MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New “marketing” for British overseas aid

“UKaid”, a change of logo, a change to raise public awareness

Britain’s overseas aid is to be re-branded in a bid to raise public awareness at home and abroad and help maintain support for spending during the downturn. The Department for International Development (DFID) will use the name “UKaid” for its funding of projects in the world's poorest countries following concerns raised by Parliament.

It is among a raft of measures concerning the future direction of the Government's aid spending to be unveiled in a White Paper by Secretary of State Douglas Alexander this Monday.

The move was welcomed by development agency ActionAid which said the “DFID” acronym was meaningless to many people. The US operates under the name USAID.

Action Aid's UK Director Richard Miller said: “The UK has a good track record on the quality of its aid and the public needs to be aware of the good that aid can do.

”If the logo helps increase understanding of and solidarity with communities tackling poverty and injustice in the developing world, that can only be a good thing and empowering for all concerned.

“The acronym DFID in itself is fairly meaningless unless you already know what it stands for. Let’s face facts: aid money is tax payers’ money and there should be clarity. UKaid is transparent and obvious. It does what it says on the can.”

He said the new name would have to be used sensitively in some areas to avoid undermining “local ownership” of projects but said he understood guidelines had been agreed.

A name change was recommended last month in a report from the House of Commons International Development Select Committee, which suggested “British Aid” or “DFID UK”. The change to a new name would heighten awareness of DFID's work among voters in the UK and aid recipients overseas, said the cross-party committee.

A survey for the cross-party committee found that 54% of people questioned in the UK had never heard of DFID, while even local people benefiting from one of the department's projects in Kenya told the MPs they did not know what it was.