In October of 2024, leader of The Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch promised to slash Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to an all-time low of 0.1% of Gross National Income (GNI) if they were successful at the next election. This is following the fact that the government has already planned to reduce foreign assistance from the current 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% from 2027. However, under the current pressing global realities, with the climate crisis, war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Gaza, why is international aid falling to the bottom of our priority list?
Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Committee, describes the cut as “deeply shortsighted,” whilst Bond, an umbrella group for UK international development organisations, states that it will have “devastating consequences for millions of marginalised people worldwide”. Despite this, it is not just the UK that is lowering ODA. The US, which provides over 50% of Africa’s development assistance, have massively reduced foreign aid spending, with Trump announcing the abolishment of USAID.
As a result, a number of life-saving humanitarian projects have come to a halt, such as vital HIV drug programmes in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Following suit, other countries have set out to review or reduce their ODA, including France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. So, the lowering of aid seems to be a global phenomenon. But what are the reasons behind this trend?
Clare Short, former Secretary of State for International Development, argues that “swings in attitudes towards development reflect the values of political eras.” Therefore, the general move to lower ODA can partially be explained by the fact that currently, many countries are experiencing shifts to the right of the political spectrum, giving rise to right-wing nationalist ideology. In addition to this, as our world becomes increasingly unstable there is a growing public desire for protection against external threats, which often takes the form of prioritising the national interest.
This has been reflected in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement when he said that “hard power” must be prioritised because “the national security of our country must always come first.” In other words, he argues that defence spending must take precedence over other forms of soft power, notably foreign aid. Brexit can be identified as one of the causes behind this attitude, as the nationalist, xenophobic rhetoric of the Leave campaign can be said to have marked the beginning of the UK’s retreat into isolationism. This was perhaps best symbolised in June 2020, with Boris Johnson’s decision to merge the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In contrast, the late 90s to mid 2000s saw a more positive, outward-looking national mood. Rapid globalisation was creating a higher level of interconnectedness between states than ever before, leading to increasing multilateral cooperation and a greater focus on global justice. At the 2005 G8 summit, states set the spending target of putting 0.7% GNI towards foreign aid, a pledge which was successfully achieved by the UK in 2013. In the same year, the G7 agreed to write off the debts of 18 of the world’s poorest countries, wiping out $40bn worth of debt in total.
The UK’s greater focus on global development in this era could also be explained by a left-wing government being in power, as data from the Centre for Global Development has proven that they tend to spend more on foreign aid. The study found that on average, left-leaning parties increase ODA by the much higher percentage of 3.6% per year, in contrast to right-leaning parties where spending rose by just 0.3% annually.
The sharp fall in ODA globally has already had detrimental, life-threatening impacts. Most significantly, the resulting suspension of HIV treatments in over 50 countries has put thousands of lives at risk, as patients no longer have access to essential antiretroviral therapy. On top of this, the escalating climate crisis coupled with increasing global conflicts has led to unprecedented levels of displacement and humanitarian crises, making the need for foreign aid even more desperate.
So why is it that we are lowering international aid at a time when it is needed the most? To summarise, the spread of nationalist ideology has led to a rise in far-right parties, who have a tendency to pull focus away from the international community and towards the so-called ‘national interest.’ Ironically, the increasingly complex nature of global challenges, which partially explains the turn to nationalism, is also the very reason why aid spending has become more important than ever. There is now an urgent need for international cooperation, not division. A move by governments to increase foreign aid spending could allow countries to come together and solve global issues, avoiding a retreat into isolationism that would have irreversible effects.
