Is British aid reaching Burmese military companies?
Great news! Following our campaign, the Department for International Development (DFID), Britain’s aid ministry, has told its partners not to spend UK aid money on goods and services from military owned and controlled companies.
In an answer to a Parliamentary Question by Lyn Brown MP in October 2019, DFID Minister Zac Goldsmith MP stated:
“In order to prevent DFID Myanmar funds going to military owned companies we already have enhanced private sector due diligence in place. We are constantly working to strengthen this process. DFID Myanmar has recently written to its partners asking them to review their supply chains to check UK money is not being used to purchase goods and services from companies identified as military owned by the recent UN Fact Finding Mission report on Myanmar.”
We have been lobbying DFID for more than a year to ensure that British aid money does not end up in the hands of companies owned by the Burmese military. We hope that DFID will now go one step further and ensure that a condition of not sourcing from military companies is written into all future grants and loans provided by DFID.