'Catastrophic' overseas aid cuts will make world less safe, especially for women

Chief of charities' group tells The National UK's axing of funds will fall heaviest on females

Women waiting for aid in Somalia, one of the countries most severely affected by 'catastrophic' cut to overseas aid, a charity chief has told The National. AFP

Britain’s overseas aid cuts are having a “catastrophic” impact on women in the world’s poorest countries, while making it “less safe” for richer nations, the head of a UK charity group has told The National.

As chief executive of Bond, representing more than 340 organisations working in international development, Romilly Greenhill is more aware than most of the increasing impact from Britain's decision to slash billions from its aid budget to step up spending on defence.

She warns that, as the UK’s overseas aid budget shrinks from £15 billion ($20.2 billion) to £10.7 billion, charities working on the front line of global poverty have yet to feel the full damaging consequences.

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“It’s really disastrous,” Ms Greenhill said. “The people being hit are some of the poorest, most vulnerable and most marginalised in the world.”

A girl on a childhood care and development programme. Photo: Save the Children

But she also warns that the widespread international cuts will not only hit impoverished places but will undermine the global communities' ability to tackle pandemics and the climate emergency. “It’s a lose-lose,” she said.

Health clinics, classrooms and refugee camps across the world are already suffering but the deepest UK cuts will begin in the next financial year, with charities bracing for a phase of severe disruption.

“We are starting to see the impacts now,” Ms Greenhill said, “but the biggest cuts are coming next year. What we know is that programmes focused on gender equality and education will be particularly hard hit.”

Bond is an umbrella organisation, whose membership includes well-known charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children, along with hundreds of smaller organisations delivering highly targeted programmes. Bond helps co-ordinate engagement with governments, as well as collaborating on humanitarian crises response.

Romilly Greenhill, chief executive of Bond charities. Photo: Bond

Women bear the brunt

While the early signs suggest girls' education, women’s health and medical centres are already suffering, the charity chief warned that “far more severe consequences” will come next year.

Save the Children has estimated about 55 million people could be affected by the UK reductions. Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation has raised the troubling figure of 200,000 children under five dying in the next year due to cuts in international aid spending.

Ms Greenhill cited Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, with their fragile health systems, as among those most exposed, although Britain has promised it will not cut aid to Gaza or Sudan.

She also highlighted a female education project in Syria, where £2.5 million UK Foreign Office funding is at risk, as well as other programmes tackling violence against women and girls in Africa.

“These are absolutely critical programmes protecting vulnerable women,” she said. “And those women are now bearing the brunt of these cuts.”

USAID no more

But it is cuts to USAID (United States Agency for International Development) by President Donald Trump’s administration that has had the most profound effect, made worse because they happened “almost overnight”.

She gave the examples of the vast Gedo region in Somalia, about the size of Ireland, where the only medical care is delivered by a charity called Trocaire, another Bond member, that supports 1.5 million people living on the edge.

That service had been supported by a $1.7 million US-funded project, which has now been terminated, leaving entire communities without medical care.

“It’s absolutely catastrophic for the people these organisations are working with,” Ms Greenhill said. “But it’s not just catastrophic in the short term, it’s reversing years of progress.”

In southern Africa, the consequences are equally stark, with Frontline AIDS, another Bond member, forced to suspend all US-funded activities. This has meant 30,000 girls and young women can no longer access HIV services, and 26,000 orphans and vulnerable children have lost vital support.

While major advances have been made, the fight against HIV and AIDS through treatment and prevention programmes “has now gone massively into reverse”, she said. “It’s devastating on the ground. What we’ve seen is that the US cuts have had a particularly heavy impact on health.”

Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, in Abu Dhabi. Ryan Lim for The National

Philanthropist rescue?

While philanthropic groups such as the Gates Foundation have stepped in to try to fill some gaps, the charity chief warned that they cannot replace the scale of state donor funding.

“Philanthropies can take more risks, they can pilot and innovate,” she said. “But the amounts they can provide are far lower and they are not set up to do what governments do, which is to scale and sustain services.”

The danger, she said, is that the global aid system could become “misaligned”, with philanthropy delivering functions better suited to state donors, while other vast unmet needs go unfunded.

USAID cuts will impact this malnutrition treatment centre in Turkana, Kenya. Reuters

Lose-lose

Previously, the aid had given Britain tremendous soft power but following cuts under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2021, the annual UK aid budget shrank from £20 billion ($26.3 billion) to £15 billion, and now to just over £10 billion.

While the UK and others have promised to restore aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP when the financial situation allows, charities understand they have to push for longer-term solutions for impoverished countries.

Ms Greenhill said more detailed assessments and greater transparency from the Foreign Office was needed to ensure dwindling funds went to the poorest.

But ultimately, she warned, the potential consequences of the cuts will not be confined only to distant countries.

“This isn’t just devastating for people overseas,” she said. “It undermines our ability to tackle pandemics, the climate emergency, conflict and insecurity. It makes all of us, including the UK, less safe, less healthy and less secure. It’s a lose-lose.”