Refugee crisis must not deflect us from our long-term development aims

in the week after European and African leaders met in Malta to discuss the impact of the migration and refugee crisis, it is worth underlining the fundamental importance of long-term development to alleviate such crises and make them less likely to recur.

In September, world leaders agreed on new sustainable development goals that aim for a future of peace, prosperity and dignity for all. The new global development agenda sets out how, working together, we can realise citizens’ aspirations, protect their wellbeing and preserve our planet. Poverty eradication and significant reduction of inequality are among the top goals of our common agenda.

Two months on, the prospect of achieving these goals is under threat. Proposals are being made by some major development partners in northern Europe to cut their aid budgets and to use development assistance spent in the poorest parts of the world to cover costs related to receiving refugees at home. This is in accordance with rules set at a time when costs connected to refugees were negligible, but doing it at scale is unwise.

The impact of such moves can be devastating. Disasters, conflict and climate change are serious threats to human life and our planet. Over the past two decades, we have made huge progress in reducing poverty and are on track to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, but success is still elusive. Aid plays a vital role in helping the most vulnerable countries and people manage and mitigate the risks and impacts of shocks, and in taking the steps necessary to provide a life of dignity for all. 

In the poorest countries, especially in Africa, development assistance is essential for supporting health, education, and the creation of livelihoods – without which human development and an end to poverty cannot be achieved. Aid supports poor countries’ own plans and paths to development. Tax and private investment are crucial, but cannot replace aid. Without funding, peoples’ hopes for development are imperiled. It is indeed a cruel irony that just as the hard work begins to implement the historic SDGs, the resources needed for that work are under threat.

We understand that the refugee crisis in Europe is having a profound effect on many of international development’s strongest and most stalwart partners, nations which have been in the forefront of supporting a UN-led global order and in fighting poverty. Some of these nations are proposing to reduce aid or to divert funding from Africa and from the UN to provide support for the desperate people arriving at their borders. The consequences would be dire for international development cooperation – and, on current proposals, for the UN development system, too. 

Caring for refugees and asylum seekers in Europe should not weaken support for international development cooperation; on the contrary, it underlines the urgency for alleviating poverty. The crisis can never be resolved if international development cooperation erodes. Indeed, crises are likely to worsen if humanitarian and development support is inadequate in countries mired in conflict and in their neighbours, who, in the case of the Syrian crisis, are hosting many more refugees than the numbers currently entering Europe.

While the arrival of large numbers of refugees undoubtedly requires more funding to be allocated to meet their needs, the longstanding partnerships between traditional donors and developing countries, multilateral partners, and civil society must be nurtured if poverty eradication and sustainable development overall are to be achieved.

Multilateral development and humanitarian actors and the donor community must continue to work closely together, and that work must be adequately resourced. We must aim to meet the collective promise of the sustainable development goals: to leave no one behind.