#aid-cuts

#aid-cuts

Good morning. With Christmas just two days away, the Westminster tap of news, which normally gushes strongly, is down to a dribble. There is not much on the government's grid today, apart from an announcement about a plan to ensure young people leaving care in England will receive free prescriptions, and dental and eye services up to their 25th birthday, which we've written up here and also confirmation that some former mineworkers are getting a 100-a-week boost to their pensions as a result of a change to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme announced in the budget.

Deep cuts to foreign aid by United States President Donald Trump this year, coupled with reductions from other donor countries, have forced the closure of thousands of schools and youth centres in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, devastating critical child protection programmes. The consequences are dire: Girls forced into marriage, children as young as 10 pushed into hard labour, and some girls as young as 12 coerced into prostitution.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) migration and conflict directorate, which employs about 100 civil servants, is being abolished at the end of this year and its work subsumed by the rest of the department. The directorate provides advice and technical support to governments and civil society groups in trouble spots, including Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and the Philippines.

More than 80% of donor funding for family planning comes from countries that have announced aid cuts, according to a report released last week by the global partnership FP2030. The US was the biggest donor, accounting for 41% of the total between 2020 and 2024. The fall in aid has led to the closure of maternal and reproductive health services, with devastating consequences in countries that relied heavily on USAID.

Britain rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite intelligence warnings that the city of El Fasher would fall amid a wave of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, according to a report seen by the Guardian. Government officials turned down the plans six months into the 18-month siege of El Fasher in favour of the least ambitious option of four presented. The city was captured last month by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which immediately embarked on ethnically motivated mass killings and rapes.

A UK government-funded study shows that without concerted action, increased rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could lead to global annual GDP losses of $1.7tn over the next quarter of a century.

World leaders face immense challenges in securing funds for development. Aid cuts have disrupted health and humanitarian work while economic instability drains government resources.

After the Second World War, the United States approved funding - which would eventually rise to more than $12 billion - for the rebuilding of western Europe. Known as the Marshall Plan, it was not merely an act of generosity. It was a calculated effort to rebuild economies, stabilize democracies and contain the spread of extremism. Building resilient societies abroad will similarly make people safer in their own nations today.