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SUBMISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO THE PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE OF AID Summary and recommendation 1. We recommend that as part of your ‘philosophy and culture of aid’ inquiry that you consider prioritizing the topic of cuts to ODA-funded research. All organisations and actors within the international development sector in the UK and internationally – INGOs, academics, research programmes, diaspora – are extremely concerned about the harm caused by these cuts. 2. An inquiry would be an opportunity to assess the likely impact on both UK organisations but also our partners in the Global South, and to argue that the decision should be reconsidered. We anticipate that witnesses would raise philosophical questions about (a) the precautionary principle; for example, should international agencies commit to the prevention of severe harm in their aid and development policies? (b) the importance of UK’s aid programme to our reputation, (c) the UK’s partnerships across the world and what responsibilities these entail, (d) the importance and hierarchies of knowledge in international development, (e) what kind of policy-making creates risk in our investments (also of interest to the Public Accounts Committee). 3. We recommend that you call this inquiry – ‘Cuts to partnership, knowledge and the prevention of harm’ and ask UK universities and INGOs to encourage submissions from across the Global South. We are aware that the IDSC has been diversifying witnesses, including encouraging practitioners and researchers in countries overseas to submit evidence, as a result of your 2019 global conference co-hosted with UKRI and GCRF. We would encourage every development studies department in the UK to encourage colleagues in the Global South to submit evidence. 4. We are 1226 academics and practitioners, co-ordinated by Professor Sam Hickey, President of the Development Studies Association, with many of the signatories as members, working in partnership with research organisations across the UK, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America. Justification for this inquiry 5. We suggest this topic in response to the letter issued by the UKRI on 11th March 2021 informing UK higher education institutions that it would be reducing the allocation to UKRI ‘significantly’ in light of the UK government’s decision to abandon its Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment to 0.7% of GNP. 6. This directly contradicts government’s stated commitment to ‘science, research and technology’ as one of the key global challenges that the UK is well-placed to address. In the year that UK hosts the upcoming G7 Summit and COP26, the cuts will leave the UK out of step with global efforts to tackle grand challenges through research led initiatives. International cooperation is vital to the UK Government’s vision for the UK as a global force in research and development, acting as a powerhouse of ideas and solutions. 7. The proposed cuts will leave a £120 million hole in ODA-funded research for 2021-22. This will cause huge damage to the UK’s research base, its international partnerships and its ability to contribute to the global effort to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals. The cuts are out of all proportion to the general reduction of the ODA budget and suggest an ideological shift away from a commitment to science and evidence as the basis for UK aid and for tackling global challenges more generally. 8. The cuts undermine efforts to build international consensus and cooperation around evidence based solutions. Development problems cannot be tackled in isolation: our sustainable global future relies on international solutions to the complex challenges enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Allocating Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds to UK Research and Innovation has allowed the UK to play a major role in tackling these global challenges, including through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Newton Fund. 9. Operating through interdisciplinary partnerships with research collaborators throughout the Global South, UK development research has been a major success story, ensuring evidence-based responses to problems such as Covid-19, global health, conflict, migration and displacement, poverty and inequalities, urban transformations, gender equity, inclusive growth and youth employment, and climate and environmental justice. 10. To date, this funding has generated opportunities for researchers from the UK to work together with those in Lower and Middle Income Countries to generate lasting solutions with global reach. ODA research represents Britain at its best and allows UK researchers to work in partnership internationally across disciplines and in an equitable manner to address complex societal problems. 11. Research of this nature cannot be achieved without international partnerships that reach beyond the walls of academia into communities, industries and governmental and non-governmental organisations. These research projects have played a major role in building the capacities of research institutions from low- and middle-income countries whose role will be critical in international efforts to tackle these global challenges. 12. Collectively these funds are now working in > 100 countries involving > 2,500 researchers developing stronger relationships with the very groups with whom the UK wishes to strengthen and deepen links. This was a forward thinking, truly international outlook. The Covid-19 pandemic has evidenced the value of this integrated approach, both to the UK and to our international partners. 13. The consequences of this decision will be far-reaching and irreversible, directly undercutting one of the UK’s development research success stories of recent decades. Its impacts will be felt by some of the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised members of our global community, as well as a future generation of researchers from ODA recipient countries being trained and equipped, along with UK research institutions and partners, to tackle the major challenges faced by our world. 14. There is no systematic, logical or fair way that cuts of this magnitude and pace can be implemented, and arbitrary decisions are inevitable. UK research institutions will not be able to fulfil agreements with overseas partners who are relying on receiving the full value of agreed allocations, many of which have already been written into contracts. 15. As well as directly threatening the futures of the vulnerable and marginalised that this funding targets, the resultant abrupt termination of research projects will obliterate the hard-won trust with international development partners and governments overseas. We are already seeing this beginning to happen as a result of the very limited information that has been made public about the intention to make the cuts. 16. Relationships of trust built up over many years between UK researchers and institutions in the Global South will be damaged and the capacity of UK universities to recruit global talent severely diminished. The decision sends a message that the UK government only values equitable partnerships in the good times. The reputational damage to the UK Government and to UK researchers and research institutions will be considerable. Moreover, these cuts undermine the broader agreement between government and the university sector, which has pivoted towards the global challenges agenda and dedicated significant resources to support development research. 17. A generation of new global researchers and practitioners are now facing the prospect of the abrupt termination of contracts, and cessation of research, before they are able to produce the outputs essential to the development of their careers, jeopardising jobs both in the UK and abroad at a time of national and international crisis. 18. Importantly for the UK taxpayer, these cuts constitute extremely poor value for money. It will mean wasting resources that have been invested in a large cohort of internationally ground-breaking research projects whose key outputs, policy impacts and legacies will be seriously undermined by these cuts. 19. We deplore the short-term view of this research funding, that has created an unprecedented decision to shut down and ‘reprofile’ approved and competitively- funded projects. This is an action from which it will take years to recover in terms of broken relationships of trust and collaboration, research infrastructure, and impact engagement. 20. We call for an immediate reversal of this decision, maintaining this opportunity for the UK to sustain its profile in leading research to tackle global challenges. Professor Samuel Hickey, Chair of the Development Studies Association, University of Manchester Professor David Hulme OBE, University of Manchester Professor Emma Crewe, SOAS, University of London Professor Jonathan Goodhand, SOAS, University of London Professor John Morton, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich Dr Irene Guijt, Oxfam Great Britain Professor Alfredo Saad Filho, King's College London Professor Andrea Cornwall, SOAS Professor Michael Walls, UCL Professor Diego Sanchez-Ancochea, University of Oxford Dr Grace Carswell, University of Sussex Professor Peter Newell, University of Sussex Dr Julie Litchfield, University of Sussex Professor Michael Collyer, University of Sussex Professor Adrian Martin, University of East Anglia Professor Nitya Rao, University of East Anglia Professor Laura Camfield, School of International Development