UK aid to Africa cut by more than half – Bond reaction

Allocations of the UK aid budget published today by the Foreign Secretary reveal 56% cuts to bilateral UK aid to Africa from 2024/25, the year before the UK aid cuts, to 2028/29.
Funding for health funds including the Pandemic Fund and Global Polio Eradication Initiative will end.

Today, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper MP has announced her department’s allocations of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for the next three years, which reveal severe cuts across the board including to Africa and the Middle East.

The allocations reveal that regional bilateral UK aid to Africa will decline by 56% from 2024/5, before the decision to cut the UK aid budget, to 2028/29.

In February 2025, the Prime Minister announced drastic cuts to the UK aid budget from 0.5% to just 0.3% of GNI by 2027/28 – now the steepest cuts in the G7 and even sharper than those of the USA. Today’s allocations show the reality of this political choice, with cuts across the board and the world’s most marginalised communities left to pay the highest price.

The allocations indicate likely cuts to bilateral aid for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal and Sierra Leone. These countries also face significant humanitarian crises, climate crisis and poverty: yet now, the UK is turning our backs on them. The government’s own Equality Impact Assessment confirms that expected cuts will leave children, people with disabilities and older people across Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia more vulnerable.

Other areas impacted by the cuts include:

Regional bilateral UK aid to the Middle East and North Africa will fall by 45% in 2026/27 from the previous year. This means this region will receive 58% less UK aid in 2028/29 than in the year before the UK aid cuts. (See Notes to Editors for caveat on Afghanistan)
Funding for key multilateral funds that support global health, including the Pandemic Fund and Global Polio Eradication Initiative, will also be cut.
The Equalities Impact Assessment confirms that expected cuts will leave children, people with disabilities and older people more vulnerable across Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.
Cuts to programmes in Somalia will likely leave women and children without access to lifesaving health services, and fewer girls and children with disabilities able to go to school in South Sudan.

Romilly Greenhill, CEO of Bond, the UK network for NGOs said:

“Today’s allocations show the harsh reality of Labour’s cuts to the UK aid budget, the steepest in the G7 – lives lost, the UK’s reputation in tatters, and a poorer, more unequal and unstable world for us all. Africa, home to some of the world’s least-developed countries, will be forced to pay the highest price because of the reduced budget.

We welcome the Foreign Secretary’s commitment to support women and girls and move away from supporting some richer countries, as well as news that fragile and conflict-affected states including Gaza, Sudan, and Lebanon will continue to be supported this year. But without the government clearly setting out allocations of the UK aid budget by country, we still have no clarity on whether the government will continue support for some of the world’s most lowest income countries.

While we agree the private sector has a role to play in sustainable development, private finance can’t replace UK aid in the contexts of extreme poverty, conflict or urgent humanitarian need.

At a time of increasing global instability, we urge the UK government to meet rhetoric with action and broaden its commitment to an ambitious development agenda. This must include a sufficient UK aid budget to help meet humanitarian need worldwide, and leadership on much-needed reforms to global systems that trap the lowest income countries in unjust cycles of debt and prevent them from investing in their own public services.

Ahead of the upcoming Global Partnerships Conference and the UK’s G20 leadership next year, the UK needs to step up and build back its shattered reputation, limit the damage already caused by its political choices, and help build a safer, healthier and more prosperous world for us all.”

ENDS.

Notes to Editors

Allocations of the UK ODA budget for 2026/27 can be found here.
The Foreign Secretary’s speech outlines that spending in Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS) to over 70% of all country and regional spending by 2028/29. However, as bilateral aid as a proportion of the UK aid budget is being reduced, directing the vast majority of limited bilateral aid towards FCAS will mean less money for many of the world’s poorest communities elsewhere.
Funding for the fourth round of International Climate Finance appears to have been reduced, to just £6 billion, despite the government previously claiming climate is a priority.
Historically, Afghanistan has always counted as part of MENA, while for these allocations it has been put in a entirely new category of ‘South Asia and Afghanistan’, meaning the comparison to previous years is not entirely possible and MENA allocations under the previous country grouping would likely be higher.
Comparison of allocations in 2026/27 compared to previous years has been made challenging by changes to the way regions and directorates have historically been grouped in these allocations.
By 2027-28, UK aid spending on overseas programmes is set to be the joint lowest since records began in 1970 – at just 0.24% of GNI.
Bond unites and supports a diverse network of over 330 civil society organisations from across the UK, and allies to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice.
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