The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), in its annual report, announced bold plans to dramatically increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend in 2024 on a number of countries and sectors. After three years of drastic cuts to its overseas aid budget, Britain’s new proposals will see the country spend a projected £8.3 billion on both multilateral and bilateral aid, compared to £7.4 billion this year and just £6.9 billion in 2022.
The proposed increase was announced by Andrew Mitchell, the Minister of State for Development and Africa, who said that he was “confident” in the figures because of expected economic growth in Britain and planned cuts in spending on housing and feeding refugees.
“Because we managed to exert that control over the budget, the figures [on ODA spend] for next year are up very sharply,” said Mitchell.
According to the figures published on July 17, 2023, developing countries such as Afghanistan will see their aid from Britain rise to £151 million, up from £100 million last year (however, the UK spent £246 million on Afghanistan in 2022), and Pakistan will receive nearly triple the amount of aid, rising from £41 million this year to £133 million next year. Other hopeful beneficiaries of dramatically increased bilateral aid from Britain include Ethiopia (£214 million in 2024, compared to £89 million this year), Somalia (rising from £90 million this year to £138 million next year), South Sudan (£48 million to £111 million), and Yemen (£87 million to £139 million).
It is worth noting that the proposed budget for increases in ODA spend in 2024 are a long way from being finalized and are still dependent on implementing cost-cutting measures, particularly the amount of money being spent on hosting and providing for in-country refugees. Britain spent £3.7 billion last year on hosting refugees, largely from Ukraine, at a price more than triple than that of the year before (£1.1 billion), and the UK spends more on hosting costs per refugee than most other foreign aid donors
In addition, even if the proposed increases in ODA spend do become reality, Britain will still be a long way from honoring its previous commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI (ODA spend has been holding at 0.5% since 2021). However, Mitchell did announce that he plans to publish a white paper later this year to “rejuvenate” thinking on better implementing Britain’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which he feels is necessary to defuse growing anger abroad.
“The Global South sees the rich world spending money on humanitarian needs in Ukraine when children are dying in the Horn of Africa, and they resent that,” said Mitchell.
The UK spent £1.6 billion in 2023 on non-military assistance to Ukraine, including £160 million on humanitarian assistance, easily outpacing foreign aid spending on every other country.
The following figures were published in the FCDO report concerning projected year-on-year changes in ODA spend by region:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in Africa:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in the Americas and Overseas Territories:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in Europe:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in the Indo-Pacific:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 in the Middle East and North Africa:
Projected ODA spend in 2024 by type:
In 2020, under the leadership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Department for International Development (DfID) was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to create the FCDO.
Also in 2020, the FCDO announced a “temporary” reduction in ODA spend from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%, a figure that is likely to remain unchanged until at least 2027, according to the FCDO’s latest report. From 2017-2020, ODA spend in Britain was 0.7% of GNI. In 2021, it fell to 0.5% of GNI and rose slightly to 0.51% in 2022. Currently, each year’s ODA spend is contingent on budgetary funding availability.