Aid cuts have been a running theme in recent years — and 2025 is not poised for a dramatic turnaround as slash-and-burn government donors seem to be ascendant. However, in a shocking move, one of the most notorious offenders just pumped a major infusion of money into its development budget.
Also in today’s edition: An influential African agricultural organization gets a new leader, and we look at how millets are helping coal workers in India.
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Happy New Year indeed
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I feel like every story we write about the United Kingdom relates to its sad demise as one of the world’s preeminent donors to a skeletal shadow of itself after years of cuts and an infamous merger that blew up its development agency.
We then switched gears and my colleague Rob Merrick reported on the renewed hopes aid advocates had for the new Labour Party as it took power after a 14-year political drought. But then we switched gears again when it seemed Labour wasn’t going to do much to improve the U.K.’s dismal aid track record after all.
Well, we’re switching gears yet again to report that the U.K.’s development budget for overseas programs has been handed a post-holiday surprise in the form of about £250 million ($307 million), tamping down widespread concerns of a return to the devastating cuts made at the start of the decade, Rob writes.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will receive the boost because of higher U.K. gross national income — increasing the amount of the 0.5% GNI share allocated to aid — and an undisclosed fall in spending on domestic refugee costs.
Most of the extra money is expected to fund the U.K.’s increased pledge to the World Bank’s International Development Association, but it also encompasses a £50 million aid package for Syria.
Anneliese Dodds, the development minister, told a Parliamentary committee that her department’s financial position had been transformed, saying: “We’re not in a situation of having to cut measures.”
The move elicited praise — the cautious and limited kind. Gideon Rabinowitz of the Bond network for U.K. NGOs welcomed the “small uplift to planned UK aid spending this year,” but called for a firm deadline on stopping the raiding of the aid budget to meet refugee costs.
Still, when was the last time you heard a major donor saying they were adding money to their development budgets, instead of taking it away? For aid advocates, it marks a happy start to an otherwise foreboding new year.
Read: Shock rise in UK aid budget eases fears of fresh cuts
British brain drain
OK, we wouldn’t be journalists if we only touted the positive. Not to keep knocking the U.K., but it’s difficult to overstate the disappointment that swept through the development community when, five years ago, the country’s Department for International Development was swallowed up into what’s now known as FCDO, shrinking development’s influence and independence.
It also led to an exodus of disillusioned staff members, the consequences of which are still being felt today as around 60% of U.K. government development adviser posts remain unfilled, Rob writes.
The failure to find replacements was the fault of a freeze on external recruitment, according to FCDO officials who gave evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry.
Nick Dyer, a senior civil servant, denied the staffing crisis was the result of a controversial “Brits only” policy at FCDO — whereby only U.K. nationals could be appointed to senior U.K.-based roles — and revealed that Labour has ended the Conservative-imposed freeze, with a drive to recruit 200 new staffers now underway.
“We did lose about 20% of our professional capability just after the merger. If you look at our recruitments now, about 60% of all the development advisory roles in 2024, this year, haven't been filled because we haven’t got enough people in the business to be able to fill them,” he told the International Development Committee.
Dyer added that “our bigger problem was we lost a lot of seniority.” Asked if that was because many experienced staff members resigned because of the merger, he admitted: “There was a certain amount of that going on.”
Read: 5 years after UK aid merger, 60% of development adviser jobs are empty
+ For the latest news and analysis on FCDO and the U.K. aid sector check out our page.
Fresh crop
AGRA, formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, has a new president in Alice Ruhweza, who will take over from Agnes Kalibata after a decade-long tenure. Ruhweza, who will start March 1, is currently senior director for global policy influence and engagement at the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Founded in 2006, AGRA is an African-led organization dedicated to improving agriculture across the continent. Over the years, it has garnered more than $1 billion in funding from major philanthropic organizations such as the Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, as well as the U.S. and U.K. governments.
Kalibata’s tenure at AGRA has been marked by two major five-year plans, my colleague Ayenat Mersie writes. That includes dropping the emphasis on the Green Revolution and ongoing debates about the future of African agriculture — whether it should lean toward industrial farming, agroecology-focused practices rooted in sustainability, or a balance of both.
Ruhweza’s background in sustainability is thus likely to draw attention. Before joining WWF, Ruhweza worked at Conservation International, where she supported African governments and businesses in adopting sustainable practices in agriculture and fisheries.
The AGRA presidency is a five-year term; Kalibata reached the two-term limit as outlined in AGRA’s bylaws.
Read: AGRA appoints Alice Ruhweza as new president
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Millet up
Countries in Africa aren’t the only ones debating the future of agriculture, particularly in this epochal era of climate change, which is wreaking havoc on crops around the world. In India, the relationship between climate change and agriculture has taken on an added dimension.
To meet its net-zero target, India will have to make a giant leap from fossil fuels to greener energy sources, Devex contributing reporter Cheena Kapoor writes. It’s going to be a herculean effort — with nearly 400 coal mines, India is the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of coal after China. Thus any transition is likely to be economically devastating for the families who rely on coal for their livelihoods.
Millets or small-seeded cereals are ancient crops traditionally grown in Asia and Africa that today have become sought after as super-grains due to their high nutritional value. They are resilient to climate change-driven high temperatures and require less water to grow. And because they were not part of the Green Revolution, their genetic makeup remains varied, making them resistant to pests and insects.
So what does this have to do with India’s coal workers? The Indian state of Jharkhand recently became the first to set up a task force to enable a just energy transition. The task force, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme and Arya.ag, a grain commerce platform, is offering workshops on millet cultivation.
Shanti Munda, a small-scale farmer whose husband works in fossil fuels, is one of the beneficiaries. She learned finger millet cultivation and prepared millet snacks and sweets, which she said were in high demand in posh hotels in the cities.
“It was exciting to step into that huge hotel and to be able to talk to customers there. It was the first time I had stepped out of my village alone. I had no idea that something as simple as madua [finger millet], which we thought was tribal food, is so much in demand among the rich and the elite,” Shanti says. “I see a bright future for me and my friends, as farmers and chefs of millet products.”
Read: Can millet farming offer coal workers in India an alternative income?
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In other news
U.N. chief António Guterres voiced disappointment over BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, withdrawing from a major climate initiative, with his spokesperson urging others to “stay the course.” [Reuters]
The Australian government breached a human rights treaty by detaining asylum seekers, including many minors, on Nauru despite their recognized refugee status, the UNHCR has ruled. [Al Jazeera]
Over 100,000 people have been displaced in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year due to a new rebel offensive, the U.N. reported. [AP]
Update, Jan. 15, 2025:This article has been updated to reflect the correct current job title and institutional affiliation of Alice Ruhweza, the incoming president of AGRA.
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
