Where does Britain send foreign aid? See which countries get aid from the UK as Donald Trump axes US funding overseas

11 February 2025, 08:06

The Government has revealed its aid allocation for the upcoming year as Donald Trump threatens to pull US aid from countries around the world.

Aid spending has taken centre stage as after Donald Trump and Elon Musk announced their p,ans to gut the United States' overseas spending.

Trump's administration has revealed a plan to massively cut staffing worldwide for the country's aid projects as the President dismantles the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The plan would mean thousands of people employed by USAID will lose their jobs under the plan that leaves 300 positions in the organisation to administer humanitarian aid programmes across the world.

The UK has, in contrast, increased its overseas spending. Development Minister Annelise Dodds has said that while the government "notes" the US' decision to freeze funding, the UK "remains steadfast" in its commitments to international aid.

That commitment is reflected in the publication of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) aid allocations for 2024/25. In the new plan, total spending on official development assistance (ODA) will rise to £9.3 billion from £8.1 billion in the previous year.

Initial plans laid out by the previous giovernmernt in 2023 showed an expected spend of £8.3 billion on ODA in 2024/25.

Find out where the UK is sending money in the charts below.

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."