Foreign Aid

Almost all of the world's richer nations have at some point agreed to work towards a United Nations target to spend 0.7% of their GDP on aid to people in the poorest countries of the world.

In 2013, under a Conservative-led government, Britain became the first G7 country to actually hit that target and we have met it every year since then.

For the last seven years Britain has been one of very few rich countries - about half a dozen - which actually met or exceeded that target in direct government development aid.

Britain is also the only NATO country which has hit both the 0.7% aid target and the NATO target to spend 2% of GDP on defence. Britain takes our international obligations for both aid and defence as seriously as any other nation and more than most. 

On top of government aid, the British people as individuals are also some of the most generous in the charitable aid they give voluntarily on top of the aid paid for out of our taxes, which makes Britain one of the most generous rich countries on the planet in terms of the help we give to the world's poorest.

So it is with great regret that during the present domestic economic emergency the government has made the decision to temporarily reduce international aid spending to 0.5 per cent of GDP. 

  • At this critical time, we need to prioritise jobs, livelihoods and our public services.
  • In 2015, the Conservatives wrote into law a commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our national income on overseas aid in normal circumstances, but that act includes a clause which specifically allows the commitment to be temporarily suspended in times of severe economic difficulty.
  • If a pandemic which has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 British people and caused GDP to drop by 11% does not justify activating that clause, it is difficult to know what would. 
     
  • However, Britain will never step back from our commitments on the world stage, that is why the government remains committed to remaining at least the second highest aid donor in the G7 – helping us continue to tackle poverty around the world. The UK’s contribution to the OECD will remain higher than France, Italy, Japan, Canada or the United States.
     
  • Britain's commitment to spend 0.5 per cent is considerably more than the 29 countries on the OECD’s development assistance committee – who average 0.38 per cent of their national income. 
  • It is the government's intention to return to spending 0.7 per cent on helping the world's poorest people when the fiscal situation allows. 

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