By Catarina Demony
LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – Britain said on Thursday it would scale back international aid funding across much of Africa and prioritise countries affected by conflict, highlighting the impact of last year’s decision to cut development spending and use the money on defence instead.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up defence spending, stunned humanitarian charities in February 2025 when he said the aid budget would be cut to 0.3% of gross national income (GNI) from 0.5% to fund an increase to the defence budget.
Setting out the first round of spending allocations affected by that decision, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said funding for Sudan, Ukraine, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories would be protected.
Britain plans to spend approximately 1.4 billion pounds ($1.86 billion) each year in the places with the highest humanitarian need over the next three years.
“That does mean that direct bilateral aid funding for other countries will be reduced,” Cooper told parliament, adding the government would phase out bilateral aid to G20 countries, except for Turkey, which hosts a large refugee population.
She said aid to Africa and the Middle East would be reduced, noting that while countries such as Somalia and Yemen remained priorities, they would face cuts to direct grants.
Cooper said the approach would be based on “partnership not paternalism”, shifting Britain’s role from donor to investor, with a focus on sharing expertise instead of grants so countries can build capacity and thrive without aid.
Support for women and girls will remain a priority, Cooper said, adding that around 6 billion pounds would be invested to help those most affected by climate change.
Britain was the fourth largest international aid donor in 2024, giving nearly $18 billion, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States tops the ranking, followed by Germany and European Union institutions.
Britain’s overseas development spending was cut to 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) from 0.7% by the previous Conservative government during the pandemic. Starmer had pledged to restore the budget to 0.7% ahead of his 2024 election victory.
($1 = 0.7514 pounds)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony, editing by William James and Gareth Jones)
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