Policy Updates

On April 16, 2024, UK Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell announced an additional GBP100 million (US$119 million) in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia.

The funding is slated to be used to support Ethiopia’s access to primary healthcare services, support communities in becoming more climate resilient, and provide help for people displaced due to drought and extreme weather.

The pledge was made at the UK co-hosted Ethiopia pledging conference with OCHA. Ethiopia is facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with over 21 million requiring assistance, 15 million people facing food insecurity, and 4 million people internally displaced.

On April 14, 2024, the C7 published a statement ahead of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Capri from April 17-19, 2024, where the group called on the foreign ministers to take concrete action to promote human rights as well as the common interests of humanity and the planet.

The C7 advocated that the G7 ministers reaffirm their commitment to developing long-term peace-building strategies that address persistent structural challenges at the basis of conflicts, ensure food security even in fragile settings, and address a profound transformation of food systems. The group also called upon their governmental counterparts to ensure safe and regular migration channels and commit to protecting migrant rights.

On March 28, 2024, UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell committed to increasing humanitarian ODA to Sudan to GBP89 million (US$106 million) in 2024/25 in the face of growing humanitarian need in the region.

The commitment was made by Mitchell while on a trip to Chad, where he acknowledged the growing number of refugees from Sudan arriving in the country.

Some of the funding is slated to go to UNICEF for emergency and life-saving food assistance and nutrition, water and hygiene services for 500,000 children and to support survivors of gender-based violence. The funding will also support the WFP to provide assorted food commodities, including cereals, pulses, oils, and salt for thousands of people.

On March 25, 2024, amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Open Canada is criticized the government of Canada for its inaction to address the public health and nutrition crisis, as well as the government’s lack of focus on the African continent as a whole.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan followed the outbreak of war in April 2023, with 8 million people displaced, roughly half the population (approximately 25 million people) in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, a cholera outbreak, and a widespread famine predicted by June 2024.

Open Canada criticized the government for its passivity in the crisis, with neither Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly having spoken publicly about Sudan since shortly after the outbreak of war. While Canada evacuated its Sudanese embassy in April 2023, it did not follow other donor countries in maintaining the presence of a senior official in the region to assist in conflict resolution or support key international humanitarian and development organizations. Open Canada also noted that, unlike the EU, UK, and US, Canada has not imposed sanctions on Sudan.

The group also criticized Canada's apathetic approach to the region more broadly. Canada announced a new Foreign Policy Engagement Plan for Africa in 2022, however, the strategy has since been transitioned into a “framework” with the Canadian government yet to release any details of the plan. Open Canada called on the Canadian government to implement a proper engagement strategy in Africa, particularly amid the growing humanitarian, development, and security crisis in Sudan.

On March 24, 2024, BOND published a new manifesto setting out the steps the next UK government should take to help deliver on the SDGs and work in solidarity with its partners.

The manifesto is based around seven key asks:

• Act as a responsible and ambitious development partner. This includes returning ODA to 0.7% of GNI and providing new and additional resources for meeting global climate finance and ensuring the ODA program is headed by a cabinet-level minister with dedicated and well-resourced staff;
• Create an equitable and sustainable international financial system that works for people, nature, and the climate. This includes supporting a UN sovereign debt workout mechanism to deal with unsustainable debt in lower-income countries, pursuing an ambitious MDB reform agenda that increases their provision of resources and makes their governance more representative, and supporting a universal UN Framework Convention on tax;
• Recommit to the SDGs and ‘leaving no one behind. This includes ensuring UK development programs focus on those most in need, promoting gender transformative approaches to sustainable development, acknowledging care as an economic issue and a right and build the care economy in line with the 5Rs framework{title"recognition, reduction, redistribution, representation and reward"} for care work, and scaling up efforts to deliver universal access to basic services;
• Do our fair share to tackle the global climate and biodiversity crises. This includes ensuring all ODA is aligned with the Paris Agreement, providing genuinely new and additional grant finance for the Loss and Damage Fund;
• Develop a new approach to UK trade and private sector investment. This includes introducing new legislation that mandates companies, the financial sector, and the public sector operating in the UK to carry out human rights and environmental due diligence. It also holds them to account for failures, reduce the volume of UK funding being used to capitalize BII until it reforms to ensure it does more to contribute to poverty reduction;
• Promoting stability, security and effective crisis responses. This includes providing the UK’s fair share to support humanitarian crises, championing locally led approaches to anticipatory crisis prevention, action and resilience, establishing a prevention-focused national security outlook which focuses on preventing crises as well as responding to them; and
• Protect and promote rights, freedoms and civic space. This includes prioritizing meaningful partnerships with human rights defenders, including indigenous communities, women, LGBTQI+ advocates, migrant rights advocates and environmental defenders, removing restrictions on civil society campaigning domestically, and working with other governments to reverse restrictions on civic space in public debate and policymaking.

On January 19, 2024, the UK government announced that it has accepted all the recommendations made by the ICAI's review of the Blue Planet Fund, which included GBP500 million (US$599 million) in ODA for a DEFRA-managed fund aimed at protecting the marine environment and reducing poverty in low- and middle-income countries.

The review also recommended:

• Improving DEFRA management of the fund and appointing more staff to manage the fund;
• Strengthening cross-government strategic oversight over the fund. The UK government will conduct a rapid review to explore how to strengthen the functions of the JMB, the FCDO and DEFRA body responsible for oversight of the fund;
• Focusing all programs under the fund are focused on poverty reduction as their primary focus. DEFRA has committed to commissioning a review of the global evidence base on the linkages between poverty, and protecting and restoring the marine environment; and
• Ensuring greater effort is made to engage partner stakeholders in the programming process. DEFRA is committed to ensuring that partner voices are heard in all future programming.

On December 27, 2023, the UK government announced that it would commit GBP67 million (US$80 million) to the 2025-2027 replenishment of the IFAD.

IFAD is a UN agency dedicated to supporting those living in extreme poverty in rural areas. Nearly half of the world’s population lives in rural areas, and smallholder farmers produce 70% of the food in low- and middle-income countries.

UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell stated that the funding will boost food security, help alleviate poverty and support the environment. The UK has been a strong supporter of IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program, which enables smallholder farmers to gain access to climate finance to support adaptation efforts and protect biodiversity.

On December 19, 2023, the UK government released a new policy paper entitled Global Food Security Summit 2023 Chair's Summary: towards zero hunger and ending malnutrition, which provided a summary of the key outcomes and announcements of the UK-hosted Global Food Security Summit, held in November 2023 in London.

The summit was organized around three key themes:

Thematic Area 1: New approaches to ending preventable deaths of children.

This session highlighted that nutrition is an essential part of UHC and called for the need to integrate nutrition services into primary health care. The session also called for a more coherent approach to addressing early prevention and detection of child wasting and highlighted the need for more sustainable financing to address the issue. Associated announcements at the Summit included:

• The inauguration of Child Nutrition Fund, a new financing mechanism to scale up funding for child wasting. The UK pledged a further GBP16 million (US$19 million) to the Fund and Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives gave an additional US$8 million;
• The publication of new WHO Guidelines on the Prevention and Management of Child Wasting;
• The UK's announcement of a doubling of support under the Child Wasting Innovation Program, bringing their contribution to a total of GBP61 million (US$73 million). The program will run until 2030;
• The UK's announcement of an additional GBP38 million (US$45.5 million) in investment in health and nutrition in Somalia over the next three years; and
• The UK’s White Paper on International Development, published on the same day as the summit, also committed the UK to championing a new Global Compact on Nutrition.

Thematic Area 2: Anticipating and preventing famine and food security crises.

This session focused on the importance of prevention and anticipation strategies in countries facing the intertwined impacts of climate and conflict and the need to mainstream early warning systems. It also highlighted the need to scale-up disaster risk finance for fragile and conflict-affected states and ensure that flexible social protection systems are in place that can respond to shocks. It recognized the crucial role of civil society in crisis response and women’s empowerment as key to tackling food insecurity. Associated announcements included:

• The UK's commitment of up to GBP100 million (US$119 million) to respond to food security crises and their impacts on the world’s hunger and malnutrition hotspots;
• The UK's commitment of GBP100 million (US$119 million) to improve climate resilience in Somalia;
• The UK's commitment of GBP77 million (US$92 million) of humanitarian support to DRC’s food security crisis;
• The UK's and other countries support to drive forward a process for unlocking International Climate Adaptation Finance for fragile and conflict-affected states;
• The UK's and other countries support developing a partnership with the World Bank to better link Humanitarian Assistance and Social Protection to collectively address food insecurity; and
• The UK’s White Paper also announced a new Resilience and Adaptation Fund to act alongside its humanitarian support.

Thematic Area 3: Building a climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and food system.

This session focused on the need to support the transition to sustainable nutritious food plans, and systems via country, region-led and global initiatives, plans, and platforms. It also noted the need to use evidence-based approaches based on what has worked and called for more climate finance to be mobilized for agriculture, with a particular focus on supporting small-holder farmers. Associated announcements included:

• The signing by the UK and other key governments of the COP28 Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action;
• The UK's further contributions to the GAFSP;
• The UK's commitment of up to GBP45 million (US$54 million) in support over the next 5 years through the Just Rural Transition Support Program, in partnership with the World Bank
• The UK's commitment of up to GBP39.1 million (US$47 million) for the Just Transitions for Water Security Program.
  

Thematic Area 4: Harnessing science and technology for food security.

This session highlighted the importance of science and innovation in supporting food security and nutrition and called for improved accessibility to the benefits of scientific and technological advancement. It focused on the need to support sustainable scaling up of research and innovation through consistent, stable political and financial support and innovative finance models. Associated announcements included:

• The launch of the new virtual UK- CGIAR Centre for Science Collaboration and a UK commitment to provide an additional GBP45 million (US$54 million) of funding for the CGIAR, taking UK funding to a total of GBP110 million (US$132 million) for CGIAR over the next 3 years;
• The announcement of a new program focused on Scaling Agriculture Investment in Digital, AIand Innovation;
• New support to the Animal and Plant Health Innovation and Evidence Delivery Platform (GBP29 million (US$35 million)) including with CABI; and
• The creation of a new Nutritious Food Systems Policy Research Platform to grow a global network of researchers and strengthen the evidence on improving nutritional outcomes throughout the food system (GBP25 million (US$30 million).

On December 13, 2023, departing Chief Executive of Oxfam Great Britain Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah called on the UK Labour Party to ensure it puts global solidarity at the center of their international development policy.

Sriskandarajah noted the need to target ODA where it is needed and supporting strong public health systems. He advocated against UK ODA being used as a foreign and trade policy instrument and also advocated against the practice of counting in-donor refugee costs as ODA.

Sriskandarajah also called on the Labour Party to stop addressing development, climate, and migration as separate policy areas rather than interlocking issues. He recommended that Labour should work to dismantle vested interests blocking efforts to cut emissions, invest in helping refugees, and find innovative ways of raising funding to tackle big climate issues, including through fair-share pollution taxes and increased wealth taxes.

Sriskandarajah also called on the Labour Party to show leadership on debt relief for poor countries by enforcing private creditor responsibility through changes to UK law, supporting a new convention on tax to reduce tax avoidance, and responding constructively to growing calls for reparations by forging partnerships based on the pursuit of equitable development and racial justice.

On November 30, 2023, the UK ICAI released its rapid review of the UK’s Blue Planet Fund, which criticized management that has led to duplicated work in some areas and gaps in delivery in other areas.

In January 2021, the government established the GBP500 million (US$599 million) Blue Planet Fund, to support low- and middle-income countries reduce poverty and protect ocean biodiversity. The fund is managed jointly by the Defra and the FCDO, with Defra in the strategic lead.

The review found that key management processes were missing, including establishing monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, and that there had been inadequate consultation on country and regional needs. It also found that there was a lack of coordination and coherence between Defra and FCDO, which resulted in duplicated work in some areas and gaps in delivery in others. The review also noted that it was not always clear how the fund was contributing to poverty reduction, and raised concern about administrative costs being charged by Defra’s arms-length bodies to deliver parts of the fund, which were higher than the international development norm.

The review recommended that formal core central management functions be put in place and that cross-government oversight of the Fund be strengthened.