UK Foreign Aid Invested in Social Media Platforms and Cosmetics Company

The government’s foreign aid investment body has been criticised for giving £6.4 million in taxpayers’ money—meant to reduce poverty—to a fund in India that invested in three social media platforms, a cosmetics company, and a debt collector. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s (ACAI’s) report published Thursday said these investments had “questionable links to poverty reduction.” The ACAI’s chief commissioner Tamsyn Barton, who headed the review of British aid to India, asked how this investment is justifiable to British taxpayers. “How is this an appropriate investment for UK aid, which must have poverty reduction as its goal? It is just not clear why use of capital from UK taxpayers is justified for investments in social media sites,” Ms. Barton said....