GIVING evidence to the parliamentary International Development Committee in March, Sir Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary from 2010 to 2012, recalled a golden era in which Britain was “leading” the sector. Despite austerity, public support for international development had increased during this time. A commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) on aid was enshrined in law.
It is an era that Nigel Harris, who became chief executive of Tearfund in 2015, recalls well. “We’d just come off the back of the Millennial Development Goals, we were looking at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, there was a huge amount of excitement about that,” he says. Fast forward ten years and, due to leave his position at Tearfund, he describes a “particularly demanding” time for the sector. Wealthy governments are reducing their funding dramatically — down to 0.3 per cent of GNI in the UK — and only 17 per cent of the SDGs are on track.
Tearfund has not been immune from the sector’s challenges. Last year, it confirmed that redundancies had formed part of a “strategic restructure”, after a shortfall in unrestricted income (News, 28 June 2024). Yet, as Mr Harris leaves, he is confident that the organisation is “in God’s hands. We have seen God provide over 57 years for this charity, in all sorts of amazing ways. We see extraordinary generosity form people who have walked with us for many years.” The past year has been “very encouraging” in terms of unrestricted giving, he says.
His answer reflects an unashamed articulation of faith that characterises Tearfund — in contrast to other aid charities with Christian foundations that are now less overtly acknowledged. “God is calling all of us to play our part and bring an end to extreme poverty and injustice,” the website homepage states.
“We like to think of ourselves not as a bunch of Christians who happen to be getting together to do development but actually that Jesus is at the heart of all that we do and all that we are as Tearfund,” Mr Harris says. “Above all, we are so excited about supporting the Church, and seeing the Church really respond to what we see as its God-given call to bring good news to those in poverty.”
It is an answer that closely echoes the words of the Revd George Hoffman, who founded Tearfund. In 1975, he told the Church Times that the charity looked to follow the example of Christ, “trying to avoid the artificial dichotomy between man’s spiritual need and his physical need”. A line on a poster from its founding year, 1968, was: “You can’t eat prayer”.
Under Mr Hoffman’s leadership, Tearfund’s income grew from £2678 to almost £1 million in just seven years, reaching £15 million in 1989 and £82 million today. Almost £40 million comes from individuals. Christians and churches are “the engine that allows us to support communities around the world”, Mr Harris says. “My sense is they feel called to give because of their Christian faith . . . I see that motivation very strongly. . . Some of the most sacrificial giving we see is from those who have ostensibly less.”
He is unembarrassed about becoming emotional when recalling the elderly widow who wrote to Tearfund enclosing the money she had saved from her winter-fuel allowance, having worn extra layers to avoid putting the heating on. “When I talk to my regional teams and county teams I tell that story because that’s the standard for me,” he says. “How do I sit in front of that lady and tell her what we do with the money?”
Almost 60 years from its founding, the focus at Tearfund is on transformation of communities through the local church. It aims to work with 250,000 by 2030. “They don’t go, they don’t arrive, they are permanent, they are omnipresent, and the Church’s role in responding to crisis is something that we seeing as increasingly important around the world where we work,” Mr Harris says.
He recalls a visit to Jos, in Nigeria, and learning how a young pastor, Isaac, had mobilised the congregation to establish a school and health clinic, increasing the church in the process from three to 170 people in seven years. It was, Mr Harris, recalls, a “revelatory moment: Why can’t this happen everywhere there is church?” Another visit that remains with him was to Burundi, where he met Beatrice, a woman who had joined a savings group and eventually established a shop in her rural, isolated village.
“This is a tough season, we know that,” he says. “There’s a huge amount of need. We see every increasing amounts of conflict which concerns us greatly. We have the climate emergency and the combination of those two things is creating huge amounts of forced displacement, conflict for resources, and pain . . . But we see our wonderful Christian supporters across the UK respond very generously and I have trust in that.”
