Funding Development
IPN Letters
Sir, We are amused to see the TUC response (letter, Jan 12) to Carl Mortished’s article (“TUC gets millions from government foreign aid pot" Jan 11), citing the policies of George W. Bush to justify its grant. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Our report, A Closer Union, explains that the TUC is receiving £2.4 million over three years from a fund for large aid NGOs that actually work in poor countries.
Until recently, the Department for International Development (DfID) itself considered the TUC an organisation “for whom international development is not their main focus”.
A large part of DfID funds to the TUC were actually spent on education and advocacy work within the UK — not much “development” and not very “international.”
DfID has not explained why the TUC deserves money from this Partnership Programme Arrangement fund. It seems to have been arranged behind closed doors, not by competitive, transparent tender.
It is time for an investigation into not only this specific DfID-TUC grant but all funding of non-governmental organisations.
Caroline Boin, Julian Harris and Andrea Marchesetti
International Policy Network
London EC4
