New documents published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have confirmed the serious impact cuts to the UK Government’s aid budget will have on vulnerable communities around the world.
The department’s annual report and equality impact assessment of Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for 2025 to 2026 detail the level of cuts facing existing programmes and give a sense of the FCDO’s future plans. Spending plans for Africa, the Middle East, gender, education and health will be among the areas to face the most severe cuts.
The equality impact assessment states: “Overall, any reductions to health spending risk an increase in disease burden and ultimately in deaths, impacting in particular those living in poverty, women, children and people with disabilities.”
The figures confirm some of the worst fears expressed by SIDA members and other international development agencies when the cuts were first announced by Prime Minister Kier Starmer in March.
Gideon Rabinowitz, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development and humanitarian assistance, said:
“While we welcome the government’s efforts to maintain consistent levels of funding for humanitarian crises, Gavi and the World Bank’s IDA fund, 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.”
Adrian Lovett, Executive Director for the UK, Middle East and Asia Pacific at the ONE Campaign, said:
“The cuts revealed today are tough, and appear to hit Africa especially hard. A year from now we will have plummeted over the cliff edge of far deeper cuts, gutting vital programmes supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
“The government must set a clear path back to spending 0.7% of national income on international aid. In the meantime, it must preserve as much of the budget as possible, starting with reducing the 20% share currently spent domestically on housing refugees here in the UK, and ensure that every penny of what’s left delivers maximum impact where it is needed most.”
SIDA’s Chief Executive, Frances Guy, said:
“It is extremely disappointing to see the UK Government deprioritising funding for education, gender and countries experiencing humanitarian crises including South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. We have previously heard the Government say that funding for Palestine and Sudan would be protected, but this appears to no longer be the case.
“Development assistance cannot be turned off and on like a tap. Even if aid budgets increase again in the future, the long-term impact of these cuts will be devastating, and will require knowledge and capacity to be rebuilt over many years.
“If these reduced budgets are to be the ‘new normal’, as Development Minister Jenny Chapman has said, then the Government must urgently look to alternative forms of finance and support for developing countries, including debt cancellation and tax justice.”
SIDA’s Annual Conference on 30th September will explore the challenges facing aid and development, and look at how alternative funding models, innovation, effective power shifting and partnership working can support progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before 2030. Click here to find out more.
Image credit: FCDO/www.gov.uk