UK aid budget cuts are ‘death sentence’ for world’s most vulnerable children
UK aid charities, including Save the Children and Oxfam, have warned that budget cuts are acting as a 'death sentence' for vulnerable children in danger-prone areas around the world. The charities have urged the UK government to restore the aid budget back to 0.7% of national income, following a damning internal government report on the potential effects of the reductions.
The report reveals that reductions to the Women’s Integrated Sexual Health Programme across Africa will lead to a significant fall in the number of unsafe abortions averted, and in maternal deaths averted. It also warns of a substantial cut in aid for Afghanistan, leaving vulnerable women and girls without services, and details that in South Sudan, tens of thousands of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition will go untreated, potentially resulting in thousands of deaths.
The leaders of aid charities have responded strongly. Gwen Hines, CEO of Save the Children UK, has called the cuts a 'death sentence', while Katy Chakrabortty from Oxfam UK said that the cuts are causing lives to be lost and that there is 'astonishing' information available to ministers. Plan International UK criticised the government's 'relentless push to slash overseas aid' and accused them of failing women and girls around the world.
Despite these cuts, a Foreign Office spokesperson assured that the UK aid spending is due to increase to £8.3bn next year, focused on humanitarian crises and supporting the world's most vulnerable. However, aid is yet to return to pre-2020 levels when it was reduced temporarily from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%.
The leaders of aid charities have responded strongly. Gwen Hines, CEO of Save the Children UK, has called the cuts a 'death sentence', while Katy Chakrabortty from Oxfam UK said that the cuts are causing lives to be lost and that there is 'astonishing' information available to ministers. Plan International UK criticised the government's 'relentless push to slash overseas aid' and accused them of failing women and girls around the world.
Despite these cuts, a Foreign Office spokesperson assured that the UK aid spending is due to increase to £8.3bn next year, focused on humanitarian crises and supporting the world's most vulnerable. However, aid is yet to return to pre-2020 levels when it was reduced temporarily from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%.