After three years of tough negotiations, London and Bruxelles finally reached an Agreement on BREXIT. Good enough! Well, of course, there is a way to go for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who still have to face his parliament, what is already felt to be tough. Let’s wish him good luck. This is not my focus, anyway.
Some of you speak about BREXIT having in mind the political side. This is just one part, as the most important stake is economic. What I mean is that BREXIT has serious social and economic impacts. Businesses will be affected, people’s movement too, and many companies will seriously suffer tariffs.
Another important negative side of BREXIT is the serious threat it brings to the development community, and this is my focus today.
Few days ago, i read from the news that the British development and disaster relief NGO, Christian Aid , has decided to pull out from seven countries including Nepal, the Philippines, Ghana, Mali, Zambia, Bolivia, and Colombia out of its 25 offices and roll back its programs elsewhere. Dominic Brain, the head of program development and funding, explained that this decision is a direct consequence of the BREXIT, which creates a though environment for fundraising. “Our costs are rising because most of the currencies we spend in are pegged to the dollar, sometimes to the euro, rarely to the pound. So … it’s a 15-20% increase in costs over the last few years [caused by changes in the exchange rate], and that’s on an annual basis. If you’re stretched too thin and your revenue’s going down and your costs of operating are going up, you’ve got to really live within your means, so that’s what we’re having to do and it’s painful”? Brain explained to Devex.
The closure of these offices which implies the loss of up to 200 jobs, not only undermines development initiatives ongoing in these regions where people need more assistance from development community, but also it creates additional strain from both local communities to survive and other donors operating in these regions who will need to double efforts to fill-in the gap.
As Christian Aid which is representative of 41 churches in Britain and Ireland, pulls out, many other British NGOs will do so, what will implies reduction of their activities.