Last modified on Wed 28 Apr 2021 14.33 EDT
UK aid to individual African countries is being cut by 66% this year and aid to the Indo-Pacific region by 68%, aid agencies have said on the basis of new figures provided by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab.
The scale of the cuts was described by a former Conservative Foreign Office minister, Liz Sugg, as “difficult to comprehend”. She said the impact on education was being likened by experts to “acts of violence against the world’s poorest women and girls”.
Raab revealed at a Lords select committee on Tuesday that UK bilateral aid to specific African countries would be £764m this year, a figure confirmed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Wednesday.