What the papers say: It’s time to bin the foreign aid target

The Oxfam sex abuse scandal rumbles on, with the Times reporting that the charity knew about the questionable conduct of two men before they were posted to work in Haiti. The paper says it is time for a serious shake-up in the way in which international aid is meted out to avoid a repeat of this story. It is clear that there ‘is now a serious disconnect between the priorities set by the foreign secretary and the policies which flow from the wealthier international development department’s ability to effect change’, says the paper. This is because of DFID’s ‘much bigger budget’ – a result of the government’s ring-fenced commitment to spend 0.7 per cent on foreign aid. Boris Johnson has attempted to ‘rebuild the links’ between the two departments to ensure a closer working relationship. But there is some work to go, and it is vital that diplomats are given more of a say in the ‘money handed out by DFID’.