U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced yesterday that the U.K. will dedicate half of the Department for International Development’s aid budget to developing “fragile and failing” states, as part of a “full-spectrum response” to the threat posed by Islamic State group.
The Department for International Development committed last year to spending 30 percent of its $18 billion aid budget on fragile and failing states, according to 2014 data from the Department for International Development. The shift announced yesterday would therefore necessitate a pull of approximately $3.6 billion from elsewhere in the aid budget.
43 percent of the U.K.’s total aid budget – including funds administered through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – currently goes to fragile states and regions, a DfID spokeswoman told Devex.
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About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
