The Foreign Office styled the cuts as a modernisation.
The UK Government has published an assessment of the impact into aid cuts months after a decision was made to slash billions from development budgets.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) unveiled limited spending plans for programmes, as well as an equality impact assessment of Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for 2025 to 2026.
The total FCDO ODA programme budget was £9.28billion in 2024/25 but will fall by 6% to £8.7bn in 25/26.
The ODA budget was cut by 40% earlier this year to redirect money to defence and military projects, with then Aid Minister Anneliese Dodds resigning following the decision.
She was replaced by Baroness Jenny Chapman, who oversaw the reduction in funding from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income (GNI), despite a Labour election pledge to return this funding to 0.7% of GNI.
The depth of this cut means that, by the end of this parliament, Starmer will have reduced international aid more than any other prime minister on record.
Publishing their aid budgets for next year, the FCDO described them as “modernised”, claiming the international aid budget will “deliver value for money for the British taxpayer and maximum impact for the most vulnerable overseas”.
The FCDO said the decisions follow a “comprehensive line-by-line strategic review” of aid conducted by the minister, which focused on prioritisation, efficiency, protecting planned humanitarian support and live contracts while ensuring responsible exit from programming where necessary.
Minister for Development Baroness Chapman said: “We are modernising our approach to international development. 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.
“The UK is moving towards a new relationship with developing countries, becoming partners and investors, rather than acting as a traditional aid donor. We want to work with countries and share our expertise – from world leading science to the City of London – to help them become no longer dependent on aid, and organisations like the World Bank and Gavi are central to how we can work with others to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time: humanitarian disasters, pandemics and the climate crisis.”
Members of the International Development Committee at Westminster have raised significant concerns about the moves.
Chair, Sarah Champion MP, said: “Since the Government announced its cuts to aid early this year, my Committee has pushed for more detail on exactly where the cuts will fall, and how the worst shifts can be managed. Now we finally have some of that information.
“Reductions in the UK’s bilateral aid spending will hurt education, health, social protection and support for women and girls, the pillars of healthy and secure societies. They may get even worse when aid cuts accelerate to 0.3% in 2026-27.
“Despite the rosy picture painted in the FCDO’s equality impact assessment, it appears these cuts will come at the expense of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The Development Minister has been clear about her passion for protecting women and girls, but these cuts put that directly at risk.
“Meanwhile the Integrated Security Fund – a pioneering model designed to stabilise fragile states – will see the aid portion of its budget cut, another victim of a shift in priorities from development to defence.
“The FCDO has now committed £8.2bn in aid-backed guarantees, mostly to Ukraine. Whilst these are an important tool in financing development, I am concerned about the extent of the FCDO's exposure. The financial impact of these guarantees being called in could be catastrophic for the development budget.
“At a time when aid budgets around the world are in jeopardy, the UK’s development decisions matter more than ever. My Committee will scrutinise these figures in detail and hold the Government to account on cuts that will be felt all over the world.”
Overall regional programme ODA rose from 2023/24 to 24/25, but will fall by 6% in 25/26.
Africa and the Middle East & North Africa are the only regions that will see a decline in 25/26.
Africa has seen a 95% increase from £796million in 2023/24 to £1.55bn in 2024/25, however, will see a further 12% decline in 2025/26 to £1.37bn.
Spending will be reduced for programmes on women's health, health systems strengthening and health emergency response. This includes work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.
Spending on some programmes targeting women and children, WASH and nutrition have also been reduced.
The impact assessment states: "Overall, any reductions to health spending risk an increase in disease burden and ultimately in deaths, impacting in particular those living in poverty, women, children and people with disabilities.”
“In-year reductions to education spend are envisaged in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and in Zimbabwe, and a girls’ education programme in DRC will close early in 2025 to 2026. Adverse impacts on children will be likely, including the most vulnerable and children with disabilities e.g. the early closure of the DRC education programme will have negative impacts on 170,000 children in post-conflict rural Kasai."
Other changes include:
- Education, Gender & Equality programme spending rose by 245% from £142m in 2023/24 to £490m in 2024/25, but will see a 42% decline to £284m in 2025/26.
- Health spending saw a decline by 45% from £1.77bn in 2023/24 to £975m in 2024/25, and will decline by a further 46% to £527m in 2025/26.
- Multilaterals and Human Rights saw a 65% increase from £16.9m in 2023/24 to £28m in 2024/25, but will see a 43% decrease to £16m in 2025/26.
- Middle East & North Africa saw an 83% increase from £468m in 2023/24 to £856.6m in 2024/25, and will fall by 21% to £681m in 2025/26.
- Occupied Palestinian Territories saw a 31% increase from £97.6m in 2023/24 to £127m in 2024/25, but will see a reduction by 21% to £101m in 2025/26.
- Sudan saw a £194% increase from £49.7m in 2023/24 to £145.8m in 2024/25, but will see a decrease by 18% to £120m in 2025/26.
- Energy, Climate & Environment fell by 36% from £649m in 2023/24 to £414m in 2024/25, before going up by 59% to £656.5m in 2025/26.
- Economic Development and Partnerships (formerly named BIPs Directorate including BII) saw an increase of 124% from £539m in 2023/24 to £1.2bn in 2024/25, but will then fall by 35% to £782m in 2025/26.
Budgets in Europe will increase, including budgets to Ukraine (Eastern Europe and Central Asia),
Americas and Overseas Territories have seen a 59% increase from £105mn in 2023/24 to £167mn in 2024/25, and will see a further increase by 42% to £237mn in 2025/26.
The Indo Pacific has seen a 45% increase from £185.6mn in 2023/24 to £269mn in 2024/25, and will see a further 32% increase to £354.5mn in 2025/26.
Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy and advocacy at Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development and humanitarian assistance, said: “While we welcome the government’s efforts to maintain consistent levels of funding for humanitarian crises, Gavi and the World Bank’s IDA fund, it is concerning that bilateral funding for Africa, gender, education and health programmes will drop.
“Following the late publication of the FCDO’s annual report and allocations today, it is clear that the government is deprioritising funding for education, gender and countries experiencing humanitarian crises such as South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, and surprisingly the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan which the government said would be protected.
“The world’s most marginalised communities, particularly those experiencing conflict and women and girls, will pay the highest price for these political choices. At a time when the US has gutted all gender programming, the UK should be stepping up, not stepping back.
“While the government has published an impact assessment for this year, we are only seeing relatively small cuts before larger cuts are implemented from 2026/27 onwards. It is imperative they publish an impact assessment for each year they implement cuts and explain how these decisions align with UK aid’s intended purpose, to support communities in lower-income countries who face poverty, conflict and climate change. Without this, we only have a very limited picture of what the real impact is going to be on the areas facing the brunt of the cuts."
