Voluntary work helping the world’s poorest countries cope with the pandemic will stop “immediately” next month under savage government cuts, an inquiry has been told.
The charity Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is preparing to wind down operations in 14 countries – and make 200 people redundant – unless ministers agree to rethink.
Its chief executive, Philip Goodwin, said there was disbelief that the UK was abandoning its long-standing reputation as “a global power” in voluntary work responding to disasters.
A Lords committee was told that funding of £47m two years ago was set to shrivel to as little as £11m from April – with the VSO still in the dark, with just days to go.
Mr Goodwin pointed to everything from supporting quarantine centres in Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia to first-aid training amid the coup in Myanmar.
“That would to stop, all of that work,” unless the grant was restored, he told peers, adding: “We would have to stop it immediately.”
The cuts are also poised to remove at least half of funding to the conflict zones of Yemen, Syria, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Nigeria and the Lebanon.
Mr Goodwin called the situation “staggering”, asking: “Why would any government want to walk away when it wants to be a soft power superpower?”
