UK aid cuts ‘reduce bilateral support to some African countries by 90%’ | Foreign policy
Foreign Office figures show Labour’s foreign aid cuts have meant Britain’s bilateral support for some African countries will be cut by up to 90 per cent.
of the department annual report It includes a long-awaited breakdown of how reductions in aid budgets will affect countries over the next three years.
Analysis by Bond, an umbrella group of development aid organisations, shows cuts of 90% in Mozambique and Malawi, 80% in Rwanda and Sierra Leone and 49% in Somalia by 2029.
Bond chief executive Romilly Greenhill said: “By cutting UK aid funding to countries such as Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda, the Labor government is abandoning communities on the front lines of conflict and the climate crisis and risks plunging their populations into poverty and instability.”
Keir Starmer’s government announced big cuts to overseas aid spending last year to fund increases in the defense budget, leading to the resignation of Anneliese Dodds as development minister.
Part of Labour’s approach to implementing the cuts has been to shift its focus to funding multilateral donors such as the World Bank, which it argues is a more efficient use of limited resources.
Announcing the cuts in a written statement to parliament in March, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “In a number of countries, we will move away from high levels of grant ODA spending. [overseas development assistance]“but our ambition and drive will remain high to deliver through streamlined partnerships and make the most of what the UK has to offer.”
But charities say the scale of the reduction in direct support to individual countries will jeopardize vital projects.
Lisa Wise, director of global outcomes at Save the Children, said: “Today’s international budget allocations reflect what we already know: reductions in public investment in children and in countries most in need. These elections send a global message about the role the UK wants to play on the international stage.”
The next steps on Labour’s development policy will depend on new prime minister Andy Burnham’s choice of foreign secretary. Current energy minister Ed Miliband is seen as a candidate for the job.
Some MPs have called on Burnham to take action to restore the party’s leadership on development, including setting a path towards a target of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.
The UK will next year assume the presidency of the G20, the coordinating body that includes China, India and Brazil, as well as rich countries in the global north.
Greenhill called on the new Prime Minister and foreign secretary to use the role “to support the global reforms needed to address poverty and inequality among the world’s marginalized communities.”
Development Minister Jenny Chapman said: “The world has changed. Crises in one part of the world now affect us all.”
“Already this year, conflicts in the Middle East have increased food and fertilizer costs, and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is an urgent reminder of why global health security matters.
“We’re not giving up on these challenges. We’re ensuring every pound of the UK’s development spending is put to better use for people and taxpayers at home facing the toughest crises.”
