Britain gave £82 million to Zimbabwe’s poor last year

Britain gave £82 million to support the poorest people in Zimbabwe last year but the money was not channelled through the government because of Zimbabwe’s lack of commitment to Britain’s partnership principles.

These included human rights, anti-corruption and domestic accountability, according to the Under Secretary for International Development Lynne Featherstone.

Featherstone told the British parliament on Monday that the UK, through the Department of International Development (DFID), granted £82 million to Zimbabwe between April 2012 and March 2013.

The money was channelled through multilateral organisations, including United Nations agencies, international non-governmental organisations and the private sector.

DFID aid has been abused before but Featherstone said she expected all the implementing partners to “meet high standards of financial management and accounting to achieve strong expected results, at best value for money”.

Britain’s refusal to channel its aid money through the government is reported to have robbed the Movement for Democratic Change of much needed credibility as party secretary Tendai Biti ran the Ministry of Finance.

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