Sections:
Freedom of Information Act 2000, request no. F2007/099
Date of release: 31 July 2007
Funding for Overseas Trade Unions
Payments made by DFID to overseas trade unions in Russia, China, Cuba and Venezuela since May 1997.
We can confirm that no payments were made to trade unions in China, Cuba or Venezuela during this period. DFID does not have a bilateral aid programme in Cuba or Venezuela. Apart from some humanitarian assistance, UK aid contributions to the two countries have mainly gone through multilateral channels over the past decade. We do have a development programme in China, and there are details found here.
We do not hold information on payments which were made to trade unions in Russia. Our bilateral programme closed in March 2007, having supported Russia’s transition to a market economy and assisted reforms to address governance and poverty. As part of this, during the late 1990s, we provided funding for small projects aimed at supporting the democratic process. This included support for the ‘Democratic Institutions Small Projects Scheme’ (DISPS) which the British Council ran on our behalf and the ‘Partnerships in the Non-Profit Sector Scheme’ run by the Charities Aid Foundation.
Trade unions may have received payments under these delegated funding initiatives for small projects, but DFID does not hold information about them.