CBM UK urges Government to ensure the poorest and most marginalised continue to get a look in

CBM UK has grave concerns that the UK’s recent progress to include the world’s most marginalised and excluded people will be reversed through the new foreign affairs strategy and the dissolution of the Department for International Development (DfID).

The upcoming merger of DfID with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) under the leadership of the National Security Council (NSC) creates a number of risks. The government is set to prioritise national interest and security in all aspects of UK foreign policy, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever that the UK is only as strong as the weakest health system globally – emphasising the importance of development support across the world in protecting global stability and saving lives during a crisis. It makes little sense in the middle of a global pandemic to risk the vital work on developing a global vaccine and improving sanitation in poor places that DfID is championing.

With the loss of independent cabinet level responsibility for aid and development there is also a risk that poverty alleviation will be de-prioritised and aid securitised, posing a threat to the use of official development assistance (ODA) to reach the world’s poorest and most marginalised, including people with disabilities.

CBM UK is especially concerned that DfID’s valuable work to ensure that the world’s most marginalised people – including people with disabilities, women and girls, older people – are not left behind through changes to UK government priorities and delivery structures.

The Government cannot have an ethical foreign policy without including those most left behind.

The UK’s new integrated foreign policy, which will be implemented by the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), must be ethical with a commitment to peace and justice for all. Aid and development interventions and humanitarian action are essential components of the policy but must remain politically neutral and reach those most in need, including people with disabilities who are among the poorest and most marginalised people in the world.

Alongside the risks there are, however, opportunities from the newly merged entity and within an integrated policy approach. The integration of development and foreign policy offers an opportunity for all foreign policy to increasingly incorporate development aims, in particular those that promote the rights of people with disabilities.

CBM UK is calling on the Government and new department to take the following action:

• Develop a strong leave no one behind and inclusion stream across all work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, marking objectives against the SDGs.
• Require a disability and mental health impact assessment across all diplomatic, defence, development and trade decisions. These should identify benefits or risks of UK action overseas to people with disabilities and mental health conditions in relevant countries.
• Deliver existing strategies and commitments to people with disabilities, including DfID’s Disability Inclusion Strategy and delivery plan and Global Disability Summit commitments.
• Capitalise on the pooled capabilities within the new department and build the inclusion expertise of staff across all foreign policy areas.
• Ensure robust accountability, scrutiny and transparency mechanisms across government and Parliament for aid spending and implementation of inclusion policies and the leave no one behind agenda.

Image: Ezekiel gives his grandson Kuda a ride in his new wheelchair provided by CBM, at his home in Zimbabwe. ©CBM/Hayduk