Baroness Nicholson: foreign aid has no economic benefit for Britain

World Finance speaks to Baroness Nicholson to discuss whether foreign aid has any economic benefit for Britain, and those who receive it

December 17, 2014
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Transcript

World Finance: I just want to ask your opinion on foreign aid, because it’s very big in the news at the moment, especially following Osborne’s Autumn statement. So what do you make of the government dedicating so much money to this?
Baroness Nicholson: Aid is incredibly important when there is a real immediate crisis, but in the long run the golden thread of aid should lead rapidly through development, through trade and business. You want to stop people being victims as fast as possible, get them up on their feet again, get them competitive. Get them in a position where they can work and buy their own services, like you and I can.

[A]id is important, but it is by no means the end of the story

So, aid is important, but it is by no means the end of the story, and looking back on the past few decades, I think the weakness has been that people have taken aid as both the front and the back line of everything. What has that done? It’s enable millions of people to remain as refugees, in an utterly squalid, desperate existence.

I don’t like anybody to be a refugee or a displaced person. I want them to be up and running again, and to be as competitive, hopefully more successful than all the rest of us.

World Finance: Do you think foreign aid is of any benefit to Britain’s economy?
Baroness Nicholson: I’ve never seen foreign aid as benefitting the UK at all, except in terms of soft power. I believe that Britain gets a lot of credit from the United Nations for example, for being one of the biggest donors in the globe to UN funds. But I don’t think it benefits Britain in any other way.