{"id":804,"date":"2021-07-15T08:13:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/?p=10516"},"modified":"2021-07-15T08:13:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:13:09","slug":"statement-on-uk-international-development-spending-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=804","title":{"rendered":"Statement on UK International Development spending cut"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Untitled-design-7.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>The decision to renege on the UK\u2019s international development commitment is unfair, unwise and immoral. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The UK Aid programme plays a vital role in helping to tackle poverty and support sustainable development in the poorest places in the world. The shrinking economy in 2020 already meant that the international development budget would be reduced, and cutting this further by reducing the target from 0.7% to 0.5% has been devastating for many vital and necessary programmes. Plans to provide people with clean water and sanitation have been put on hold, programmes to support women in family planning have been savaged, and the UK\u2019s contribution to combat neglected tropical diseases has been slashed. Under the strict criteria set for a return to the 0.7%, the \u00a34bn cut in annual funding is likely to be perpetuated year on year. This decision will undoubtedly cost many lives.<\/p>\n<p>Other major economies have shown leadership during the pandemic by increasing their international development programmes. The UK government\u2019s cut in international development stands in contrast to its recent announcement of the largest programme of spending on defence since the end of the Cold War. As those called to love our neighbours as ourselves in an interconnected world, we regard yesterday\u2019s vote as heartless and self-defeating.<\/p>\n<p><em>Lynn Green, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Revd Sonia Hicks, President of the Conference of the Methodist Church<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mr Peter Pay and Revd Clare Downing, Moderators of General Assembly, United Reformed Church<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&lt;!&#8211;<br \/>\n&#8211;&gt;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/statement-on-uk-international-development-spending-cut\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decision to renege on the UK\u2019s international development commitment is unfair, unwise and immoral. The UK Aid programme plays a vital role in helping to tackle poverty and support sustainable development in the poorest places in the world. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=804\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urc-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}