The UK government has struck another staggering blow to women and girls around the world by announcing plans to slash the already shrunken UK aid budget.
CARE International UK is devastated by this decision, which could not have come at a worse time. Across the world we are seeing unprecedented cuts to aid budgets – endangering some of the world's most marginalised women.
This is unacceptable. We cannot stand by and let the world’s most vulnerable suffer due to this short-sighted, dangerous and cruel decision.
What is happening to the UK aid budget?
In February, the government announced plans to cut the UK aid budget which it says will help pay for increased defence spending. The planned cuts will be the largest cut to overseas aid in history, from 0.5% to 0.3% of Gross National Income by 2027, a cut of about £6 billion. This will make the UK one of the lowest contributors to foreign assistance among its peers.
The impact of the aid cuts
Make no mistake, this decision will be deadly. Analysis suggests these latest aid cuts could lead to over half a million preventable deaths.
Whether it’s austerity or aid cuts, we know women and girls are hit first and worst when spending is cut. The aid budget was plundered by the previous Conservative government only a few years ago, and they failed to protect funding for women and girls.
Our evidence shows that this meant that vital aid programmes that prevent violence against women and girls and fund women’s rights organisations were hit disproportionately.
The government must not make the same mistake, and needs to protect women and girls from the aid cuts.
Faduz’s story
One day there will be no solution. One day there will be nothing left."
Worst of all we know that women and girls will bear the brunt of this, as they do in every crisis. Be it conflict, climate change, famine – women are often the first to lose their rights, their health, their homes, their livelihoods. Ignored, exploited and excluded from decision-making, foreign assistance can be a lifeline for women battling their way out of crisis and toward a better future.
Women like Faduz, who lives with her five children in a camp for internally displaced people in Ainabo, Somaliland, along with 1,700 families - a total of 8,400 people. Due to the conflict only 30 kms away, three to four families arrive every single day, putting a strain on the already little resources available.
It’s been a year since Faduz and her 5 children came here, when they were forced to flee their home when conflict and gunfire broke out. “I only took my children. Once I had all five of them, I ran. My hands could not carry anything else, as I was holding the hands of my children,” she remembers.
When they reached the camp, she found relief in the kindness of others. Neighbours shared food. Clean drinking water was provided, but when the funding ran out, the water tank ran dry. Now this is the biggest struggle for her and her family’s survival. “Sometimes there is no water,” says Faduz. “I only wish for my children to survive. For them to have a better future.” But through it all, she clings to hope - hope that the world will not forget them, hope that the water will come, hope that her children will live to see a future beyond survival.
Behind every lost pound there is story like Faduz’s. A mother unable to provide food or water for her children. A young girl who needs protection from violence left to face increased risk. An earthquake victim without the means to rebuild their homes and livelihoods.
What we want from the government
The government must not turn away from people who face danger every day; women who need access to vital supplies now more than ever.
CARE International UK is asking the government to:
- Assess how aid cuts will affect marginalised communities, particularly women and girls, before implementing them
- Protect women and girls from the worst impacts by committing to funding gender equality programmes
- Prioritise funding for those who can create the greatest change, namely women’s rights and women-led organisations
More than 90 activists and advocates have joined our call to the government, and have signed an open letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The signatories – which include former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, 10 former heads of state including H.E. Joyce Banda and H.E. Aminata Toure, Dame Emma Thompson, Gary Lineker, and Annie Lennox – ask women and girls are put at the heart of foreign policy.
