Foreign aid cuts by Western countries including UK to trigger 'extra deaths of nearly 370,000 children', study warns
26 March 2025, 19:35
Foreign aid cuts by western governments, including the UK and the US, will see an additional 369,00 children to starve to death, a study has warned.
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Major cuts by big western donors could spark an “unprecedented crisis”, according to the study published in the journal Nature.
The UK's foreign aid budget will plunge by 40% in a cut of around £6 billion from 2027.
The Government has said it made the move to facilitate in a boost in defence spending to 2.5% within two years.
The decision prompted former development minister Anneliese Dodds to resign as she warned it would “remove food and healthcare from desperate people”.
Britain's foreign aid goes towards projects providing humanitarian assistance and health services. It also assists communities suffering the impacts of conflict - with Ukraine, Ethiopia and Afghanistan being the main recipients.
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Read more: Minister resigns over Keir Starmer’s foreign aid cuts
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the cuts by arguing it is just one of the many "hard choices" Britain will face in the coming years.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's purge of the state bureaucracy has seen the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) scrapped.
This department oversaw the delivery of much of the US' $60 billion annual foreign aid budget as America guts its overseas spending.
Cuts from other major donors include France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The report warns spending on emergency nutrition will fall by around 50% - about $290 million a year - due to all these donors cutting their aid budgets.
The study authors warn this will leave 2.3 million children without access to life-saving treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
Huge numbers would have their physical and cognitive growth stunted due to a lack of food following cuts, they said.
Severe acute malnutrition was responsible for up to 20 per cent of deaths of children under the age of five, reports The Times.
“The abrupt withdrawal of donor support leaves millions of critically ill children without access to these life-saving programmes.
"It is already undermining the institutional capacity, expertise and data infrastructures required to deliver essential nutrition services,” the report said
The Government has a target of spending 0.5% of gross national income on overseas aid, reduced from 0.7% by the previous government.
In response to this announcement, Ms Dodd posted her resignation letter online.
She warned cuts to aid spending will diminish Britain's standing across the globe and bolster Russia and China's attempts to reshape the global order.
Ms Dodds wrote: "Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people - deeply harming the UK's reputation."I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development.
"But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump's slipstream of cuts to USAID.
"The effect will be far greater than presented, even if assumptions made about reducing asylum costs hold true."The cut will also likely lead to a UK pull-out from numerous African, Caribbean and Western Balkan nations at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence.
"It will likely lead to withdrawal from regional banks and a reduced commitment to the World Bank; the UK being shut out of numerous multilateral bodies; and a reduced voice for the UK in the G7, G20 and in climate negotiations."All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.'
