Sam Hughes
@samhugh3s.bsky.social
Researcher at the Center for Global Development, focused on UK development policy. Interests in economic development & poverty alleviation, economic & intellectual history, philosophy of progress. Christian.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer just cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027 to fund increases in defence spending. He says he’s making tough choices, but cutting funding for the world’s poorest people is the easiest—and cruellest—choice he could make (1/4)
NEW: @ianmitchell1.bsky.social & @samhugh3s.bsky.social find a 1 year US aid freeze could trigger an economic shock of 1% of GNI in 23 economies—with 8 countries, incl. South Sudan, Somalia & Ethiopia, facing a devastating 3%+ hit. Which other countries could step up? www.cgdev.org/blog/which-c...
Which Countries Are Most Exposed to US Aid Cuts; And What Other Providers Can Do
While it is still unclear how long the current freeze on US foreign aid will last, and when and where it might resume, it seems the US, under the second Trump administration, may be ready to abandon i...
cgdev.org
Letting Asylum Seekers Work Is Not a “Pull Factor” - why do politicians get away with repeating the evidence-free argument? www.cgdev.org/blog/letting...
Letting Asylum Seekers Work Is Not a “Pull Factor”
In many countries new asylum seekers are not allowed to work for a certain period of time after arriving. The UK has one of the longest such periods: 12 months. Many claim that letting asylum seekers ...
cgdev.org
Our new blog highlights how abnormal is the current Gov's policy of using the limited foreign aid budget to fund support for asylum seekers within the UK. Before 2014, nearly no UK asylum seeker support was funded via aid, even when it faced spikes in applicants similar to today's (eg around 2000).
Ian Mitchell@ianmitchell1.bsky.social · 2y agoNearly 30% of UK aid is spent on refugees in the UK. But what happened in past refugee spikes? We find if Blair & Brown had taken the current approach, the UK would have spent zero on overseas aid in some years. A 🧵 on new @cgdev.org analysis w/ @samhugh3s.bsky.social:
"The Centre for Global Development (CGD), a think-tank, reckons that if Britain had classified asylum spending the same way in the 1990s and 2000s, and had spent as much as it does today per asylum-seeker, in some years the entire aid budget would have been swallowed up."
Ian Mitchell@ianmitchell1.bsky.social · 2y ago"Foreign-aid fiddle" Great to see the @economist.com highlight the UK's misuse use of aid (inc some of our @cgdev.org work w/ @samhugh3s.bsky.social ) economist.com/britain/2024...
