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Obstacles to progress

Distortions

Our evidence suggests that CDC has often pursued high financial returns over genuine
development impact, and that CDC fundamentally confuses 'development' with simply

promoting a highly financialised version of capitalism, with all the inequality and
throwing of costs onto wider society that entails.
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CDC continues to be driven by the view that privatisation is likely to reduce poverty. There

is little evidence that this trickle-down approach is effective at tackling poverty; instead
privatisation often leads to widening inequalities.
Moreover, CDC's approach of investing in private sector education and healthcare in the

global south has undermined and crowded out public services. The Independent
Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) has argued that a "mutual prosperity" approach to

development risks diverting aid "away from the poorest and marginalised"
***
There is little to no evidence that CDC is making an impact in terms of tackling poverty,
providing genuinely additional resources or making effective use of government

resources
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CDC funds continue to make extensive use of tax havens.
Of the companies and private equity funds in which CDC owns more than 20%, two-thirds
are based in tax havens. CDC claims, with only partial justification, that this is to avoid
'double taxation' on investments. However, no progress seems to have been made on

ensuring that the funds and companies in which CDC invests genuinely pay appropriate
levels of taxation.

***
In 2019, an ICAI review gave CDC an Amber/Red rating ("Unsatisfactory achievement in

most areas, with some positive elements. An area where improvements are required for
UK aid to make a positive contribution"). “

"Doing more harm than good : Why CDC must reform for people and planet" 317
Global Justice (February 2020)

*****

The potential for humanitarian Aid to extend Conflict
“ The world's humanitarian aid organizations may do more harm than good, argues Linda

Polman
In Sierra Leone, I realized that the rebel soldiers who had been hacking off people's

hands and feet, they actually could explain to me how to manipulate the aid