What are the implications of the United Kingdom's referendum on EU membership for international development? Kevin Watkins, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, addresses that question in a two-part contribution to Devex. Today, we publish Part I, which looks at development assistance.
The battle lines in the United Kingdom’s long-drawn out referendum debate have become wearyingly familiar. Advocates for Brexit raise concerns over sovereignty, the dead hand of Brussels, and the place of Europe in Britain’s foreign policy. The “Remain” camp responds with a relentless tide of economic forecasts warning of lost opportunities for economic growth and jobs, and highlighting, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the importance of EU membership for global influence.
In a debate that has taken in Hitler, regulations on bananas, house prices, pensions and terrorist threats, one issue has received scant attention. International development has barely figured in the salvos of either side.
About the author
Kevin Watkins
Kevin Watkins is the chief executive of Save the Children UK. He joined the Overseas Development Institute as executive director in June 2013. He is a former nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, and was previously director and lead author of the U.N.'s Human Development Report And the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Before joining the U.N., he worked for 13 years at Oxfam. He is a visiting professor of international development at the London School of Economics and senior visiting fellow at Oxford University's Global Economic Governance Program.
