Médecins Sans Frontières said the impact of UK aid cuts is striking
An international humanitarian healthcare charity has warned UK aid cuts are concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the most substantial reductions in funding will come in places experiencing famine, disease outbreaks, and genocide.
The UK Government announced earlier this year that the official development assistance (ODA) budget for overseas aid would be cut by 40%.
Keir Starmer’s Labour government redirected funds to defence and military projects by reducing ODA to 0.3% of Gross National Income (GNI), down from 0.5% of GNI.
Labour had included an election pledge to return this funding to 0.7% of GNI in its manifesto, but now says this will not be achieved within this parliament (by 2029).
The UK Government failed to carry out impact assessment ahead of cutting £6billion in international aid.
MSF is an independent, neutral and impartial organisation, and doesn’t take any funding from the UK Government.
However, they said they have a duty to bear witness to the impact of aid cuts in the countries where they work, especially as their independent funding means they become one of the only humanitarian organisations still able to operate in some places.
MSF say war-torn countries are facing cuts of up to a third of their funding.
MSF said: “Following the Government's July budget announcement, we've now seen more detail on the impact of UK aid cuts. Instead of stepping up to support people in dire need, the UK Government is pulling back – even from places experiencing famine, disease outbreaks, and genocide.
“The most substantial reductions are concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected countries, including Palestine, Sudan, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria and Ethiopia.
“Some of these countries were expected to be shielded from deep cuts due to their strategic importance and specific vulnerability. These are precisely the places where aid is most needed and has real impact.
In Syria, UK Government funding will be cut by 35%, MSF said, while in Ethiopia this figure is 25%.
MSF said in Ethiopia “basic services such as food distribution, healthcare, access to clean water, and sanitation services” are already straining.
The funding for the occupied Palestine has been subject to a 21% reduction, MSF said, leading to delayed interventions, blocked roads, and escalating needs across all of the West Bank.
Afghanistan and Sudan, where conflict has ravaged the countries in recent decades, have had their own funding cut by 19% and 18% respectively.
Julie Paquereau, a medical coordinator with MSF in Afghanistan, said: “Lack of access will push more babies and children with life-threatening conditions to already overburdened provincial and regional hospitals, including the ones that MSF supports. And some may never access care, unable to reach a health facility.”
