UK Development Partnership Assistance

Baroness D'Souza Excerpts

Thursday 29th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness D’Souza (CB)]

My Lords, my thanks also go to the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for picking up this really important issue. I too look forward immensely to the maiden speeches.

It is generally accepted that Britain has, in the past, excelled in soft power, punching above its weight. But we live in a world of scarcity and increasing conflict, as we have heard, and the UK’s strengths in this area are diminishing due to severe budget cuts. Creative solutions are necessary to off-set the potentially adverse effects.

For many decades, the chief engines driving soft power have been fourfold: the FCDO, the British Council, the BBC World Service and diplomacy. The mechanisms for delivering what can be defined as achieving strategic international priorities through work with the public overseas include cultural exchange, cultural diplomacy and broadcasting. The UK is fortunate in having a number of different assets and channels that reinforce its soft power. However, the wide range of approaches carries the risk of strategic incoherence. A more specific risk is that the different roles and methods of all the organisations involved—often NGOs—must be thoroughly understood if their soft power programmes are to be effective and acceptable to the recipient communities.

For example, the British Council puts emphasis on the use of culture to develop a multilayered network of relations—a modus operandi that has been honed since its establishment. In more recent years, however, the British Council has been called on to deliver projects on international development. For example, by 2018, £136 million of its total FCDO grant in aid of £168 million was spent on development activities in eligible countries. This detracts from its unique soft power strengths.

The BBC World Service has a much narrower focus, in seeking to provide

“the most trusted, relevant and high quality international news in the world”.

Again, in recent years, the transfer of funding to the licence fee, although now partly reversed, has had a severe effect on the breadth of World Service coverage. Furthermore, the BBC’s impact depends on the perception of editorial independence. This has been challenged by the Government’s emphasis on the strategic importance of a given region for the UK, leading to the Government taking part in the decision-making process.

Although much of the UK’s soft power is relatively independent of government, giving it strength, the tendency has been to bring organisations and their methodologies closer to government. The FCDO’s public diplomacy board now incorporates UK Trade & Investment, DfID, the DCMS, the MoD and the DfES, among other departments. The lack of co-ordination between these bodies has resulted in a degree of competition between them and a consequent reduction in the opportunities for cultural exchange.

What remains is the outstanding issue: the urgent need for a far-reaching strategy, together with effective co-ordination between the different actors. The UK, despite its intention to become the world leader in soft power, has in fact dropped to third place, after the US and China. The answer lies not so much in massive additional funds but in a serious focus on strategic alignment of our external policies in the national interest.