Bilateral funding is set to fall from £546m to £131m by 2028-29, with Nigeria earmarked to receive £68m of the remaining sum. Across Africa and the Caribbean, crucial development initiatives and poverty programs face steep retrenchment, including funding for the Caribbean Development Team plummeting to £45m. Environmental initiatives will also lose momentum, as the UK withheld financial backing for the newly launched Commonwealth Nature Initiative.
Key points
Severe aid reductions will specifically affect some of the world's poorest and most heavi…: Severe aid reductions will specifically affect some of the world's poorest and most heavily indebted Commonwealth countries.
Environmental protection efforts are shrinking because twenty-six Commonwealth nations ha…: Environmental protection efforts are shrinking because twenty-six Commonwealth nations have been barred from accessing the Darwin Initiative nature funds.
British leadership at the Antigua meeting refrained from financing the Commonwealth Natur…: British leadership at the Antigua meeting refrained from financing the Commonwealth Nature Initiative while working to prevent discussions on reparations.
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The UK government has slashed overseas aid to Commonwealth countries, the Guardian can reveal, in contrast to the warm words for the group from the king and the prime minister, Andy Burnham, this week.
Amid sharp cuts in the UK’s aid budget overall, the Commonwealth has fared poorly, an analysis of the most recent and projected aid figures, seen by the Guardian, has shown.
Funding from the UK to the Commonwealth nations that previously had bilateral aid programmes will be cut from £546m in 2024-25 to £131m in 2028-29. Of that total, a large chunk – £68m – will go to Nigeria, leaving £63m for other countries.
The revelations come as the king has attended the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) this week in Antigua, where he said it was “only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices” of slavery but where Burnham’s government fought to ensure that any discussion of reparations would be off the agenda.
The government has been cutting back on aid to countries that have been rapidly developing and are now judged…
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