Farah Nazeer, Deputy Director of Advocacy at ActionAid UK, responds to the International Development Committee’s interim report on the effectiveness of UK aid.
"ActionAid UK strongly supports the Committee’s interim report. The recommendations recognise the strength of an independent DFID as well as the need to ensure all UK aid is spent transparently, with accountability, and is focused on poverty reduction.
"It is also vital, as the report recommends, that proper parliamentary scrutiny is applied to all UK aid.
"However, Covid-19 is a case in point that crises have acutely gendered impacts - unfortunately women and girls in the world's poorest countries are bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
"More generally, in a year that we were supposed to see an augmentation of women’s rights, we have seen them rolled back instead.
"It is therefore critical that the Government maintains a priority focus on gender equality overseas. It must work with civil society and women’s rights organisations to ensure all UK aid, during this crisis and beyond, works to protect women’s hard-fought rights."
For any queries, please contact Frankie Harrington (frankie.harrington@actionaid.org).