The Department for International Development (DfID) has said it is standing by its position of allocating aid “on the basis of humanitarian need regardless of race, ethnicity or religion,” despite changes to the way the US Government is implementing its aid programmes.
Earlier this month, the US Government’s aid office, USAID, said it was earmarking US$55m of its budget for “vulnerable religious and ethnic minority communities” affected by Islamic State (IS) in the Neneveh Plains of Iraq. The move followed allegations that little of the aid administered through the United Nations has reached Christian towns, and that reconstruction work there was poor in quality. Crossbench peer Lord Alton told The Tablet he endorsed USAID’s decision, adding: “It’s exactly the approach that DfID should adopt.”
A group of 12 mainly Christian NGOs, including the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, have long been lobbying DfID and the Foreign Office on the matter, arguing that their religion-blind approach was causing minorities to lose out. An 88-page report submitted by the NGOs a year ago found that “the vast majority of Christians and other ‘minorities’ avoid UNHCR camps and facilities because of continuing discrimination and persecution,” and as a result “have fared … unequally in the allocation of international aid, funding, political support, media attention, and asylum placements”. DfID, however, says it has found no evidence of discrimination or exclusion in any of its programmes.
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