UK foreign secretary strengthens his push for aid reform

David Lammy, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, has once again spoken of the need for aid reform, saying that African leaders are fed up with “ping-pong” funding that begins under one government and is canceled under the next. Lammy first proposed in March that the U.K. should host a conference on development reform to bring together key players in the global north. At a meeting of the International Development Committee of the U.K. Parliament earlier this week, he reiterated those calls. “It was always going to be the case that development needed reform,” he said. “That is not just reform here in the United Kingdom, but reform across the family of nations that we largely describe as the West. And clearly, the U.N. system requires reform. “Clearly, changes to the United States’ posture on aid have forced that reform; clearly, when you see Germany cutting humanitarian aid by 53%, Belgium cutting aid by 25% over five years, France cutting aid by 36% and Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland all cutting aid, the system requires reform. I wish we had been in government three or four years ago and leading that reform, but we were not.” He suggested that African leaders were not prioritizing development in their conversations. “I was with President Ruto [of Kenya] just two weeks ago,” he said. “He is not raising development with me. In fact, when they do raise development, they say, ‘We are sick of the ping-pong in Western democracies: one government comes in and takes one approach; another government comes in and takes a different one.’ They say, ‘We want trade, investment, jobs — the same things you want in your poorest constituencies.’ That is what they say to us.” Lammy was pressed on whether his government intended to continue a long-standing commitment to prioritize aid that supports women and girls, but said he was in the middle of a “line-by-line” review of aid priorities and could not promise to uphold the promises of the previous Conservative government. Separately, Lammy had strong words for the current state of aid in Gaza, describing it as “abominable” and “unconscionable.” He described the treatment of aid workers as “horrendous” and condemned Israeli proposals for a “humanitarian city” in Gaza — seen by many as code for a concentration camp.