Proposal from the Development Engagement Lab – Understanding public opinion on overseas aid (500 words)

Molly Anders, Soomin Oh, David Hudson, Jennifer Hudson, Danielle Beswick

In her first major speech as Minister for Development, delivered at Chatham House on 17 October 2024, Anneliese Dodds outlined her ambitious new vision for international development, in which she also emphasised the importance of ‘restoring the confidence of the British people in how we use their money, and encourage those who take confidence when the UK shows leadership.’ In the spirit of her commitment and the British public’s historic generosity in the face of global crises, we at the Development Engagement Lab, a team of researchers based at UCL and the University of Birmingham, propose that the IDC conduct an enquiry examining what the British people want and expect from UK aid. This inquiry would draw evidence from key stakeholders, including research organisations like DEL, as well as the overseas aid community – including the UK government’s aid delivery partners – as well as officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, academics, and public-facing advocacy organisations, to better understand the British public’s engagement and support for overseas aid. Topics could include:

• To what extent does the British public support giving aid in the national interest, as opposed to the mutual or moral interest?
• What types of need (humanitarian crises, education, climate change mitigation, water and sanitation, helping women and girls, etc.) do the public believe the UK should prioritise in aid spending?
• Are the public supportive of international development spending targets?
• How important to the public is collaboration and partnership with local aid organisations in partner countries in the Global South?
• To what extent do the public respond to evidence of aid’s value for money, and/or transparency in aid programmes?
• Is public engagement with international development moveable, and what are the most proven routes for attitudinal or behavioural change?

Such an inquiry would not only shed light on the concerns and interests of arguably one of the greatest stakeholders in overseas aid – the British taxpayer – it would serve as an opportunity to sense-check the government and aid community’s own responsiveness to the public interest, as well as its capacity for taking up both new and established insights in order to improve public engagement with and understanding of international development. The latest DEL data, conducted via YouGov and which can speak to many of the questions above, show that 44% of the British public currently support maintaining or increasing the overseas aid budget, compared with those who think we should decrease aid (42%) and those who ‘don’t know’ (11%). Support for aid currently stands at its second lowest since tracking began in 2019. That said, historical data shows that public aid support saw its largest spike – from 43% to 53% in June 2021 – when MPs staged a bipartisan and public-facing campaign following the government’s decision to end the 0.7% commitment. This incident demonstrates the clear role the sector and government can play in harnessing public engagement with overseas aid, and presents an opportunity for those in control of taxpayer pounds to do as Minister Dodds suggests, and ‘demonstrate we are listening.’

Requested information about submitter (not included in word count)

• Have you ever engaged with Parliament before (e.g. made a submission to a select committee)?
• Yes – please provide more detail (max 20 words)
• No

Yes.

Hudson gave evidence to the IDC in the 2008-09 Session. ‘Aid Under Pressure’. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmintdev/179/17902.htm

Beswick was a Parliamentary Academic Fellow, seconded part-time to the House of Commons International Development Committee from 2018-2020. During this posting she researched knowledge production and advised on witness diversity, focusing on how the Committee can get beyond its ‘usual suspects’ when taking evidence.

• Do you have personal or field experience related to international development issues?
• Yes (max 20 words) – The Development Engagement Lab is a research organisation tasked with building an evidence base for public engagement with overseas aid.

• If you are invited to pitch your idea to the Committee, would you be able to travel to London and back within the same day?
• Yes