Development aid cuts cast Middle East and North Africa's poorest adrift

‘Seismic change’ comes alongside US and other European countries' cutbacks and will change dynamic with developing countries

Britain's decision to cut overseas funding could have a 'seismic' impact on other western countries' decisions. Photo: British Embassy Office Dubai

The West is moving towards a “seismic shift” in overseas aid funding with vital support programmes across the Middle East and North Africa cut adrift from development money, aid workers and politicians have told The National.

This is breaking relationships and pulling the rug from under people's feet

Jess Salter

With Britain announcing a major drop in its international development funding on Tuesday and France announcing a 40 per cent reduction in its overseas spending earlier this month, there are growing concerns that Europe’s move to the right will endanger more aid.

With the US axing much of its $43 billion US Agency for International Development (USAID) budget, Germany electing a more right-wing government and the Netherlands considering aid cuts, there are deep concerns that Britain, which is regarded as a global aid leader, might create a domino effect.

Sarah Champion, chairwoman of the UK parliament’s international development committee, warned that countries with “malign intent” would move into the areas where Western aid is cut. “I am extremely concerned that these cuts will further damage the UK's international reputation, and where we step back, others with more malign intent will fill the gap,” she told The National.

Sarah Champion MP. Courtesy House of Commons Committee Office

With some cash-strapped European countries already cutting their aid budgets, the UK’s move “might make them cut it even more,” said Jess Salter, a representative of Bond, the international development network “On top of what the US has already done, the UK decision might also make other donor countries, especially European countries, do the same.”

An international development manager told The National that European donor nations were “looking at their budgets as well”, and that they were certain to come under pressure from the rightward political shift towards more nationalist and anti-globalist worldviews.

“The international development community is looking across the whole pitch and realising that there's quite a seismic change coming, and that there will have to be efficiencies made,” he added. “The shift is basically from soft power to hard power in spending and that's going to impact people working in the soft power end of things.”

UK turning its back

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the British government would cut its overseas aid budget from 0.5 per cent of GDP to 0.3 per cent so that it can up defence spending by £13.4 billion ($17 billion). With the threat from Russia continuing to loom over Europe and the apparent and unforeseen collapse in America’s defensive umbrella in the last two weeks, European countries are scrambling to bolster their defences.

Mr Starmer’s drastic and surprising policy shift – his Labour Party has always been a big supporter of overseas aid – signals that even left-of-centre governments realise the new reality of hard military power over the soft power of overseas aid. But the impact on Britain and the West’s standing in developing countries is likely to be equally dramatic, said analysts.

“Britain is turning its back on our partners in the global south and this is going to damage trust with these countries, particularly in Africa,” said Ms Salter. The move was “breaking relationships and pulling the rug from under people's feet”, while the UK did not appear to have a future plan for overseas aid, she said.

“What the US has done has already had dire consequences, so this doesn't send a good signal from the UK to the rest of the world that they are a reliable partner,” she added. With Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine ring-fenced from cuts, it is expected many other UK projects will be axed, including peace-building programmes.

Britain cut a similar programme in Sudan following an earlier overseas aid reduction in 2021 – just over a year later civil war broke out. Other cuts are expected to Afghanistan and Pakistan.