Impact of cuts to official development assistance on women and girls

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 9 July 2026:

Baroness Sugg (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of cuts to official development assistance on international development outcomes for women and girls.

1. Key points

• The UK plans to reduce ODA spending to 0.3% of gross national income by 2027 to fund an increase in defence spending. This would bring ODA to its lowest level as a share of national income since 1999.
• The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) multilateral ODA spend will be cut by approximately 22% over the period 2026/27 to 2028/29, and bilateral ODA spend will fall by 37%. The FCDO’s equalities impact assessment of its funding allocations found that reductions in bilateral ODA will have a negative impact on equalities.
• The government says women and girls remain a central foreign policy priority and has committed to ensuring that at least 90% of FCDO bilateral ODA programmes contribute to gender equality by 2030.
• Central spending on preventing violence against women and girls, the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative and the women, peace and security agenda will be maintained at 2025/26 levels.
• Increased defence spending has been broadly welcomed, but some politicians and development organisations have expressed concerns about this being funded by cuts to ODA and the consequences for aid recipients, including women.

2. UK official development assistance

2.1 Spending as a percentage of gross national income

The UK government provides support for developing countries through official development assistance (ODA). There is a statutory duty for the government to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on ODA, but this has not been met since 2020.

The 2010–15 coalition government made a commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on ODA from 2013 and the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015 later set the commitment as a statutory duty.^[1] In 2014 the International Development Act 2002, which sets out the legislative framework for ODA, was amended to require the government to consider how ODA can reduce poverty in a way that is likely to also reduce gender inequality.^[2]

The UK spent 0.7% of GNI on ODA between 2013 and 2020 in line with the statutory duty. However, in 2020 the Conservative government announced a temporary reduction in ODA spend to 0.5% of GNI from 2021, as permitted under the 2015 act. The government cited economic challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the reduction.^[3] The ODA to GNI ratio increased to 0.51% and 0.58% in 2022 and 2023 respectively due to increased ODA spending within the UK associated with supporting refugees.^[4]

The ODA spend fell to 0.5% in 2024.^[5] The Labour government said this was because “the fiscal circumstances did not allow for ODA spending to be returned to 0.7% of GNI in 2024”.^[6] According to provisional figures, ODA spending fell again, to 0.43% of GNI in 2025.^[7]

In February 2025, the government announced it would reduce ODA spending further, to the equivalent of 0.3% of GNI by 2027, to fund an increase in defence and security spending.^[8] The government said “this difficult choice reflects the evolving nature of the threat and the strategic shift required to meet it while maintaining economic stability”.^[9] As a result of this change, the government expected to spend £0.5bn less on ODA in 2025/26, £4.8bn less in 2026/27 and £6.5bn less in 2027/28 compared to if it had maintained ODA spending at 0.5% of GNI.^[10] The spring statement in March 2025 set an ODA spending profile for future financial years based on GNI levels in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s spring forecast.^[11] The government said that to improve budget stability, these ODA spending profiles would not be adjusted if GNI fluctuated.

The government said it was “committed to restoring ODA spending at the level of 0.7% of GNI as soon as fiscal circumstances allow”.^[12] It said “the principles for a return will be met when, on a sustainable basis, the government is not borrowing for day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling”. It said the latest forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility indicated these tests would not be met in the current parliament.

The House of Commons Library noted that cutting ODA spending to 0.3% of GNI would bring UK ODA spending as a percentage of GNI to its lowest level since 1999, and its lowest level in cash terms since 2012.^[13]

2.2 Departmental expenditure limits 2026/27 to 2028/29

In the June 2025 spending review, the government published its planned departmental expenditure limits (DEL) for ODA for the following three financial years:^[14]

• 2026/27: £10bn
• 2027/28: £8.9bn
• 2028/29: £9.4bn

The majority of this (£6.8bn in 2026/27, £6.1bn in 2027/28 and £6.9bn in 2028/29) was allocated to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to spend.^[15] Other departments also received some allocations to spend on their programmes, for example the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Some of the overall ODA DEL was also forecast to be spent on in-donor refugee costs, the first year of costs associated with supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.^[16] The government said it was “committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall” and it anticipated policy measures it was implementing “will drive down overall in-donor refugee costs” over the spending review period.^[17] The government spent £2.4bn of ODA on in-donor refugee costs in 2025 (18.3% of total UK ODA).^[18] This represented a £432mn (15.3%) decrease compared to 2024.

The FCDO set out its ODA programme allocations for 2026/27 to 2028/29 in March 2026.^[19] Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was increasing the share of the FCDO’s programme ODA which would be spent through multilateral organisations. This would be “targeted strategically towards the most effective multilateral organisations”. In contrast, bilateral ODA allocations—funding provided directly for programmes in other countries—would reduce as a proportion of the ODA budget and would be prioritised towards countries and regions where humanitarian needs were most acute. Over the period, on average FCDO multilateral ODA spend will be cut by approximately 22%, while bilateral ODA spend will fall by 37%.^[20]

3. Approach to supporting women and girls

3.1 Gender equality in ODA spending

The government said that in making these spending decisions, “the foreign secretary is clear that women and girls are at the heart of our foreign policy priorities”.^[21] In March 2026, Yvette Cooper set out the government’s “revised” and “modernised” approach to international development in light of the decision to reduce ODA in favour of increased defence spending.^[22] In summary:

The UK will move towards modern development partnerships, underpinned by four essential shifts, from donor to investor; service delivery to system support; grants to expertise, and international intervention to local solutions. FCDO’s bilateral centrally managed programmes (CMPs) will be rationalised, to deliver through ‘communities of expertise’, innovation through our research and development (R&D) portfolio, and investment vehicles.^[23]

As part of this revised approach, she said she had taken the decision “to make support for women and girls not just a priority for development, but a central theme across the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office”.^[24] This included making a commitment that at least 90% of FCDO bilateral ODA programmes will contribute to gender equality by 2030.^[25] This builds on a commitment made by the Conservative government in its ‘International women and girls strategy 2023–2030’, published in March 2023, to commit to at least 80% of the FCDO’s bilateral aid programmes having a focus on gender equality by 2030.^[26]

This “gender-mainstreaming approach” to the FCDO’s ODA programmes is set to involve the following actions:

FCDO will launch a new community of expertise on women and equalities to support the network and partners including through innovative finance, support to women’s rights organisations, and new programmes to protect women and girls from violence. Spending teams will be instructed to embed gender equality objectives and targeted interventions into existing programmes, particularly programmes under the themes of humanitarian, climate, health, education in crisis, and growth and jobs, and to strengthen the delivery of multilateral institutions on their commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment.^[27]

The FCDO has also allocated additional funding of £82mn per year (on average) to fund central programmes on gender and equalities, health and education which will be used to (among other things):^[28]

• “fully protect” central spending on preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG), the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative (PSVI) and women, peace and security (WPS) at 2025/26 levels
• “relatively protect” the women’s integrated sexual health dividend (WISH-D) centrally managed programme in Africa
• “avoid disproportionate reductions” to funding for groups led by and for marginalised populations, including women’s rights organisations

The FCDO conducted an equality impact assessment of the 2026/27 to 2028/29 ODA programme allocations.^[29] This included assessing the impact on equalities-targeted programmes—those that have gender equality or disability inclusion as a principal aim—and on social sectors: health (including maternal, child and sexual reproductive health), primary and secondary education (which aims to benefit children, including girls), and social protection. These sectors were chosen because they typically aim to provide direct benefits to people according to protected and relevant characteristics.^[30] Overall, the FCDO concluded that:

Multilateral spend has been prioritised. UK multilateral spend will deliver positive impact, though in total the impact will fall due to absolute reductions in spend. Overall, reductions are not expected to impact disproportionately according to protected or relevant characteristics.

Bilateral ODA has been cut more heavily than multilateral ODA and reductions will have negative impact. Ministerial decisions have prevented disproportionate reductions to centrally managed spend that is equalities-targeted and in the social sector. The risk of disproportionate reductions to equalities-targeted and social sector spend in country and regional programme portfolios is subject to future final decisions on individual programmes.

An earlier assessment of the 2025/26 allocations had found that there would be negative impacts on equality (measured primarily in terms of gender and disability) as a result of reductions in bilateral aid.^[31] However, protected spending, in the areas of multilateral, humanitarian, financial transactions, international climate finance, and research and development spending, would have a positive impact on equality. Overall, the assessment found the cuts would reduce positive impacts on equalities but would not have a disproportionate effect.

Areas where cuts would have a negative impact include:

• a 25 percent reduction in the planned increase to the women, peace and security programme
• reductions in spending on education in Africa
• reductions in spending on women’s health, health systems strengthening and health emergency response in Africa
• reductions in social protection in Kenya

In addition, 10 of the 12 programmes put forward for closure or pause were equalities focused.

3.2 UK international strategic framework on women and girls

The FCDO published the ‘UK international strategic framework on women and girls 2026’ in May 2026, setting out how it intends to put women and girls at the centre of its international work. The framework identified four priorities, to:^[32]

• tackle violence against women and girls in all its forms, including online and in conflict
• increase women’s economic empowerment, access to jobs, finance and digital opportunities
• strengthen women’s political and civic participation and leadership
• improve access to education and health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights

The framework highlighted the new commitment to ensuring at least 90% of FCDO bilateral ODA programmes will contribute to gender equality by 2030 as one way in which the UK will “mainstream” gender equality.^[33] But it presented ODA funding as only one of the “foreign policy levers” it could use to drive progress for women and girls.^[34] The framework said the UK would deliver by:^[35]

• using its diplomatic leadership to drive global progress on gender equality and champion women’s and girls’ rights
• working through multilateral institutions and partnerships to scale impact and strengthen delivery
• building long-term, locally led partnerships that strengthen systems and support sustainable progress
• mainstreaming gender equality across all policy, programme and decision-making
• engaging men and boys to challenge harmful norms and support lasting change

4. Reaction

There was mixed political reaction to the announcement in 2025 that development spending would be reduced to fund an increase in defence spending. Anneliese Dodds resigned as international development minister and minister for women and equalities, arguing that the “tactical decision […] for ODA to absorb the entire burden” of the cuts would “remove food and healthcare from desperate people” and make it “impossible” for the UK to maintain all its development priorities.^[36] In contrast, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said it was “absolutely right” to move money from the overseas development budget to increase defence spending.^[37] Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, agreed there was an “urgent need” to spend more on defence, but believed it was a “big mistake” to pay for it by cutting international development.^[38]

Commenting on the impact on women, Bond, a UK network for organisations working in international development, noted that education, gender and equality programme spending allocations would fall by 42% in 2025/26 compared to the previous year, which it described as “concerning”.^[39] It said “the world’s most marginalised communities, particularly those experiencing conflict and women and girls, will pay the highest price” for the government’s spending choices.

The House of Commons International Development Committee has also looked at the impact on women and girls specifically. Commenting on the announcement in March 2026 of the FCDO’s ODA allocations for the next three years, committee chair Sarah Champion said the government’s decisions had been made on a “false dichotomy” that pitched defence against development.^[40] Nevertheless, Ms Champion said the focus on women and girls was “encouraging”. She said the committee would scrutinise closely the promise that at least 90% of the FCDO’s aid programmes would integrate gender equality by 2030.

The committee has subsequently published two reports that touch on the impacts of UK funding on international development outcomes for women and girls. In March 2026, the committee published a report on the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda, an international policy framework, based on a number of UN Security Council resolutions, to guide work to promote and protect the rights of women in conflict and post-conflict situations.^[41] The committee found the UK had made “commendable commitments to advancing and upholding the WPS agenda” against a backdrop of increasing conflicts.^[42] However, the committee also concluded that the government’s commitment to the policies and ambitions in the UK’s WPS national action plan “appears to be waning” and that the government “continues to reduce funding and resourcing towards WPS, or WPS-related initiatives, despite the devastating impacts this has on women and girls”.

In a separate report on the future of aid and the government’s new approach (as outlined by Yvette Cooper in March 2026), the committee said the government was “engaging constructively with the realities of an increasingly unpredictable global situation”, but had yet to show “its workings on many of the priorities it has made”.^[43] The committee said that it was “vital that, as the UK government rethinks aid policy in a very different global setting […] women are put front and centre of the decision-making processes”.

5. Read more

• House of Commons Library, ‘UK aid: Reducing spending to 0.3% of GNI by 2027/28’, 1 July 2026
• House of Lords Library, ‘International women’s day 2026’, 23 February 2026 (This briefing looks at progress internationally towards meeting the UN’s sustainable development goal on gender equality and the impact on women and girls of reductions in UK and other developed-country aid.)
• House of Commons Library, ‘UK aid and women and girls’, 9 April 2025

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Image by DFID on Flickr.