For a decade or more, NGOs in the United Kingdom benefited from a positive funding environment, as the government ramped up spending on development.
But in November 2020 then-U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer and now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced his government would be lowering the amount spent on official development assistance from 0.7% to 0.5% of the gross national income.
Since then, the U.K. — one of the five largest aid funders in the world — has seen billions in aid cuts across different sectors and geographies.