The UK is one of the largest donors for humanitarian aid, behind Germany and the US as Statista reports.

With so many causes of humanitarian aid there are calls for help from countries with the largest economies.

 

How much is spent?

In 2023 the UK spent around £15.4bn on foreign aid which is 0.58% of its gross national income. This was an increase of 20.2% from 2022.

The gross national income is the value produced by the country over the year, this could be from domestic production or from overseas.

 

Where is this being spent?

In 2023 a majority of foreign aid money was sent to Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sudan following the coup, Turkey and Syria after they suffered from earthquakes.

Since 2022 the UK has sent around £12bn to Ukraine and a further 2.5bn has been promised for 2024/25.

This included £7.1bn of military assistance with training programmes set in place with over 30,000 Ukrainians trained so far.

The UK has sent food and shelter supplies such as tents to Gaza since October 2023.

 

The UN’s Goals

The UN’s Sustainable development goals were set in 2015 to fight hunger, poverty and climate change by 2030. Only 15% of these targets are on track with plans being halted through COVID, the Ukraine war and other conflicts.

The UN set a target for countries to spend 0.7% of their Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance.

The United Nations report estimates around 575m people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 and 84m children will be out of school with 300m children in school leaving without being able to read or write.

 

Funding Cuts

In 2021 whilst the world was facing the battle with COVID-19, the UK cut funding from 0.7% to 0.5%. This meant disaster for many who rely on help, with various support programmes being cut.

Global Citizen states the consequences of foreign aid cut as, The Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls Prevention and Response Programme was cancelled. Female empowerment projects in Nigeria and Afghanistan were closed. Peace-building work in South Sudan ended. Education programs were cut. Around 72 million people were expected to miss treatment for neglected tropical diseases. Specialist work on conflict prevention lost millions allocated to the Middle East. Over 40,000 Syrian children lost out on an education.

The 2024 Budget failed to restore the aid budget to previous figures so these problems will only increase.