The government has unveiled its revised foreign aid strategy, detailing significant reductions in support for children’s education and women’s health initiatives in Africa.
Following earlier announcements, the government confirmed a 40% reduction in foreign aid spending, shifting from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income. This reallocation aims to bolster defence spending to 2.5% following calls from the United States.
According to a Foreign Office report and impact assessment, Africa will bear the brunt of these cuts this year, with decreased funding for women’s health and water sanitation programs. The report warns of potential increases in disease and mortality rates as a result.
Aid organizations have voiced strong criticism, asserting that these cuts will disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The government maintains that contributions to multilateral aid organizations, including the World Bank and the Gavi vaccine alliance, will be protected. The UK will also continue to provide humanitarian aid to crisis zones such as Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan.
Development Minister Baroness Chapman stated, “Every pound must work harder for UK taxpayers and the people we help around the world, and these figures show how we are starting to do just that through having a clear focus and priorities.”
The government asserted that these cuts are the result of “a line-by-line strategic review of aid,” conducted by the minister. This review emphasized “prioritisation, efficiency, protecting planned humanitarian support and live contracts while ensuring responsible exit from programming where necessary.”
The Foreign Office has indicated that bilateral support – aid provided directly to recipient countries – will decrease for some nations. Multilateral organizations deemed to be underperforming may also face future funding reductions. The specific countries affected have not yet been identified.
Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, has criticized the move, suggesting that the cuts “will come at the expense of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”
Liberal Democrat international development spokesperson Monica Harding stated that reducing UK aid spending to “its lowest level this century will have an appalling impact on some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.”
“This is only the beginning – we will see far deeper and crueller cuts next year when most of the reduction happens,” she cautioned.
Bond, a UK network for international development organizations, has expressed concern that the government is “deprioritising” funding “for education, gender and countries experiencing humanitarian crises such as South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, and surprisingly the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan, which the government said would be protected.”
Bond policy director Gideon Rabinowitz commented, “It is concerning that bilateral funding for Africa, gender, education and health programmes will drop.”
“The world’s most marginalised communities, particularly those experiencing conflict and women and girls, will pay the highest price for these political choices.”
“At a time when the US has gutted all gender programming, the UK should be stepping up, not stepping back.”
UNICEF has warned that the cuts “will have a devastating and unequal impact on children and women” and described the move as “deeply short-sighted.”
Philip Goodwin, UNICEF UK chief executive, urged the government to “adopt a new strategic approach that places vulnerable children at the heart of its aid programmes and policies…”
“At least 25% of aid should be directed to child-focused initiatives, ensuring that children’s health, nutrition, education, and protection are prioritised.”
British-founded charity Street Child has indicated to the BBC that its work to improve children’s access to education in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be curtailed due to the cuts, given the UK’s historical role as a primary funder.
CEO Tom Dannatt described education as the greatest long-term builder of hope and called the reduction in support “sad and short-sighted.”
“So children who used to go to school will not go to school, and so, more children will be found roaming the streets and ploughing fields and not developing their critical faculties,” he stated.
“Whereas they should be in school learning and having a chance to build a brighter future for themselves and for their societies, but because of these cuts by British aid for the poorest children, especially in the poorest countries, that’s not the reality anymore.”
Foreign aid has faced increased scrutiny in recent years, with one cabinet minister acknowledging a decline in public support for such spending.
One organization spared from the cuts was the World Bank. The Foreign Office confirmed that the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the world’s lowest income countries, would receive £1.98bn in funding from the UK over the next three years, helping the organisation benefit 1.9 billion people.
The Labour governments under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown committed to increasing the overseas aid budget to 0.7% of national income.
The target was reached in 2013 under David Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, before being enshrined in law in 2015.
However, aid spending was cut to 0.5% of national income in 2021 under the Conservatives, citing the economic pressures of Covid.
Additional reporting by Will Ross
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