UK plans key aid cuts to world’s most vulnerable people
06 March, 2021
UK aid programmes offering assistance to a number of the poorest & most vulnerable regions of the world could possibly be slashed by upward of 60 per cent, with Middle Eastern and North African nations on the crosshairs.
Aid to Lebanon could fall simply by 88 %, Syria by 67 % and Libya by 63 %, according to statistics leaked to openDemocracy.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Britain’s aid contribution would be almost destroyed with a cut of 93 per cent being considered.
The figures, that have been marked “official sensitive”, are an insight in to the British government’s intend to slash its overseas aid budget.
Britain decided this past year to reduce its total shelling out for aid from 0.7 % of its gross national income to 0.5 per cent.
The other day, the UK was rebuked just after confirming it would drastically reduce aid to Yemen on 2021, despite the risk of famine and death for millions of folks there.
Middle East Minister James Cleverly told an on the net donor conference that the UK would give at least £87 million ($121.2m) over another financial year, when compared to £160m it pledged in the same summit this past year and £214m across 2020.
The figures also show Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo would face a 60 per cent cut in UK aid, South Sudan 59 per cent and Nigeria 58 per cent.
If the sub-Sahara funding is approved, it'll reduce £340m of aid to £23m.
Andrew Mitchell, an associate of the ruling Conservative party, demanded that members of parliament vote on the proposed aid cuts.
Sarah Champion, an opposition Labour politician on the International Creation Select Committee, accused the federal government of turning its backside on a number of the world’s most vulnerable people.
“Reviews of aid cuts to countries including the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], South Sudan and Syria - among many others on the brink of humanitarian crises - are deeply concerning,” she said.
“More of the very most vulnerable people on earth will head out hungry; healthcare systems previously under stress from a worldwide pandemic will struggle to operate; violence and conflict will no doubt escalate.
”The government must clarify the rationale for just about any cuts and become held accountable for the decisions it will require.”
The Foreign Office didn't touch upon the leaked figures except to say, “We remain working through what this signifies for individual programmes and decisions contain not yet been manufactured.”
Source: www.thenationalnews.com