The third time is not the charm as the British government takes an ax to its international aid budget yet again. The Treasury is cutting spending for “non-essential” programs — though it hasn’t specified what those programs might be.
Also in today’s edition: Lifesavers in the Philippines tackle the scourge of drowning, and the Ford Foundation revs up its progressive agenda.
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“Non-essential” aid can wait — that’s the message from the U.K. government, which is slashing international development spending for the third time in just three years.
My colleague William Worley reports that Britain’s Treasury is attributing the suspension of “non-essential” programs to the surging costs of domestic refugee programs, primarily related to Ukraine — although Afghan refugees in the U.K. will be in the mix as well.
So which programs will be deemed “essential” and how much money will everyone else lose? It’s not clear. Sources at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office tell Will their teams are still trying to figure it out.
The Financial Times reported Monday that the suspension will last at least until a new prime minister comes to power on Sept. 6 — replacing the recently resigned Boris Johnson — when either former Chancellor Rishi Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will move into 10 Downing Street.
Truss has taken heat for what critics call a transactional approach to aid that focuses more on political calculations — such as countering China — than on poverty alleviation.
Read: ‘Brutal’ suspension to UK aid to last until at least September
ICYMI: After Boris Johnson, what next for UK aid?
+ Catch up on all the latest news and analysis of FCDO and the U.K. aid sector.
Swimming solution
It’s a neglected but pressing — and preventable — global health threat: drowning. And it’s an “epidemic” in the Philippines, Arne Navarra, the president and CEO of the Philippine Life Saving Society, tells my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo.
Officially, the government says 3,000 people a year die from drowning in the Philippines, but Navarra estimates that the real number is around 10,000. Navarra’s volunteer-based organization is working to train 75,000 lifesavers nationwide by 2025, although that still may not be enough to tackle the issue.
More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, drowning is one of the leading killers globally of children and young people ages 1 to 24 years old — but doesn’t get nearly as much attention as communicable diseases do, especially when it comes to child mortality.
“In most countries, the vast majority of kids are going to make their first birthday, they’re going to survive,” Dr. David Meddings, who leads WHO’s work on drowning prevention at its headquarters in Geneva, tells Devex. “Well, how tragic is it that we've sort of invested all this resource and effort into vaccinating them, making sure they're healthy and safe. And then a 14-month-old or an 18-month-old child toddles off, unsupervised in their environment, and they fall into a pond? That’s really silly.”
Read more: The challenges of drowning prevention in the Philippines
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Cash flow
$29.6 billion
—That’s how much the United Nations spent on procurements in 2021, a jump of 32.5% from the year before. The increase was driven by procurements in the health sector, with 70% of the U.N.’s total procurement volume in 2021 going to just five organizations.
Who are they and who got the rest? Our meticulous development analyst Miguel Antonio Tamonan breaks it all down.
Funding insights: How the UN spent $29.6B in 2021 (Pro)
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Driving change
The Ford Foundation’s new international program director for gender, racial, and ethnic justice says she wants to do everything she can to advance a progressive agenda.
Monica Aleman is taking the reins of a program set up in 2019 to reduce gender-based violence and structural inequalities by working with organizations led by women and girls, especially in the global south.
Aleman tells my colleague Stephanie Beasley that she hopes to expand the program’s reach beyond its current focus on grassroots groups and potentially partner with the private sector and government.
“I have this hope of launching at least two different initiatives: one around the linkage between economic justice and reduction of violence, and another around healing and justice,” she says.
Learn more: Ford Foundation's Monica Aleman on equity and ending gender violence
In other news
Myanmar’s military junta drew international condemnation after announcing it executed four democracy activists, the first such executions in decades. [Reuters]
Ukraine says the first vessels with grain could leave Black Sea ports within days despite Russian shelling of the port city of Odesa. [BBC]
Pope Francis apologized for the “evil committed by so many Christians” perpetrated against Indigenous children in Canada. [The Washington Post]
Update, July 26, 2022: This article has been updated to clarify which British government agency is cutting spending for “non-essential” aid programs.
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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.
