The government of the United Kingdom has announced a UK foreign aid cuts policy that would see a 40% reduction in aid initiatives to Africa.
This was contained in a UK Foreign Office report.
It was gathered that in the report an impact assessment of the UK foreign aid cuts showed that the biggest cuts will come in Africa.
The report also revealed that the deepest reductions will target children’s education and women’s health programs across the continent, raising fears of increased disease and mortality rates in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Also, the new funding allocations as made available in the report revealed cuts to programs targeting corruption, media freedom, trade, and economic security, while several climate-related initiatives were eliminated.
According to the government’s assessment, education spending reductions are expected to impact Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Overall, the cuts will hit Africa and the Middle East the hardest.
The report also stated that underperforming multilateral organisations could face future cuts and acknowledged that aid to certain unnamed countries would drop.
The report also hinged the decision to slash foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income on redirecting funds to boost defense spending to 2.5%.
Speaking on the development, Baroness Chapman, minister for development, said: “Every pound must work harder for UK taxpayers and the people we help around the world and these figures show how we are starting to do just that through having a clear focus and priorities.”
Chapman said the cuts follow “a line-by-line strategic review of aid” by the minister, which focused on “prioritisation, efficiency, protecting planned humanitarian support and live contracts while ensuring responsible exit from programming where necessary”.
This development comes after the termination of 5,800 USAID contracts said to be worth $54 billion, by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The USAID fund cut has already halted programs like HIV treatment and famine detection, credited with saving over 90 million lives in the past two decades.
