnerships Fund (disappointing many that it has failed to match the strength of the Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund it was meant to replace) have all had a negative impact.
Countries such as China, India and Brazil have all nurtured diverse research ecosystems involving multiple institutions and strong state investment behind science and technology. The UK should do the same, championing the country’s strength for international research for global challenges.
Get it right and UK-led international development research plays a threefold benefit – contributing to the UK’s reputation for science and research expertise, providing new discoveries that can apply to challenges at home, and generating evidence to ensure value for money for development programmes.
Investment is needed in all disciplines – social sciences and humanities in addition to STEM – and not overlooking the capabilities of low-income countries in generating knowledge for vital transformations. This needs ambitious, interdisciplinary research calls with up to 10-year funding timelines to provide the stability needed for cutting edge international research, and working strategically across government, with FCDO, Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Department of Health and Social Care, and the Home Office for providing visas for visiting research partners.
4. Invest in inclusive, green growth
Economic development should balance ‘growth from above’ with ‘growth from below’ that is inclusive and oriented towards decent work in climate and environmentally- positive forms of investment, facilitating ‘just transitions’ and transformations towards more sustainable economies.
British International Investments (BII), for example, use significant amounts of the UK ODA budget – £1bn in India alone since 2016 – and should be directed to support and enable small and medium-sized businesses that are geared to inclusive, green growth and reducing poverty and hunger. It should be stopped from investing in wildly inappropriate investment funds, like those discovered this year by the UK aid watchdog (ICAI), including one funding a debt collection agency.
5. Build resilience amidst polycrisis
Recent years have been characterised by ‘multiple, intersecting and protracted crises. Responding to polycrises requires, in part, a focus on supporting people’s capacities and resilience to withstand and flourish amidst either or all climate, economic, epidemic or conflict-related crises.
One way this can be done is to reform the UK’s approach to humanitarian assistance. UK development should focus on integrating its work on humanitarian assistance, conflict and development, and not treat humanitarian and development separately. Both need to work towards prevention and resilience, working in local contexts with local knowledges, and not only focus on short-term crisis response.
If designed correctly, new forms of financing for disasters and crises can allow for localisation and early action, where real powers to respond are entrusted locally, and where humanitarian responses can contribute to longer-term goals of inclusive development and strengthening livelihoods.
A new UK government must also uphold and affirm the fundamental principles of humanitarian aid in conflict situations, including the protection of the UN and other agencies delivering live-saving aid, which has been sadly lacking in the war in Gaza, as one notable example.
6. Facilitate locally led solutions
IDS research shows that development transformations from the grassroots level – based on the lived-experiences, voices and knowledge of the poorest and marginalised – can be vital. It’s particularly needed to achieve progress on complex, interconnected challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, global health security and protracted conflict.
Examples of valuable bottom-up innovations ‘from the margins’ that UK development should help facilitate and learn from via international research partnerships; include, for example, waste management innovations amongst poor Indian city residents or pastoralists in the Horn of Africa living with uncertainty and adapting to climate change.
To work, this development approach, drawing on many decades of research and experience, needs to be underpinned by a commitment to co-creation of knowledge, through equitable international partnerships (point 1).
7. Strengthen multilateral cooperation and the SDGs
Lastly, it is important to acknowledge the UK’s role for convening like-minded alliances for development. This seems essential for long-term progressive change for multilateralism, and delivery on global contributions through finance. It is valuable for soft power, diplomacy, knowledge and science whilst also engaging in constructive ways, and offering a challenge when needed, to those powers (China etc) where alignment may be more difficult.
Brazil and South Africa will be critical for UK engagement amid the new BRICS+ geopolitics context for global development, and as Brazil holds the G20 Presidency this year (and hosts COP30 in 2025), and South Africa takes over the G20 Presidency for 2025.
As we approach 2030 and the endpoint for the SDGs, a new UK government should commit to the conclusion of the SDGs process and fully engage in what comes next – with a universal approach that acknowledges the world’s urgent challenges affect us all, albeit in different ways, in the UK and internationally.
