Helping in Turkey after the earthquake: British Development Minister Andrew Mitchell
Image: Reuters
After drastic cuts in the Boris Johnson era, British Development Minister Mitchell can only slowly increase aid for Africa again. This has consequences for many needy people and projects.
GGreat Britain will not regain its position as the leading Western donor country in international development aid in the coming year either. This emerges from the budget plans for humanitarian aid and development cooperation and from statements by the Minister responsible, Andrew Mitchell. Mitchell himself recently admitted that the budget for bilateral development aid in particular had to cope with “an enormous hit” in the current fiscal year 2023/24. The aid will only be able to increase again in the coming financial year.
The British development aid budget, which has met the target volume of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product since 2016, has been drastically reduced to 0.5 percent since 2020/21 in the wake of the pandemic. Expenditure for developing countries came under additional pressure because the budget also had to finance the accommodation and integration of asylum seekers and refugees in Great Britain. At the same time, the political status of development aid was weakened by the fact that the previously independent department of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was incorporated into the British Foreign Office in 2020.
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