Last week, after an equality impact assessment was made public, ministers said that aid cuts would impact millions of women and girls in Africa. I am here to tell you that is not true. I am on the frontline of the work the Foreign Office says it funds and I can tell you UK aid funding to “help end female genital mutilation” (FGM) has no evidence that a penny given has actually saved a girl from FGM.
It is really hard for me to say this because I am a supporter of UK aid, but the truth is what we give has never truly achieved what it could. That’s because how we give it is discriminatory — and disorganised. Those whose lives we want to impact apparently can’t be trusted to get the money directly themselves so we create ridiculous consultant-led consortiums where local organisations are marginalised.
