Report for Global Justice Now (December 2017) The UK government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) raises all kinds of questions about the future of UK aid, the nature of the UK’s relations with states abusing human rights and the government’s openness with the public. Established in 2015, the CSSF is a £1 billion annual […]
Topic: Development
DFID yesterday published its Economic Development Strategy.[1] There’s a lot of fine-sounding rhetoric in the document and, on paper, it contains some progressive policies in the area of traditional foreign aid. But these are completely overshadowed by the UK’s global economic priorities which remain (in fact, are increasingly) neo-liberal and which are completely at odds […]
By Mark Curtis Published in the Huffington Post, 6 December 2016 A picture is emerging of likely British trade and aid policies towards developing countries after Brexit. That picture is just as disturbing as two other likely consequences of Brexit that I detailed in my previous article – a deepening of relations with authoritarian regimes […]
Report written by Mark Curtis for Global Justice Now. To read the PDF version go here. November 2016 Since the EU referendum on 23 June, many people have theorised on what the consequences for British foreign policy might be. Some have stressed the dangers, others the opportunities. Nearly six months on, a picture is gradually […]
Published in the Huffington Post, 26 July 2016 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control […]
Report for Global Justice Now Britain’s overseas aid programme is being reconfigured to promote the privatisation of education and health in developing countries. The Department for International Development (DFID) has become the world’s leading donor in spearheading a push for profit making companies to manage and deliver schooling and health care in Africa and Asia. […]
Report for the World Development Movement (May 2013) This briefing, based on research commissioned by the World Development Movement, outlines the role played by British companies in controversial energy projects in developing countries. It shows the nexus of interests, and revolving door, between these companies and former and current civil servants and Ministers. Many British […]
Report for War on Want (December 2012) This report shows that hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money is being used to promote projects designed to benefit some of the world’s richest agribusiness corporations and to extend their control over the global food system. DFID is at the centre of an intricate nexus […]
British mining companies are abusing human rights all over the world at the same time as making record profits and exploring new ‘frontiers’ in territories plagued by conflict. A report I’ve just authored for the NGO, Want on Want, documents the impacts of large-scale mining on communities in twenty countries. London is the centre of […]
Guardian, 3 August 2007 It all has a depressingly familiar ring. The fingerprints of a British mining company are found to be all over abuses around the world. And again, there are high-level connections with the government. Enervated readers might be tempted to follow the lead of Gordon Brown, who is allowing it all to happen. […]