Reacting to reports (Devex, Telegraph) that FCDO is planning to cut fundamental elements of UK Aid amidst shake-up ahead of new International Development Strategy launch, Mike Podmore, Director of STOPAIDS, said:
“UK Overseas Development Assistance is critical to global health, fighting climate change, preventing conflict and supporting those affected by it. If the UK does decimate spending across these areas then it would abandon the UK’s leadership in development and undermine decades of UK investment in some of the most urgent issues of our time.
This will see the UK step away from, rather than step up to, tackling global crises. It will certainly have a devastatingly negative impact on our collective ambition, committed to by the UK government alongside other UN member states, to ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. And it will prevent the strengthening of global health systems that will ensure we can bolster the global response to Covid-19 and are prepared for the next pandemic when it comes.
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs must deliver an International Development Strategy that does not marginalise UK influence in these critical areas but instead positions the UK to play a leading role in the most urgent global challenges we face over the next ten years.”
ENDS
For more information please contact our Media Officer Jake Atkinson via jake@stopaids.org.uk or on +447887348161