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Development charity calls for abolition of aid budgets

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 15 Nov 2010

The chief executive of a small international development charity has called on the government to drop its international aid budgets, launching an attack against ‘Big Aid’.

Andrew Cates, chief executive of SOS Children’s Villages, has suggested that the government abandon its commitment to donate 0.7 per cent of GDP to international development, and instead fund humanitarian projects overseas by leveraging public donations.

“The government should stop trying to manage international aid projects but should replace all its international aid with an additional gift aid supplement for the UK's international aid charities,” he said. “Then the giving public can decide the level and type of international aid, and both government and charities would save considerable administrative costs.”

“The public can choose charity projects which work. And if the percentage gift aid supplement is fixed at current aid levels, the responsibility of deciding what is the appropriate growth in aid falls squarely on the giving public, as it should.”

This proposal would see successful fundraising charities essentially be rewarded by government. SOS Children’s Villages itself is a mid-sized charity, earning just under £5.7m largely through voluntary contributions in 2009.

In an opinion piece published on the charity’s website Cates says that the cause of many of the economic and political injustices in the developing world is either conditional debt “or government aid, driven by some well meaning target with little real world insight”.

"‘Big Aid’ does not have a great track record. By contrast ‘little aid’ helping people on the ground as we do has a very good track record,” he writes.

Continuing on that government has no money of its own, but rather has taxpayers’ money to distribute, Cates adds: “Many people argue governments should stick to doing things which they do better than we can do ourselves. Choosing international aid projects does not seem to come into the category of things which governments naturally do well.”

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