Earlier this year, the U.K. government made a shocking announcement that it would reduce its aid spending to just 0.3% of its gross national income by 2027 — its lowest level in nearly three decades.
Despite this downward trend, we saw a continued increase in development contract spending from the bilateral donor’s lead aid agency — the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, according to data from the fiscal year 2021/22 to fiscal year 2023/24.
In this analysis, we looked into how FCDO spent on contracts in the fiscal year that ended in March 2025 — deep diving into which sectors were prioritized, where the projects were implemented, and who among the contractors got the largest share.