Can you keep a promise? Spending 0.7% effectively on aid

Is aid money spent effectively? Does the UK give enough money towards international development? Do we give too much? These are some of the questions raised at a recent JustShare debate. Watch video clips of the panellists in action and tell us your point of view.

Progressio's Director Christine Allen goes head to head with Michael Green (Author of Philanthrocapitalism) to debate aid effectiveness and whether or not 0.7% of GDP is a useful target for UK spending on International Development. The debate was hosted by JustShare and was chaired by Revd Alison Warner.

Watch a video of Christine Allen speaking on aid effectiveness at St Mary-le-bow.

JustShare's event report minutes the action: "We were delighted to welcome two expert panellists for this wide-ranging discussion on whether 0.7% of GDP is a useful target for DfID spending, and more broadly about the effectiveness of aid in its various guises anyway.

Christine Allen welcomed the 0.7% target as a sign of commitment to international development but also noted that the quality of aid was important, not just quantity. NGOs need to work with local communities and be accountable to them as well as to donors.

Michael Green argued that the 0.7% target was a distraction. He suggested that we were not always able to spend the current aid budget effectively and wondered whether more money alone was the answer.

Watch a video of Michael Green putting forward his point of view

Both speakers noted that when the public are asked how much they think we spend on aid, people say 5% or 10% - they don’t realise it’s so low that we have not even met the 0.7% target promised nearly 40 years ago. However, whether the public has an appetite for increasing aid spending is not clear.

Michael argued that aid is too politicised and it would be much more effective to merge DfID and the Foreign Office again!

Audience Q&A explored that proposal further and there was also discussion of the relationship between capital and NGOs; - the investment of capital is needed but large corporations were often part of the problems as well as potentially part of the solution."

Watch a video of the Question & Answer session and why not tell us what you think?