UK slashes aid to poorest nations in ‘moral catastrophe’ of 40% savings – and fails to fully protect HIV funding
The UK government is to slash aid spending to some of the poorest countries in the world, as part of moves to reduce spending by 40 per cent.
Plans set out by the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, will see bilateral support for African countries fall from £1.3 billion a year to £677 million over the next three years – a drop of 56 per cent – while countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Myanmar will also face severe reductions.
The government has also failed to fully protect funding for HIV, despite calls from The Independent, alongside MPs and charities to do maintain funding for HIV treatment up to 2030, amid concerns that progress in tackling the disease could be reversed as a result of the aid cuts, first announced last year.
While funding for certain core areas has been “protected” or kept the same – including to Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan – funding for HIV has not been classified as such. Going forward, UK aid spend on HIV is set to be largely channeled through funding for the Global Fund – which last December the UK confirmed it would cut funding towards by £150m – and bilateral aid programmes to developing countries in Africa and beyond, which are also set to be significantly cut.
Ms Cooper said that it is now planning to prioritise funding for multilateral institutions like the UN and World Bank – as well as funding for countries classified as “fragile and conflict-affected”, such as Sudan, Ukraine Palestine and now Lebanon – with aid sent to those countries increasing from 57 to 71 per cent. But even this represents an overall cut compared to the last few years. Aid spending will also be cut to G20 countries, including India, Indonesia and South Africa.
It also means that funding for low income countries that are not classified as “fragile and conflict-affected” are likely to lose out in a big way, with aid cuts of up to 60 per cent, despite the fact that many of these countries continue to struggle to attract foreign capital beyond aid.
Ms Cooper said: “Allocating a reduced budget inevitably leads to hard choices and unavoidable trade-offs… So we’re focusing aid on the people and places that need it most, and we will still be a major player, and expect to be the fifth biggest funder in the world.
She added that the government has “fully protected central programme spending on violence against women and girls, women peace and security, and preventing sexual violence in conflict”. However, programmes for education are likely to see a cut.
The 56 per cent decline for support to Africa between 2026/27 to 2028/29 – with cuts likely to hit bilateral aid to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The money that the UK spends on humanitarian crisis relief such as for natural disasters will also be reduced by 15 per cent to just under £300 million a year.
Ian Mitchell, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development think tank, agreed that the impacts on Africa looked set to be severe: “Reducing the share of aid going to Africa, where most fragility, poverty, and future opportunity are concentrated, is difficult to justify and risks making talk of ‘global partnerships’ ring hollow,” he said.
“There remains strong public support for helping those most in need—and for a government serious about tackling extreme poverty, that means a clear focus on Africa.”
Meanwhile, climate funding will fall from £11.6 billion across the five years to 2026, to £6 billion over the next three years, a drop of almost 15 per cent. Funding for key multilateral funds that support global health, including the Pandemic Fund and Global Polio Eradication Initiative, will also be cut. The aid budget also funds the cost of housing asylum seekers in UK hotels – roughly £2bn a year, about a fifth of the overseas aid budget – though this is set to fall.
Despite the news that HIV funding would not be protected, Development Minister Jenny Chapman said that it remained a priority for the government, tell The Independent that the government remained “as committed as ever to this agenda”.
“We’re really concerned about what’s happening with HIV at the moment, and we think there’s a risk that may begin to increase, particularly with younger girls,” Baroness Chapman said in a briefing with members of the media, adding that the UK would fund £4m towards UNAIDs before the agency is shut down its services are absorbed into other agencies.
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