In Shock At Our Lack Of Humanity!

A blog on the UK Aid Cuts by All We Can CEO, David Thomson

The world we live in is becoming ever more volatile and unstable as those with power drive their ‘might is right’ agenda! We are facing a polycrisis - where climate change, biodiversity loss, polarisation, growing inequality, increased conflict and violence interrelate are hitting the most vulnerable hardest.

As the dust settles on the UK Government’s decision to cut lifesaving aid still further, I remain in shock. This, from a government that in their election manifesto committed to increasing the UK’s spending on international development back to the level enshrined in law (0.7% of GNI). What has happened to our commitment to our global neighbours? Why do we think spending on defence makes us safer than tackling inequality and injustice, the source of much of the insecurity we seem to fear?

Last week, the Labour Government announced the UK’s allocations to the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for the next three years, revealing severe cuts to regions including Africa and the Middle East. The ODA budget indicates that UK aid to Africa will decline by 56% from 2024 levels, a reduction based on figures before the latest UK aid budget cut.

The allocations indicate cuts for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. This list includes four of All We Can’s priority countries, which are already facing significant impacts because of humanitarian crises, climate crises, and poverty. Yet now, the UK is turning its back on them. 

In Malawi alone, cuts are expected to result in approximately 250,000 adolescents losing access to modern methods of family planning each year and an expected 20,000 children becoming at risk of dropping out of school because of an end to school feeding[1].

‘Malawi is at the crossroads. Many climate-sensitive disasters are affecting more communities across the country than ever before. We are seeing continuous cycles that are unprecedented. Our soils have lost fertility, leaving many people with empty bellies year after year from failed harvests. This is not the time for development partners to pull back. Pulling back now is like leaving a friend in the water to drown and die a painful death.’ - Melton Luhanga, Executive Director CARD, Malawi

The majority of remaining UK Aid will focus on conflict zones, primarily Palestine, Sudan, and Ukraine. Countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen will be among those facing cuts, with Mozambique and Pakistan having almost all their development aid cut, supposedly replaced by partnerships for investment, all dependent on the private sector.

These cuts put a further strain on All We Can partners as they work selflessly with vulnerable communities now facing even greater challenges. We thank you for your ongoing commitment and solidarity to ‘do all the good you can’. Together we strive for a world where every community has the power, dignity and resources to lead their own future – creating just societies!

Standing with our global neighbours, until together, we’ve done all the good we can.

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Links:

UK Gvt ODA Allocations – Foreign Secretary Announcement Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

ICAI Management of the official development assistance spending target - Management of the official development assistance spending target - an ICAI information note

[1] The One Campaign