Foreign aid worth £735M is ‘squandered on funding studies into jazz’

British foreign aid has been squandered on funding studies into jazz and Roman statues, a damning report has revealed.

A watchdog said there was ‘reason to doubt’ whether a fund to distribute £735million of international development money was reducing global poverty.

Some of the taxpayers’ cash has been directed to projects benefiting some of the world’s biggest economies including China, a superpower with a space programme.

Nearly a quarter of spending from the Newton Fund, a body managed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), went on student fellowships.

These included £110,000 for a biography of the Boer leader Paul Kruger, £98,810 for a Brazilian student to examine the role of divine images in the work of the Roman intellectual and politician Cicero, and £72,816 on postgraduate studies of jazz in South Africa.

A report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) found that nearly 90 per cent of the money, which is classified as overseas aid, remained in the UK.

The farce raises fresh questions about the Government’s cast-iron pledge to spend at least 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid, which was introduced by David Cameron despite fierce opposition from backbenchers. 

The Daily Mail has long highlighted how British aid money has been wasted on gimmicks or fallen into the hands of the corrupt. In April, we reported that the bloated aid budget rose by almost £500million last year to reach a record £14.5billion – doubling in a decade.

Each UK household now pays an average of £535 a year for overseas development – more than £10 every week.

Tina Fahm, the ICAI commissioner who led the review, said: ‘I have no doubt the Newton Fund could be a potentially effective use of UK development aid.

‘However, urgent improvements need to be made to ensure the fund focuses more on reducing poverty and advancing development for the poorest people in the poorest countries.’

She said the ICAI was concerned about the standard of checks on whether the fund’s projects meet aid rules.

The fund was originally planned as a business project to promote Britain by collaborating on research and innovation with middle-income countries, such as Brazil, Mexico and India. But in 2013 ministers decided that its entire spending would count towards the aid target.

Researchers have spent nine months reviewing the fund’s spending, surveying all 17 partner countries. They found that almost none of the grants examined gave strong benefits to institutions in poorer nations – beyond enhancing the university careers of individual students. The £735million is being spent between 2014 and 2021.

A spokesman for BEIS said: ‘The Newton Fund is at the forefront of lifesaving research helping the world’s poorest people.

‘This report recognises the fund’s global reputation for strong research partnerships with developing countries to tackle challenges they face.’

A Department for International Development spokesman said: ‘All UK aid must meet international guidelines on what constitutes overseas development assistance.’