London: The government has revealed details of its plans to cut foreign aid, with support for children’s education and women’s health in Africa facing the biggest reductions. The government said in February it would slash foreign aid spending by 40% – from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% – to increase defense spending to 2.5% after pressure from the US.
According to BBC, a Foreign Office report and impact assessment show the biggest cuts this year will come in Africa, with less spent on women’s health and water sanitation, increasing risks of disease and death. The government said the cuts follow “a line-by-line strategic review of aid” by the minister, which focused on “prioritisation, efficiency, protecting planned humanitarian support and live contracts while ensuring responsible exit from programming where necessary.”
The Foreign Office noted that bilateral support — aid going directly to the recipient country — for some countries would decrease, and multilateral organisations deemed to be underperforming would face future funding cuts. However, it has not yet announced which countries will be affected.
Bond, a UK-based network of NGOs, expressed concern over the government’s approach, stating it was “deprioritising” funding for education, gender, and countries experiencing humanitarian crises such as South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Surprisingly, even the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan, which the government claimed would be protected, are affected.
“It is concerning that bilateral funding for Africa, gender, education, and health programmes will drop,” Bond policy director Gideon Rabinowitz said. “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.”
Foreign aid has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, with one cabinet minister admitting the public no longer supports spending on it. However, the World Bank was one organisation that escaped the cuts. 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.
Historically, Labour governments under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown committed to increasing the overseas aid budget to 0.7% of national income. This 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.