The UK is set to slash bilateral aid to nine African countries by more than 80 percent under sweeping cuts to its overseas aid budget, triggering fierce criticism from charities, aid agencies and MPs who warn the decision will put millions of lives at risk.
Government figures show UK aid spending will fall from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of Gross National Income by 2029, with bilateral funding to African nations plunging from £1.6 billion to less than £700 million.
The UK Independent Newspaper reports that Britain’s long standing partners including Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique are among the hardest hit, with some programmes virtually wiped out or reduced to £5 million or less.
Kenya faces the steepest reduction, with funding set to fall by 93 percent. Tanzania will lose 91 percent, while Mozambique and Malawi each face cuts of 90 percent. Zambia’s allocation will shrink by 88 percent.
The reductions also affect countries battling severe humanitarian crises. Funding for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where communities continue to face major health emergencies including Ebola outbreaks, will fall by 29 percent, while aid to Lebanon will be cut by 58 percent.
Across the next four years, the government plans to remove around £6.5 billion from the aid budget. Support for fragile and conflict affected states will drop by 34 percent, funding for the world’s least developed countries will fall by 49 percent, and aid to Africa overall will be reduced by 56 percent.
The plans have sparked a fierce backlash. Aid organisations accused ministers of abandoning vulnerable communities at a time when conflict, hunger, climate disasters and humanitarian emergencies are reaching record levels.
Oxfam GB’s Jean McLean said the government had “taken a wrecking ball” to the aid budget just as global need continues to surge.
Save the Children UK’s Lisa Wise warned the cuts would send a powerful message about Britain’s place on the world stage. She urged the incoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, to make international cooperation and the protection of children’s rights a priority.
Romilly Greenhill, chief executive of the NGO network Bond, called on the new Labour government to recognise that international development is essential to building a safer, fairer and more stable world, while ruling out any further reductions.
Ian Mitchell of the Center for Global Development highlighted the scale of the impact, noting that the ten African countries whose aid will fall to £5 million or less are home to more than 130 million people living in extreme poverty. Combined, they will receive less than half of the £130 million allocated to Britain’s overseas territories of St Helena, Montserrat and Pitcairn, whose total population is around 8,500.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs Parliament’s International Development Committee, criticised the timing of the announcement, accusing ministers of releasing the figures on Parliament’s final working day before the summer recess to avoid proper scrutiny.
Fellow Labour MP Beccy Cooper said the reductions were “not just numbers on a spreadsheet” but would lead to severe disruption to healthcare, education and humanitarian programmes that millions of people rely on.
The figures also confirm previously announced reductions to UK climate finance. Funding will fall from £11.6 billion over five years to £6 billion across the next three years, including a 50 percent cut to Britain’s contribution to the Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest source of climate finance for developing countries.
