Policy Updates

On May 10, 2024, USAID joined the AU Commissioner and 14 other partners in a statement of support for the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan at an AU-led soil health summit.

The US also announced US$40 million for the Space in Place approach, which is meant to support farmers with geospatial data and knowledge to ensure the best use of fertilizer for more nutritious foods.

Others joining the statement included the ADB, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, France, the World Bank, France, Canada, the EU, Germany, the Netherlands, the Rockefeller Foundation, Germany, and the UK. Commitments included improved investment policies, more access to fertilizers, enhancing soil inputs and interventions, and building capacity for soil health and fertilizer management.

On May 9, 2024, UK Foreign Minister David Cameron spoke on UK foreign policy at the National Cyber Security Unit, where he highlighted that UK foreign policy is linked with ensuring the domestic prosperity and security and the UK's place in the world, noting that the UK is both large enough to make a significant impact but small enough to act nimbly and quickly when needed.

Cameron noted that the top priority for the UK is ensuring both British and global security, reiterating the UK government’s commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defense by 2030 and committing 5% of the spending to defense R&D.

Cameron went on to note that a close second priority was standing up for British values of freedom, human dignity and human rights and supporting the multilateral system that upholds these values. He highlighted how much more funding the UK provides to tackling malaria via the Global Fund than Iran, and how much more the UK spends than Russia on funding the UN Central Emergency Fund for humanitarian disasters. Cameron also emphasized the UK's generosity as a donor to the GCF to support oceans and biodiversity.

Cameron expressed pride in the UK’s recent International White Paper and its drive to support the UN SDGs, reform MDBs, and enhance cooperation with the private sector.

On May 8, 2024, the UK released its new 5-year national plan, covering the period of 2024-2029, for tackling AMR in animals and humans.

The new strategy set out nine key goals under four key - themes:

• Reducing the need for antimicrobials, including through surveillance to prevent infections from arising;
• Optimizing the use of antimicrobials;
• Investing in the development of new vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics; and
• Being a good global partner through international leadership forums like the G7 and G20 as well as supporting low- and middle-income countries to respond to the threat of AMR through research, good supply chains and access to antibiotics via investments in the Fleming Fund, GAMRIF and the UKRI cross-councils initiative.

On May 2, 2024, the UK government responded to the ICAI, the UK’s aid watchdog, recommendations for tackling fraud in UK ODA funding.

The FCDO thanked ICAI for reviewing the UK's approach to combating fraud in ODA funding released earlier in 2024. The FCDO partially accepted ICAI’s first recommendation to take a more robust and proactive approach to anticipating fraud. The FCDO noted that it was actively exploring the cost-effectiveness of creating an FCDO Fraud Intelligence Unit and was expanding its Fraud Liaison Officers’ Network to strengthen oversight.

The FCDO also partially accepted the second recommendation to strengthen its fraud in its top 20 ODA recipient countries, noting that it will reinforce the mandatory annual assurance assessment across control and risk areas and expand its Fraud Liaison Officer's network.

The FCDO fully accepted the final two recommendations, which called for new fraud management guidance to be written for capital investments and to increase the Head of Mission’s oversight and accountability for fraud risks relating to centrally managed and other government programs.

On April 29, 2024, UK Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell highlighted the fundamental importance of comprehensive SRHR at the UN’s 57^th session of the Commission on Population and Development.

Mitchell noted the encouraging progress in improving SRHR since the turn of the century, with a 20% fall in unintended pregnancies and a doubling of the number of women using contraceptives. However, he emphasized that tough challenges still lie ahead, with maternal mortality and rights stagnating and female genital mutilation cases increasing.

Mitchell called on the international community to ensure that the forthcoming UN Summit of the Future, taking place September 2024 in New York, focuses on the issue of SRHR as a top priority. Mitchell also announced US$8 million for a new maternal and newborn health and rights program as the start of a much larger pledge the UK intends to make in 2024 and called on other countries to join the UK in the endeavor.

On April 17, 2024, UK Shadow Foreign Minister. David Lammy outlined the Labour Party’s vision for UK foreign policy if it were to win the next national election in the autumn of 2024.

Lammy grounded the party's vision in progressive realism. He lamented how the Conservative governments since 2010 have turned the UK inwards, threatening its standards of upholdingupholding international law and damaging the UK’s reputation as a global development leadership. In particular, Lammy highlighted the Conservative Party's mismanagement of DFID and the FCO merger, ODA budget cuts, and the exodus of development expertise.

To deliver progressive realism, Lammy argued that the UK needs to be realistic about the state of the modern world. This would begin by recognizing that the previous common consensus that economic globalization would lead to more liberal democratic values was wrong. Democracies have become more dependent on authoritarian states, with the share of world trade between democracies declining from 74% in 1998 to 47% in 2022.

Lammy also pushed to recognize the rise of China's economic and military power, the decline of US hegemony, and the rise of key regional powers non-aligned with specific blocs, able to strike deals with all the great powers as and when they like. This group includes Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, which are capable of ignoring the US, EU, and UK as they conduct business. He noted rising insecurity at the global level, with a strong focus on Russia and the ever-growing climate emergency as significant challenges.

Looking ahead, Lammy asserted that security will remain the central task of British foreign policy, and the two most important allies for ensuring security will be the US and Europe. He acknowledged that the UK must show willingness to share in the collective global security burden, but also noted the need to strengthen its foreign and security ties with Europe. Lammy called for a new geopolitical partnership with the EU driven by closer coordination in military, economic, climate, health, cyber, and energy security issues.

Beyond Europe, Lammy called for a focus on building relationships in the Indo-Pacific region, noting the need to maintain and strengthen ties with Australia, Japan, South Korea and India as pivotal partners. With regard to China, Lammy noted the UK must simultaneously challenge, compete against, and cooperate with China on the world stage.

On development, Lammy called for the UK to partner with the 'global south', particularly fostering engagement on tackling climate change, without which the global climate agenda will fail. He called for the Commonwealth to be revitalized as part of this engagement. As progressive realists, Lammy asserted that the UK needs to also look ahead at the future and how its relationship with other continents will change. He cited that by 2050, one in four people on the planet will live in Africa, yet the continent remains troubled by poverty, necessitating a new 'Africa strategy' beyond ODA to develop win-win partnerships based on mutual self-interest.

Beyond security, the Foreign Office will play its role in revitalizing the UK economy and trade through economic diplomacy. Lammy noted that if he becomes the next Foreign Minister, he will convene a new business advisory council to ensure that the needs of companies inform British diplomatic thinking.

Lammy finally called for putting climate diplomacy is at the center of UK foreign policy, noting that a Labour government would make advancing the fight against greenhouse gases central to its agenda. He advocated for the creation of a new clean power alliance, what he described as a reverse OPEC, of states committed to leading the way on decarbonizing power systems. A Labour government would also help reform international financial institutions to provide far greater support for climate adaptation.

On April 17, 2024, UK Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell announced at the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC that the UK would provide GBP100 million (US$119 million) to the Bank’s IBRD lending arm as a hybrid capital contribution.

The funding will unlock GBP1 billion (US$1.2 billion) of additional World Bank support over the next 10 years to help countries tackle pressing development challenges.

The funding will take the form of debt. Equity is part of the UK’s commitment in its White Paper on International Development to help MDBs stretch existing capital and implement reforms to make it easier for low-income countries to access the finance they need.

On April 16, 2024, UK Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell announced an additional GBP100 million (US$119 million) in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia.

The funding is slated to be used to support Ethiopia’s access to primary healthcare services, support communities in becoming more climate resilient, and provide help for people displaced due to drought and extreme weather.

The pledge was made at the UK co-hosted Ethiopia pledging conference with OCHA. Ethiopia is facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with over 21 million requiring assistance, 15 million people facing food insecurity, and 4 million people internally displaced.

On April 14, 2024, the C7 published a statement ahead of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Capri from April 17-19, 2024, where the group called on the foreign ministers to take concrete action to promote human rights as well as the common interests of humanity and the planet.

The C7 advocated that the G7 ministers reaffirm their commitment to developing long-term peace-building strategies that address persistent structural challenges at the basis of conflicts, ensure food security even in fragile settings, and address a profound transformation of food systems. The group also called upon their governmental counterparts to ensure safe and regular migration channels and commit to protecting migrant rights.

On April 11, 2023, provisional ODA figures released by the OECD revealed that the UK provided GBP15.4 billion (US$18.4 billion) in ODA in 2023, equivalent to 0.58% ODA/GNI.

The figures marked an increase of GBP2.6 billion from 2022, when the UK only provided 0.51% ODA/GNI. The data showed that 27.9% of the UK’s ODA budget, or GBP4.29 billion (US$5.1 billion), was spent on IDRCs.

While the share of UK ODA spent on IDRC has fallen since 2022, there has been a slight increase in the overall volume of resources allocated to in-donor refugees since 2022. According to the OECD, the UK provided the sixth-largest share of its ODA to IDRCs and the third-largest volume of resources among the members of the DAC. A recent rapid review by the UK’s ICAI on IDRCs revealed poor value-for-money spent on UK ODA spending on refugees. The review noted that the rising costs to the ODA budget resulted from the failure of the British government to tackle the significant backlog of asylum seekers waiting to have their claims processed and competition for scarce accommodation.

The provisional figures also revealed that the UK provided GBP9.9 billion (US$11.8 billion) of its ODA through bilateral channels and GBP5.5 billion (US$6.6 billion) through core contributions to multilateral organizations. Funding to multilaterals increased by 75.4%, or by GBP2.3 billion (US$2.8 billion), from 2022 levels, and the share of ODA delivered via multilaterals increased from 24.6% in 2022 (its lowest share to date) to 35.9%.

This significant increase in multilateral funding can be explained by the UK moving payments to multilateral in 2022 to 2023, causing a reduction in ODA delivered via multilateral core contributions in 2022 and an increase in 2023) and by the UK’s decision to bring some payments for multilateral organizations in future years forward into 2023.

The data also showed that the volume and share of overall ODA spent by the FCDO, as opposed to other government departments in the UK, increased in 2023 compared to 2022. The FCDO spent GBP9.5 billion (US$11.3 billion) in 2023, an increase of GBP1.83 billion (US$2.2 billion). As a share, the FCDO was responsible for 61.6% of UK ODA in 2023, compared to 59.7% in 2022.

While the share of region-specific ODA going to Africa increased, from 43.9% in 2022 to 52.4% in 2023, the overall volume of resources allocated to Africa stayed roughly the same, declining marginally by GBP8.5 million (US$10.2 million) between 2022 and 2023. The data did not provide a breakdown of expenditures by thematic area.