Development Aid
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his new development financing strategy will prioritise the most vulnerable countries.
Answered by Stephen Doughty
Reducing poverty in the world's poorest, most fragile and unstable environments remains central to our Official Development Assistance (ODA). The UK will remain a leading humanitarian actor, in a world where 300 million people require humanitarian assistance. That includes our continued bilateral support to Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan.
Reducing the overall size of our ODA budget will have an impact on the scale and shape of the work we do. We need to focus on greater impact, ensuring every pound delivers for the UK taxpayer and the people we support. We will sharpen our focus on three priorities that align with the needs of our partners, UK interests, and where we can drive real change: humanitarian, health, and climate and nature, underpinned by economic development.
We expect to publish the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office final 2025/26 ODA programme allocations in the Annual Report & Accounts on the 21 July. Over the coming months, we will work through detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments, ahead of publishing indicative multi-year allocations in the autumn.
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