Gender, education and health programmes cut in FCDO’s UK aid allocations for 25/26 

Yesterday, Tuesday 22 July, the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) released its Annual Report & Accounts for 2024–25 and the equality impact assessment of Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for 2025 to 2026.

The report contains forward-looking budgets for the current financial year (2024-25) and reported figures for UK aid spending for 2023-24, but it does not contain projected budgets for 2026-27.

Bilateral spending for Africa, the Middle East, gender, education and health programmes will face cuts in 25/26.

Key points of interest from the equality impact assessment and when comparing the 2024-25 annual report with the 2023-24 report, include:

• The total FCDO ODA programme budget, was £9.28bn in 2024/25 but will fall by 6% to £8.7bn in 25/26.
• 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 being the only regions that will see a decline in 25/26.
• Africa has seen a 95% increase from £796mn in 2023/24 to £1.55bn in 2024/25, however, will see a 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 eg in DRC, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, 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.“
• The Impact Assessment states: “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.“
• Education, Gender & Equality programme spending rose by 245% from £142mn in 2023/24 to £490mn in 2024/25, but will see a 42% decline to £284mn in 2025/26.
• Health spending saw a decline by 45% from £1.77bn in 2023/24 to £975mn in 2024/25, and will decline by a further 46% to £527mn in 2025/26.
• Multilaterals and Human Rights saw a 65% increase from £16.9mn in 2023/24 to £28mn in 2024/25, but will see a 43% decrease to £16mn in 2025/26.
• Middle East & North Africa saw an 83% increase from £468mn in 2023/24 to £856.6mn in 2024/25, and will fall by 21% to £681mn in 2025/26.
• Occupied Palestinian Territories saw a 31% increase from £97.6mn in 2023/24 to £127mn in 2024/25, but will see a reduction by 21% to £101mn in 2025/26.
• Sudan saw a £194% increase from £49.7mn in 2023/24 to £145.8mn in 2024/25, but will see a decrease by 18% to £120mn in 2025/26.
• Energy, Climate & Environment fell by 36% from £649mn in 2023/24 to £414mn in 2024/25, before going up by 59% to £656.5mn in 2025/26.
• Economic Development and Partnerships (formerly named BIPs Directorate including BII) saw an increase of 124% from £539mn in 2023/24 to £1.2bn in 2024/25, but will then fall by 35% to £782mn in 2025/26.

Other allocations to note:

• Europe has seen a 47% increase from £25mn in 2023/24 to £37mn in 2024/25, and will see a further 29% increase to £47.8mn in 2025/26.
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia (which includes Ukraine) has seen an increase by 5% from £251mn in 2023/24 to £263mn in 2024/25, and will see a further small increase of 2% to £268mn in 2025/26.
• 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.
• 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.

In reaction, 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.

ENDS.

Notes for editors

• Bond will be publishing a deeper analysis on these figures later this week. Please refer to the Bond website for updates. 
• The FCDO Annual Report & Accounts for 2024–25 is available to view online.
• The equality impact assessment of ODA programme allocations for 2025 to 2026 is available to view online. 
• The Spending Review revealed that the FCDO programme budget ill fall to £6.8bn in 2026/27 and £6.19bn in 2027/28 when the full UK aid budget cuts hit – a decrease of over £3bn. 
• Read Bond’s reaction to the Spending Review. 
• Read Bond’s reaction to the government’s announcement in February that UK aid budget cut to fund defence increase.
• Bond is the UK network for organisations working in international development. Bond unites and supports a diverse network of over 350 civil society organisations from across the UK, and allies to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice. 

For further information or interviews, please contact Jess Salter at [email protected] or call 07392972411