International aid from official donors has fallen for the first time in five years, dropping by 7.1% in real terms in 2024, according to preliminary data.
The government has been urged to rethink its fiscal strategy in the light of its decision to raid international development budgets to fund a boost in defence spending.
Cutting the aid budget during the Covid-19 pandemic was “not a good signal” to the UK’s partners around the world, the Conservative Party conference was told.
The government reduced its aid spending so quickly that officials do not know the effect the cuts will have on long-term value for money of UK aid projects, the National Audit Office has said.
The government will reform the body that scrutinises its aid spending as it merges its international development department with the Foreign Office, the foreign secretary has announced.
Development organisations have criticised the government’s decision to merge its Department for International Development with its Foreign Office, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Department for International Development has a new secretary of state, its fifth in less than four years, after Boris Johnson’s first major reshuffle since his landslide election win in December.
A flagship government programme hoped to prevent sexual violence globally is “at risk of letting survivors down” after its funding was cut drastically.
Campaigners have hit out at suggestions the Department for International Development could be rolled in the Foreign Office, warning it would “diminish” the UK’s global influence.
Aid should remain focused on eliminating poverty and inequality, an NGO has highlighted to political parties ahead of the general election in December.
The proportion of the aid budget controlled by the Department for International Development’s could be revised at the next Spending Review, international development secretary Alok Sharma has...
More than 700 million people worldwide still live in extreme poverty but it is possible to leverage scarce development resources to help change that, says the World Bank’s Akihiko Nishio.
A government scheme to “turbo charge” private investment in developing countries’ infrastructure projects has been criticised as making an “opportunity” out of human suffering.
Concentrating UK aid on large middle-income countries risks reducing the focus on poverty and the government’s new “leaving no one behind” philosophy, a watchdog has said.
“Fundamental weaknesses” in a £735m UK aid fund to help the poorest countries have left it neglecting its international development goals, a watchdog has claimed.
