The U.K. government announced a change to the way the aid budget would be calculated last week: It will no longer be adjusted for changes in gross national income. It’s a seemingly small and technical change but it could have a big impact on U.K. aid — for better or worse.
While it will make the size of the aid budget much more predictable and reduce the management burden, aid advocates fear it amounts to a “stealth cut” worth hundreds of millions of pounds per year.
For years, the U.K. aid budget has been calculated as a percentage of GNI, based on a United Nations target for wealthy countries to spend 0.7% on official development assistance, or ODA. The U.K. enshrined that target in law back in 2015, although — amid tough economic conditions and a crumbling political consensus — ambitions have been reduced in recent years to 0.5% and now just 0.3%.