\"The truth is that when funding stops, women and girls suffer, especially the poor, those living in remote, underserved communities and those living through humanitarian crises,\" it said. The UK this year announced it would slash its overall foreign aid budget from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of its national income, a reduction of about £4 billion. The programmes affected by the decision are now becoming apparent. On Wednesday, it was reported the UK planned to slash funding for international clean water and sanitation projects by 80 per cent. On Tuesday, Liz Sugg – a former Foreign Office minister who resigned in protest over the cuts – challenged the government to confirm which programmes would be cut. She said the government planned to cut the overseas budget for girls' education by more than 40 per cent. The former minister also claimed that Britain planned to close its Women’s Integrated Sexual Health programme and cut funding to the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition by up to 80 per cent. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he did not recognise the figures, but admitted no area was immune to cuts. Responding to the UN statement on Thursday, Ms Sugg said Britain’s withdrawn financial support to the women’s health organisation was a “double hit on the world's poorest”. \"The cuts which we're seeing to the aid budget are huge,\" she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Thursday. “This is money the UK committed to in the UN chamber, signed an agreement and now we’re walking away from it – it’s pretty unheard of.” She said the UK was traditionally a strong advocate for women and girls around the world. \"(The cut) means millions of women will not have access to contraception and sadly that will mean many unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions,\" she said. Former UK prime minister Tony Blair called on the leaders of the wealthy G7 collective of wealthy nations to redirect aid budgets to help poorer nations purchase Covid-19 vaccines. Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi emphasised the UK’s commitment to the World Health Organisation’s Covax initiative that helps inoculate the world’s poorest populations, with the UK donating £548m to the scheme. “We are doing a hell of a lot to make sure we help the rest of the world,” he told Sky News. The Foreign Office said the aid cuts were only temporary and put in place because of the \"seismic effect” of Covid-19 on the UK economy. \"We are working through what this means for individual programmes. Decisions will be announced in due course,” it said. \"We will still spend more than £10bn this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health.\" Official data shows emergency pandemic support measures have sent Britain's annual borrowing rocketing to the highest level since the Second World War. UK vows to reverse cut in international aid when economy recovers from pandemicWorld’s poorest countries braced for funding cuts ahead of UK aid budget announcementUK’s foreign aid cuts likely to hinder vaccination and climate change efforts","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The National","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/pf/resources/images/logo_rectangle.png?d=279"}},"articleSection":"Europe","keywords":["World","UK News","Europe","UK","Article"],"description":"Britain to reduce aid to global family planning group by 85%","thumbnailUrl":"https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/i1tHfIzEuAjUn1P-4VWdcZOEEmU=/400x267/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/thenational/SN7WCHVD3ASSYBJZYOGRTNAI64.jpg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/un-agency-accuses-uk-of-deserting-poor-nations-with-devastating-aid-cuts-1.1213123"}}