After the rare gem of good news last week - there is much worse news this week.
DFID announces Pause on all its funding pipeline
DFID verbally contacted me in the last few days on a confidential basis, and have now posted this on their supplier portal
"Update - 1st June
The Chancellor has set out the risk that the UK economy will face a significant recession this year. All government departments are working through how their plans will need to change in the light of this. DFID is no exception. The Government's 0.7% GNI target is directly linked to the performance of the UK economy. It is right we prepare for this by working with our Ministers and other aid spending Departments to prioritise our lifesaving aid, stop the spread of coronavirus and ensure our aid delivers the best value for money as well as being firmly in the UK's own national interest. No decision has been taken, but we are considering the full range of our work. It is absolutely in Britain's interest to make the world a healthier, safer and more prosperous place, either through tackling coronavirus, providing humanitarian aid in crises or helping girls get a quality education. We keep all our aid spending under constant review. In the short term, we have paused some new decisions while we agree our future work with our Ministers while working in close cooperation with other aid spending Departments. We will set out more detail in the coming weeks."
I am meeting with Juliet Chua, DFID Director of Finance and Corporate Performance today and will update you on this thread with anything I learn. Please post questions you have about this pause announcement in this thread - but I suggest you wait for my update as there is so little detail in this announcement that there are probably too many questions right now.
What is Humentum Doing about this?
Beyond seeking urgently needed clarity, we are also making 2 constructive propositions about how DFID could do this differently from simply imposing cuts on all its partners and suppliers in a process which is likely to be time-consuming, conflictual and widely resisted. I am seeking to use the relationship we have as a constructive critical friend and adviser, to propose solutions they might consider. This could make the necessary process of cutting existing projects faster, more effective and less widely resisted by the sector and thereby enable a faster pivot to responding to COVID-19 and its secondary impacts. This is the objective we share with DFID. A brief paper outlining these is attached.
Best wishes (and please wish us some luck!)
Tim
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Tim Boyes-Watson
Global Director, Alliances & Advocacy
Humentum
tim.boyes-watson@humentum.org------------------------------