An analysis<\/a> of the plans by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) shows that UK aid will have reduced from \u00a315.3bn in 2023 to \u00a38.8bn in 2027-28, a 42% decrease.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe aid watchdog said the UK aid budget has been subject to long-term disruption since the start of Covid-19 in 2020.<\/p>\n
At the 2020 spending review, then-chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the previous government would reduce it from the statutory level of 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.5% in 2021.<\/p>\n
Then, in February 2025, the current government said it would reduce it further to 0.3% in 2027 to fund an increase in defence and security spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While it pledged to return to 0.7% when fiscal circumstances allow, the ICAI said there is no evidence of this in the spending figures or accompanying government statements.<\/p>\n
Allocations reduced by up to 80-90%<\/p>\n
FCDO\u2019s report shows huge shifts in the scale, nature and purpose of UK aid, with bilateral programmes being phased out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eleven countries including longstanding UK partners Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda will see their annual allocations reduced by up to 80-90% in some cases to \u00a35m by 2028-29.<\/p>\n
ICAI\u2019s analysis says that as budget falls, \u201cUK aid will increasingly focus on humanitarian assistance and support for countries facing conflict and crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFragile and conflict-affected states\u00a0(FCAS) are now the major focus of UK bilateral aid,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intent to spend approximately \u00a31.4bn per year in places with the greatest humanitarian need represents 78% of all FCDO aid allocated to specific countries and regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll countries receiving more than \u00a310m allocations from 2028-29 will be crisis-affected or have significant refugee populations.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the year, FCDO\u2019s bilateral spending was driven mainly by major humanitarian and security crises in Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan, which are protected from budget reduction. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Support to Ukraine represented \u201ca significant financial commitment\u201d, with the UK spending \u00a3238m, FCDO\u2019s report says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the crisis in Sudan \u201cdrove significant humanitarian demand during the year, with the FCDO spending \u00a3146m\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Devastating shortfalls\u2019<\/p>\n
Membership body Bond said that while Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan have their budgets protected, other FCAS will see \u201cdrastic reductions\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite facing a deadly Ebola outbreak, the Democratic Republic of Congo will see a 35% drop to \u00a384m from 2026-27 onwards.<\/p>\n
Somalia, which continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis, will see a 49% reduction, from \u00a3107m in 2025-26 to \u00a369.2m from 2026-27 onwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, South Sudan will see its support fall by 46% to \u00a372m, despite two-thirds of its population projected to require humanitarian assistance this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lena Cohr, policy and advocacy adviser, development finance, at Bond, said: \u201cThe government rightly set out that it\u2019ll prioritise FCAS by increasing the share of all country and regional spending going to FCAS to 70%.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, despite this increase in percentage share, total UK official development assistance (ODA) to FCAS will still fall by 34% (to \u00a3655m).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd least developed countries, some of which are also FCAS, will see a 49% decrease (\u00a3766m) between 2024-25 and 2028-29.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohr said that \u201ceven with prioritisation, the countries and communities that most need support will experience devastating shortfalls\u201d.<\/p>\n
Government must go back to 0.7% of GNI<\/p>\n
Cohr added: \u201cThe FCDO annual report is another disappointing step in a devastating 1.5 years of the Labour government breaking its manifesto promise and eroding trust in the UK as a reliable development partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIts publication came just days before Andy Burnham became Labour\u2019s new leader and the UK\u2019s prime minister \u2013 and we urge the new government to learn from these mistakes and seize this opportunity to turn the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a priority, the next government must rule out any further cuts to the ODA budget and set out a tangible path back to an ODA spending of 0.7% of GNI to honour Labour\u2019s manifesto commitment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe huge scale of cuts to country allocations makes clear that we cannot afford any further reductions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK aid spending is predicted to fall by around \u00a36.5bn from its 2023 record high to a historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-708788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}