The UK’s commitment to international aid “remains steadfast” despite the Trump administration’s pause on aid spending, the development minister has said.
Anneliese Dodds told reporters on Thursday that the Government “notes” Donald Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively shutting down the world’s largest aid provider.
She said: “This is a matter for the US. You will know that we as the UK are absolutely focused on making progress towards the sustainable development goals, and that requires collective action.
“We will continue to work with all of our international partners towards that end.”
Adding that the UK was carrying out an “urgent” assessment of the decision on its own aid programmes, Ms Dodds said: “Our commitment to supporting the humanitarian aid imperatives and development across the world remains steadfast.”
USAID has become a significant target for Mr Trump and Elon Musk, who has been tasked with imposing swingeing cuts on the federal government and claimed the aid agency was “evil” and “a criminal organisation”.
Ms Dodds’ comments followed the publication of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) aid allocations for 2024/25, which saw total spending on official development assistance (ODA) rise to £9.3 billion from £8.1 billion in the previous year.
Under plans set out in 2023, the previous government had expected the FCDO to spend £8.3 billion on ODA in 2024/25.
Ms Dodds stressed that she had made few changes to the plans set out by the previous government, in order to ensure “stability”.
There were some increases in funding, such as an extra £113 million in humanitarian support for Sudan and those who had fled to neighbouring countries, an extra £15 million for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and £50 million for Syria, where the Assad regime collapsed at the end of last year.
Allocations for Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, particularly India, were lower than plans set out in 2023, the last time the FCDO published its plans for 2024/25.
In a statement to Parliament, Ms Dodds also said that reductions in the amount spent on housing asylum seekers in the UK, which the Government includes in its aid figures, meant more could be spent on programmes overseas.
Ms Dodds also said any reductions to aid allocations were “a result of the previous government’s decisions”, except where teams had been “unable to deliver their full budgets” or where “changes in operating context” required “reprioritisation”.
The Government has a target of spending 0.5% of gross national income on overseas aid, reduced from 0.7% by the previous government.
Although Labour has said it intends to return spending to 0.7%, it has said it will only do this when the fiscal situation allows, echoing the position of its Conservative predecessors.
Gideon Rabinowitz, policy director at international development network Bond, said it was “encouraging” to see a significant increase in ODA funding for Africa, which was allocated £1.5 billion, and “beginning to repair the damage caused by devastating cuts over previous years”.
He added: “However, the Government could have gone further in prioritising the countries that need support the most, as a significant portion of additional funding is being directed toward (British International Investment), an institution with a less-than-stellar track record of prioritising these countries.”
