Last chance to reverse the UK’s shameful international aid cuts | Letters

Last chance to reverse the UK’s shameful international aid cuts | Letters

Desmond Whyms on the opportunity this weekend's G7 meeting presents for global leaders to put pressure on the British government. Plus, Henrietta L Moore on what leaders must do to genuinely 'Build Back Better'

World leaders are meeting this weekend a few miles from my home in Penzance, Cornwall, in what could be our best and last chance to reverse the UK's destructive aid cuts that followed the Foreign Office takeover of the Department for International Development last year.

Up to March of this year, I was proud to work for DfID, having spent many years supporting health systems and confronting disease in some of the most challenging settings in the world. Most recently, I was senior health adviser in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, where our support was vital to confronting Covid-19 and ensuring women can access reproductive health services. The shameful and heartbreaking prospect of having to dismantle this vital support led me to resign and seek more worthwhile employment elsewhere.