Labour criticise Coalition’s aid plans and Ebola response

Mary Creagh, Shadow International Development Secretary, has attacked the Government for reducing aid going to Sierra Leone and Liberia prior to the outbreak of Ebola.

She said that although the Government has said it will give £230 million to help combat the Ebola epidemic, the Department for International Development (DfID) had failed to invest in health care systems in countries across West Africa. Creagh explained:

“This government had cut money in Sierra Leone and Liberia prior to the Ebola outbreak: penny wise; pound foolish. How much have we put into Sierra Leone now – £230m? Way more than we were doing beforehand as bilateral aid. If we had worked to build a health system, it would have been an early investment, and early money is like yeast: it grows and you get a better return on your investment.”

She said they must learn from these mistakes and begin helping people in countries like the Central African Republic and South Sudan and condemned DfID’s decision to end bilateral aid going to Burundi.

Creagh argued:

“We need to focus on fragile states and countries that have been affected by conflict because, increasingly, that is where the poorest people in the world are living.

“That is the hard part of development; that’s the stuff that isn’t easily accounted for. You’re working in very difficult areas with difficult people and, in some cases, traumatised communities. But we’ve seen the amount of spending on those areas reduced under this government.”