Jeremy Corbyn unveils 'explicitly feminist' international aid plan
3 min read
Labour will triple funding for grassroots women's groups around the world as part of a new “explicitly feminist” international aid policy, Jeremy Corbyn will announce today.
The Labour leader will unveil a new aid roadmap with Shadow International Development Secretary Kate Osamor including a promise to reduce inequality across the planet - rather than simply ease poverty.
In a foreword to the new policy document he said aid “can do more than just reduce the worst symptoms of an unfair world”.
The plan - titled ‘a world for the many not the few’ - outlines a promise to implement “the UK’s first explicitly feminist international development policy”.
“It will aim to tackle the structural causes of gender inequality, transform gender norms and challenge patriarchy in everything that DfID does,” the document adds.
Elsewhere it says a Labour government will end support for the privatisation of public services overseas and end the investment of aid cash in fossil fuels.
It said Labour would transform the controversial ‘Conflict, Stability and Security Fund - after cash was allegedly reaching jihadist groups - into a more transparent ‘Peace Fund’.
And it said it would help countries halve the gap between the combined wealth of the top 10% and that of the poorest 40% by 2030 and close it entirely by 2040.
Mr Corbyn wrote: “The Conservatives reduce aid to a matter of charity, rather than one of power and social justice.
“Worse, they seem ever too ready to abandon our development commitments to the world’s poorest.
“This sets out our vision to build a world for the many, not the few, and to make sure everything we do tackles inequality.”
At the launch of the document later today, Ms Osamor will say: “We know the evidence that equal societies fare better on social indicators, are happier and more harmonious, and enable more sustainable economies.
“Yet we forge ahead with channelling wealth into the hands of an elite few. It is little surprise that in almost every city in the world extreme wealth and poverty now co-exist side by side.”
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Pointing directly at the recent sexual exploitation scandals that have rocked the aid sector, Ms Osamor will suggest previous Government policy led to malpractice.
“The appalling incidences of sexual exploitation that have come to light show the terrible ways in which those made powerful by aid practices can abuse their positions,” she will say.
“But they are also a sign of an aid system that has been incentivised by successive governments over many years to prioritise technocratic service delivery over the core mission of redistributing power, over challenging its abuse, and over standing on the side of communities. We all have to change that.”
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