The United Kingdom’s aid budget is to be effectively cut by £580 million ($800 million) in 2022, after it was revealed that canceling debt owed by Sudan will count toward the nation’s reduced target of spending 0.5% of national income on aid.
The move is in line with aid spending rules but showed the U.K. risked becoming “a country that manipulates [international] rules to reduce its support for its poorest partners in the face of the worst economic crisis in a lifetime,” according to Ian Mitchell, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.
The move “confirms our worst fears of the Treasury’s intentions towards the aid budget,” echoed Ranil Dissanayake, a policy fellow at CGD. Both he and Mitchell sounded the alarm last month on the prospect of further U.K. aid cuts, highlighting Sudanese debt relief as just one accounting item that could be charged against the aid budget at the cost of real spending. Dissanayake added that dama
