PRESS RELEASE : UK unveils white paper to set approach to global development [November 2023]
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 20 November 2023.
The white paper, published today, sets out revolutionary approach to tackling world hunger.
The UK has today set out a re-energised approach to international development in a white paper, aimed at working with partners to tackle global challenges in the years up to 2030.
It sets out how the UK will take action alongside spending aid and put renewed focus on prioritising partnerships, mobilising international finance and driving global policy change. It also leads on harnessing science and innovation to address extreme poverty and climate change.
Under new plans, more than half of all bilateral aid will go to least developed countries and for the first time the UK will set a target for its overseas investment arm, British International Investment (BII), to make more than half of its investments in the poorest and most fragile countries by 2030.
The white paper will also set out how we will work alongside partners to strengthen and reform the international system to improve collective action on trade, tax, debt, tackling dirty money and corrupt criminals, and deliver on global challenges like health, climate, and energy transition, which will benefit everyone in the world.
It will also set up a specific resilience and adaptation fund to help developing countries better prepare for humanitarian crises – rather than just react to them.
International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell said:
We have a unique opportunity – using science, technology and innovation – to have a lasting, long-term impact on tackling hunger, poverty and climate change. The UK has a proud history of helping people in desperate need – it’s in our DNA. Tackling global challenges for the benefit of us all is the right thing to do, but it is also the smart thing to do.
This white paper will show how the UK will help to deliver the quantum leap that is urgently needed, including through mobilising international finance, to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Global Goals by 2030. We cannot close this gap through aid alone.
The white paper will set out how the UK will help make taxpayers’ money go further by combining diplomacy and development to maximise impact from our investment. An example of the white paper in action is Cavex, which the UK has invested in, and will help rural households in Africa to financially benefit from offsetting their carbon emissions by linking them up with companies in the UK and elsewhere.