Charities have reiterated calls for the UK government to restore overseas aid spending to previous levels after an impact assessment warned the reduction could cost thousands of lives.
An impact assessment produced by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, published today by MPs on the International Development Committee, predicts that almost 200,000 women across Africa would face having unsafe abortions.
It says that in Yemen, half a million women and children would not receive healthcare and fewer preventable deaths will be avoided as a result of the spending reductions.
“It may cause lasting damage to health systems in Yemen, if other donors are unable to fund,” the assessment reads.
The government was roundly criticised in 2020 when Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a reduction in the UK’s overseas aid budget from 0.7 of gross national income to 0.5 per cent, cutting more than £4bn off the annual spend.
Kate Munro, head of advocacy at Action Against Hunger UK, said today: “Cuts to the UK aid budget have reduced the credibility and nimbleness of the country to respond to rising global hunger rates.
“We welcome the commitment that Andrew Mitchell MP, as Minister for International Development, is showing to tackling hunger and malnutrition. However, living up to this ambition at a time when humanitarian needs are rising depends on renewing the UK’s commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on aid.”
Jennifer Larbie, head of campaigns and UK advocacy at Christian Aid, said: “Even when marking their own homework, ministers cannot escape the horrible truth that their erosion of international aid represents a betrayal of the world’s most marginalised people.
“The UK has a historic and moral responsibility for ending extreme poverty. We must not accept the false choice between responding to poverty at home and fulfilling our responsibilities to the vulnerable women and girls around the world.
“No ifs and no buts, the UK’s aid budget must be restored.
“We need a government that will release new resources, not just by restoring the aid budget but also by getting private creditors such as the big banks to cancel the debt of countries whose people are in jeopardy.”
Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, said the impact assessment made “grim reading”.
She said: “It is a litany of the people – living in poverty, suffering hunger, women, girls, disabled people – who will no longer be supported by the UK’s direct aid spending, and the consequences they will face.”
She said that by the FCDO’s own assessment, critical support to tackle malnutrition would not be delivered.
“Programmes aimed at reaching those furthest behind – including women, girls and people with disabilities – will be cut,” she said.
“Hundreds of thousands more women once again face unsafe abortions, thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth.
“It is crucial that promised uplifts in the planned allocations for 2024/25 go to the people with protected characteristics who, by the FCDO’s own assessment, have borne the brunt of these cuts.”