Nine African countries see UK aid slashed by more than 80% as ‘devastating’ cuts laid bare
Nine African countries are set to see their UK bilateral aid cut by more than 80 per cent, after the government laid out the full breakdown of its plan to reduce the aid budget from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income through to 2029.
Bilateral UK aid to African countries is set to fall from £1.6bn to under £700m, and the countries impacted includes numerous long-standing UK partners – including Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique – whose aid relationship is set to be virtually eliminated, or reduced to £5m or less.
Kenya is set to see UK foreign aid fall by 93 per cent, Tanzania by 91 per cent, Mozambique by 90 per cent, Malawi by 90 per cent, and Zambia by 88 per cent.
Countries experiencing some of the most pressing humanitarian emergencies in the world are set to see funding slashed, with aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo – currently in the midst of an Ebola outbreak – falling by 29 per cent, and aid to Lebanon also falling by 58 per cent.
Overall UK aid cuts between 2024/5 to 2028/9 add up to some £6.5bn, with aid to fragile and conflict affected states – supposedly the government’s priority – falling by 34 per cent, aid to least developed countries falling by 49 per cent, and aid to Africa falling by 56 per cent.
Aid agencies, charities and MPs have hit out at the “devastating” impact that such a programme of cuts – laid out just one day before the summer recess of parliament – will have on development programmes in developing countries.
Some 15 countries are set to see UK bilateral aid fall to zero over the next three years, including Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Venezuela, which is currently reeling from a devastating earthquake.
Jean Mclean, of Oxfam GB, said that the government has “taken a wrecking ball to the aid budget at exactly the moment when conflict, humanitarian crises, hunger and climate breakdown are driving global need to record levels”.
Lisa Wise, from Save the Children UK, said that the cuts “send a global message about the role the UK wants to play on the international stage” and suggested that incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, “has an important opportunity to step up, to prioritise international co-operation and ensure that the rights of children are at the heart of foreign policy”.
Romilly Greenhill, CEO of Non-governmental orgnisation (NGO) network Bond, agreed that the incoming Labour government should “recognise the role of development building a safer, equal and more stable world”, adding that they should rule out any further aid cuts.
Ian Mitchell, from think tank the Center for Global Development, pointed out that the ten countries in Africa whose aid has been cut to £5 million or less hold “over 130 million people living in extreme poverty”.
These countries, he added, will receive less than half of the £130 million allocated to the UK’s aid programmes in the overseas territories of St Helena, Montserrat and Pitcairn, whose combined population is around 8,500.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham and chair of parliament’s International Development Committee, criticised the delay to the announcement of the aid allocations, suggesting that it is “disappointing the Government has waited until the last working day of parliament to set out details”.
“By leaving it so late to come clean, it feels like the Government is choosing to avoid scrutiny,” she added.
