LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The British government has been accused of “betraying” women and girls after a leaked report revealed the negative consequences of its aid cuts.
The equalities assessment report, which was completed months before the government announced which aid programmes would be cut in September, cautioned that a reduction in aid would have a significant effect on programmes for vulnerable groups, such as women and persons with disabilities.
According to the research, the cuts will impact assistance for women and girls who have been sexually abused, as well as girls’ education and efforts to improve gender equality. It cautioned that the magnitude of financial reduction will have an impact on the bulk of social security programmes designed for helping the most marginalised and poorest.
The fact that the chair of International Development Committee (IDC), Sarah Champion said that she had to invoke parliamentary privilege for making the report public was “appalling”. For nearly a year, she claimed, the administration had prevented the committee from scrutinising the report.
It appears that ministers withheld access to the equalities assessment to avoid the humiliation of admitting that their own assistance cuts damaged the government’s fundamental development goal: to support women and girls, Champion added.
She made a final appeal in parliament for publishing the report before it was posted on the IDC website on Tuesday, International Women’s Day.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, rejected.
The aid budget for women and girls is being restored to former levels, as well as the humanitarian relief budget,” Truss said. “However, the equality impact assessments are not made public because it chills people’s ability to be honest internally, ” Truss said.
Champion stated that this was false, pointing out that the government had issued comparable findings on Covid policy.
The government has put lives at danger by not publishing the report, according to Stephanie Draper, CEO of Bond, a UK international development network.
It’s disappointing that the negative impact of assistance cuts on women and girls was known before they occurred – and that nothing was done,” Draper added.
“NGOs and our partners could have avoided risks to programmes protecting women and girls from gender-based violence and delivering clean water to marginalised areas if this study had been made public a year ago.”
Plan International UK’s chief executive, Rose Caldwell, branded the government’s actions “shameful.”
She declared that this was a betrayal of girls and women around the world.Â
To add salt to injury, it was only known about this now because of an MP’s legal immunity, rather than in response to multiple letters and requests from MPs, peers, and civil society. This lack of transparency is intolerable, and it shows that the government sought to keep these facts hidden, she added.
