A Changing World Order? By Lucia Ruiz Vila
Lucia graduated with honours in International Relations from University of Deusto in Spain, having done a year abroad in University of Richmond in the United States. She has recently graduated with a distinction from the MA in Conflict, Security and Development at King’s College London where she researched on transitional justice, peacekeeping, DDR and SSR, and women’s role in international security.
tic fiscal emergency”, the country’s shrinking resources should be allocated to jobs and public services, prioritizing these areas over international aid. This cut will diminish the UK’s capacity to support development programmes it has been supporting to date, causing financing issues for the development sector [3].
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The Politics behind International Development
he health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has affected governments in all imaginable ways, but perhaps one of the most remarkable has been the urgent need to rearrange national budgets in order to face the job market crisis. Economists have predicted that the job crisis resulting from the pandemic will be ten times worse than the one caused by the global financial crisis of 2008 [1]. Consequently, governments have implemented a number of policies aimed at alleviating this economic turmoil through measures such as furlough schemes. Inevitably, this has called for a great investment which might leave other policy areas facing defunding and a general lack of attention. This article will explore the consequences of international aid becoming one of those unattended policy areas. In April of 2020, the United Nations warned about the long-lasting effects of donors defunding Official Development Assistance (ODA) urged governments to “reverse the decline” in ODA trends and make sure that Less Developed Countries (LDCs), most of which are in Africa, were not being left behind [2]. This fear was not irrational, as later in the year, the United Kingdom announced that they were cutting their aid spending. In a public statement, the Chancellor of Exchequer defended that in light of the “domes 06 | KCL Geopolitical Risk Forecast Report 2021
ODA is comprised of loans and grants with low interest rates given by the “most well-off countries” to LDCs with the aim of funding development programmes through local partners [4]. The reasons why this type of public-funded aid is important are twofold: firstly, it focuses on neglected sectors that receive little funding from private investors, and secondly, it helps LDCs’ economies grow through the creation of jobs and opportunities in the development sector [5]. Whereas defunding development aid might seem a matter of solidarity - or lack thereof - this decision can have an important political risk, ultimately affecting both the credibility of the West’s humanitarian discourse as well as the present international balance of power. The Undermining of the West’s Humanitarian Discourse At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a great concern about the impact that Covid-19 could have on LDCs, especially in an Africa just recovering from Ebola. Nevertheless, while LDCs have been affected by the pandemic,
