The Labour Party’s plan for government builds on our values and our proud history as a movement. The last Labour government created the U.K. Department for International Development, and through it, provided the global leadership to agree and fund the Millennium Development Goals.
We are proud of our achievements. We canceled debt, trebled the aid budget, untied aid, brokered ambitious deals on trade and climate change, and lifted millions of people out of poverty. We also set the U.K. on track to be the first country in the G-7 to reach the target of spending 0.7 percent of gross national income on aid.
Under Prime Minister David Cameron, DfID has lost its way. It has become the charitable arm of government and its reputation has slipped from global innovator to aid administrator.
Read more on the #FutureofDfID:
● UK #GE2015: The moment of truth for DfID?
● DfID to increase trade role in future — Greening
● As long as there's extreme poverty, there's a need for DfID
● DfID is changing — but is it changing fast enough?
● Debate on the future of aid ‘makes me worry’
● Time to recognize private sector role in UK aid
● DfID's importance 'shouldn’t be understated'
About the author
Mary Creagh
First elected as MP in 2005, Mary has been Labour’s shadow secretary of state for international development since November 2014. She is leading Labour’s campaign to re-establish the U.K. as a global leader in development, prioritizing the agreement of the sustainable development goals to drive forward development and eradicate extreme poverty in the next 15 years. Before Parliament, Mary taught entrepreneurship at Cranfield University’s School of Management and spent four years in Brussels working for an international NGO.
