Rory Stewart: UK 'on borrowed time' in Africa since aid cuts

The United Kingdom’s relationship with African countries is “on borrowed time” since the country’s aid budget cuts, according to Rory Stewart, who served as International Development Secretary in 2019 and as a minister focused on the continent from 2017 to 2018.

“It's not very long since the [aid] budget was cut,” Stewart told Devex, speaking before the government failed to make a pledge to the Global Fund during its Sept. 21 replenishment.

“So there's still a belief that FCDO maybe is DFID. And the individual countries haven't sort of joined the dots, they're still hoping. … But if it continues much longer, [the U.K.] will lose its position in Africa very rapidly. And that's heartbreaking,” he added. While the Department for International Development was widely renowned for its expertise with aid programs, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has struggled with the concept since its inception as a department in 2020, largely because of the aid cuts and a different culture to DFID.

Since leaving government after losing the 2019 campaign to become the leader of the Conservative Party and refusing to work for the winner, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Stewart has continued to advocate for international development and a return to an aid budget of 0.7% of gross national income.

Stewart recently became chief executive of GiveDirectly, an NGO focused on cash transfer programming. The role has seen him travel across Africa, where much of the organization’s work takes place.

On the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, Stewart suggested on Twitter that “We should commemorate the Queen’s service and commitment to Britain internationally in a way that changes lives. Let’s create a Queen’s Development Agency charged with spending at least 0.7 % of British GDP in the most practical + flexible support for the world’s very poorest.”

The U.K. aid cuts, which have decimated FCDO budgets across the continent and beyond, risked “squandering” the opportunity created by the “really interesting” Africa strategy published in January 2017, several months before Stewart became minister for Africa. He said the strategy was “respectful, it was thoughtful, it was really exciting to African leaders.”

The U.K. “really mattered” in Africa, said Stewart. As minister, he had a budget “to the tune of five or six billion pounds a year. … It justified our position on the U.N. Security Council because I was chairing the meetings on South Sudan. I was chairing meetings in Somalia, and we had equity on the ground.”

“As a junior minister, I think I met 12 African heads of state, because Britain mattered, really mattered and I had serious resources,” he added.

Stewart also saw a geopolitical advantage for the U.K.’s continued engagement in Africa. During her stint as foreign secretary, now Prime Minister Liz Truss made confronting China a key aspect of her foreign policy outlook and said the aid budget should be used to challenge “malign actors.”

“If we are to be serious about balancing China and Russia and Africa, which I think is a really important strategic priority,” Stewart told Devex, “Britain is much better thinking about how it can balance China in places like Africa than trying to confront China directly in the South China Sea. And to do that, we need money. And we had money.”