MPs insist UK aid for at-risk women and girls must be reinstated

The UK can no longer be considered a “global aid superpower” as failures on funding commitments will lead to thousands of women and girls dying in pregnancy or childbirth, according to MPs.

A report by the cross-party International Development Committee is scathing in its assessment of the Government’s decision to slash UK aid, accusing ministers of abandoning marginalised groups around the world.

The committee found budgets for sexual and reproductive health and rights projects were reduced or cancelled entirely, often without notice.

Cuts to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s funding for multilateral organisations working in this area had the deepest impact on the most marginalised, it added.

Women and girls and people with disabilities were the most affected – and relationships with both aid partners and those receiving support were damaged, while the UK’s reputation as a “credible and serious partner” was tarnished, the report said.

The report said the UK’s aid budget has “faced numerous pressures” since 2020, resulting in the Foreign Office’s spending falling from £11.8 million in 2019 to £7.6 million in 2022.

This reduction is said to have had a “substantial impact” on the department’s work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, with the most recent estimates suggesting spending had been cut by a third.

The report found Foreign Office spending has halved on family planning and dropped by 37% on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health since 2019.

The UK had also reduced its contributions to various multilateral funds which provide organisations with flexibility to respond to changing contexts and needs.

Sarah Champion, Labour chairwoman of the International Development Committee, cited the United Nations which last year declared “the world is failing girls and women”, with equality and women’s rights “backsliding and decades of progress being lost”.

She added: “A girl in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish secondary school. Even here in the UK, maternal deaths are at their highest level in 20 years, but almost 95% of maternal deaths globally are in poorer countries. Some 70% of these women and girls die in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“The UK has had a long proud history of diplomatic and aid programming support of SRHR, but last year’s Equalities Impact Assessment from the FCDO showed the horrifying numbers of women and girls, thousands upon thousands, who will once again face unsafe abortions and who will die in pregnancy or childbirth as a direct result of the UK’s slashed aid spending.”

Ms Champion insisted it was “no good” the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron recently declaring the UK a global aid superpower “when we are failing on funding commitments, failing to set or achieve meaningful targets on sexual and reproductive health and rights – failing women, girls and marginalised groups the world over.”

The committee called on the Government to make a new commitment to women and girls and reinstate funding and targets.

“Our shared global sustainable development goals are stalled or going into reverse: we will not progress until the rights of women, girls and marginalised groups are prioritised and funded,” Ms Champion added.

The report said nearly 300,000 women died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth globally in 2020, with the vast majority in poorer countries, including 70% in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We thank the International Development Committee (IDC) for its report and recommendations which we will be looking at carefully.

“The UK has long been proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and our support for the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents has helped hundreds of millions of individuals in over 35 countries to access vital services.

“As the IDC acknowledge in their report, the recently published International Development White Paper reiterates UK’s commitment to deploy policy and investment to defend strongly and to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights, including safe abortion.”