What can’t DFID fund under the 2002 Act?
• Assistance provided primarily for purposes other than furthering sustainable development or promoting the welfare of people is not permissible even where poverty reduction is a secondary effect. So a policy of Aid Tying – where the primary purpose is to gain contracts for UK suppliers – would be unlawful. A conservation project whose main beneficiaries were, say, gorillas rather than humans would fall outside the powers of the Act, though if the project were redesigned with the primary purpose of generating economic benefits for the inhabitants of the region – through increased tourism or the preservation of essential resources – it could be lawful. Money given to failed asylum seekers for the primary purpose of encouraging them to leave the UK would be unlawful, but not assistance to displaced persons to return to their home country with the purpose of contributing to the development of that country.
