Policy Updates

On April 17, 2024, UK Shadow Foreign Minister. David Lammy outlined the Labour Party’s vision for UK foreign policy if it were to win the next national election in the autumn of 2024.

Lammy grounded the party's vision in progressive realism. He lamented how the Conservative governments since 2010 have turned the UK inwards, threatening its standards of upholdingupholding international law and damaging the UK’s reputation as a global development leadership. In particular, Lammy highlighted the Conservative Party's mismanagement of DFID and the FCO merger, ODA budget cuts, and the exodus of development expertise.

To deliver progressive realism, Lammy argued that the UK needs to be realistic about the state of the modern world. This would begin by recognizing that the previous common consensus that economic globalization would lead to more liberal democratic values was wrong. Democracies have become more dependent on authoritarian states, with the share of world trade between democracies declining from 74% in 1998 to 47% in 2022.

Lammy also pushed to recognize the rise of China's economic and military power, the decline of US hegemony, and the rise of key regional powers non-aligned with specific blocs, able to strike deals with all the great powers as and when they like. This group includes Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, which are capable of ignoring the US, EU, and UK as they conduct business. He noted rising insecurity at the global level, with a strong focus on Russia and the ever-growing climate emergency as significant challenges.

Looking ahead, Lammy asserted that security will remain the central task of British foreign policy, and the two most important allies for ensuring security will be the US and Europe. He acknowledged that the UK must show willingness to share in the collective global security burden, but also noted the need to strengthen its foreign and security ties with Europe. Lammy called for a new geopolitical partnership with the EU driven by closer coordination in military, economic, climate, health, cyber, and energy security issues.

Beyond Europe, Lammy called for a focus on building relationships in the Indo-Pacific region, noting the need to maintain and strengthen ties with Australia, Japan, South Korea and India as pivotal partners. With regard to China, Lammy noted the UK must simultaneously challenge, compete against, and cooperate with China on the world stage.

On development, Lammy called for the UK to partner with the 'global south', particularly fostering engagement on tackling climate change, without which the global climate agenda will fail. He called for the Commonwealth to be revitalized as part of this engagement. As progressive realists, Lammy asserted that the UK needs to also look ahead at the future and how its relationship with other continents will change. He cited that by 2050, one in four people on the planet will live in Africa, yet the continent remains troubled by poverty, necessitating a new 'Africa strategy' beyond ODA to develop win-win partnerships based on mutual self-interest.

Beyond security, the Foreign Office will play its role in revitalizing the UK economy and trade through economic diplomacy. Lammy noted that if he becomes the next Foreign Minister, he will convene a new business advisory council to ensure that the needs of companies inform British diplomatic thinking.

Lammy finally called for putting climate diplomacy is at the center of UK foreign policy, noting that a Labour government would make advancing the fight against greenhouse gases central to its agenda. He advocated for the creation of a new clean power alliance, what he described as a reverse OPEC, of states committed to leading the way on decarbonizing power systems. A Labour government would also help reform international financial institutions to provide far greater support for climate adaptation.

On April 17, 2024, UK Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell announced at the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC that the UK would provide GBP100 million (US$119 million) to the Bank’s IBRD lending arm as a hybrid capital contribution.

The funding will unlock GBP1 billion (US$1.2 billion) of additional World Bank support over the next 10 years to help countries tackle pressing development challenges.

The funding will take the form of debt. Equity is part of the UK’s commitment in its White Paper on International Development to help t:abbrMDBs stretch existing capital and implement reforms to make it easier for low-income countries to access the finance they need.

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 April 11, 2023, provisional ODA figures released by the OECD revealed that the UK provided GBP15.4 billion (US$18.4 billion) in ODA in 2023, equivalent to 0.58% ODA/GNI.

The figures marked an increase of GBP2.6 billion from 2022, when the UK only provided 0.51% ODA/GNI. The data showed that 27.9% of the UK’s ODA budget, or GBP4.29 billion (US$5.1 billion), was spent on IDRCs.

While the share of UK ODA spent on IDRC has fallen since 2022, there has been a slight increase in the overall volume of resources allocated to in-donor refugees since 2022. According to the OECD, the UK provided the sixth-largest share of its ODA to IDRCs and the third-largest volume of resources among the members of the DAC. A recent rapid review by the UK’s ICAI on IDRCs revealed poor value-for-money spent on UK ODA spending on refugees. The review noted that the rising costs to the ODA budget resulted from the failure of the British government to tackle the significant backlog of asylum seekers waiting to have their claims processed and competition for scarce accommodation.

The provisional figures also revealed that the UK provided GBP9.9 billion (US$11.8 billion) of its ODA through bilateral channels and GBP5.5 billion (US$6.6 billion) through core contributions to multilateral organizations. Funding to multilaterals increased by 75.4%, or by GBP2.3 billion (US$2.8 billion), from 2022 levels, and the share of ODA delivered via multilaterals increased from 24.6% in 2022 (its lowest share to date) to 35.9%.

This significant increase in multilateral funding can be explained by the UK moving payments to multilateral in 2022 to 2023, causing a reduction in ODA delivered via multilateral core contributions in 2022 and an increase in 2023) and by the UK’s decision to bring some payments for multilateral organizations in future years forward into 2023.

The data also showed that the volume and share of overall ODA spent by the FCDO, as opposed to other government departments in the UK, increased in 2023 compared to 2022. The FCDO spent GBP9.5 billion (US$11.3 billion) in 2023, an increase of GBP1.83 billion (US$2.2 billion). As a share, the FCDO was responsible for 61.6% of UK ODA in 2023, compared to 59.7% in 2022.

While the share of region-specific ODA going to Africa increased, from 43.9% in 2022 to 52.4% in 2023, the overall volume of resources allocated to Africa stayed roughly the same, declining marginally by GBP8.5 million (US$10.2 million) between 2022 and 2023. The data did not provide a breakdown of expenditures by thematic area.

On April 8, 2024, Canada’s IDRC announced a new CAD70 million (US$51 million) partnership with the UK's FCDO to fund the AI4D partnership.

The partnership builds on the IDRC’s AI4D Africa partnership with the Sida, which has worked closely with African communities since 2020 to support AI development through high-quality research, responsible innovation, and talent strengthening.

The research is slated to focus on innovative, sustainable, and responsible AI that supports the establishment of research networks and policy labs. It will also help mitigate the risks of this disruptive technology, including the identification of existing biases in AI systems.

On April 4, 2024, UK Minister for International Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell committed GBP27 million (US$32 million) to improve family planning care and MNCH in Tanzania and a further GBP6 million (US$7 million) to boost vulnerable communities access to green energy in the country.

The announcement was made in anticipation of Mitchell's four-day trip to East Africa. The commitment included:

• GBP15 million (US$18 million) for a five-year initiative to improve Tanzania’s primary health systems, with a focus on saving the lives of mothers and babies;
• GBP12 million (US$14 million) to extend the UK’s Scaling up Family Planning Programme for an additional two years, enabling an additional 900,000 people to receive services; and
• An additional GBP6 million (US$7 million) for a new program to provide vulnerable communities with greater access to clean energy and improved urban resilience.

During his trip, Mitchell also announced a Mutual Prosperity Partnership with Tanzania, which aims to unlock GBP1 billion (US$1. 2 billion) of UK government-backed investment in Tanzania between 2024 and 2030 and increase UK-Tanzania trade.

On April 2, 2024, it was reported that GBP600 million (US$719 million) of the GBP900 million (US$1.1 billion) anticipated increase in the UK FCDO’s ODA for 2024/25 will be spent on private sector investment.

The allocation is due to former Foreign Minister Liz Truss’ commitment to double financial transactions, or funding for private sector investments, to GBP1.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) in 2024/25. As a result of this commitment, GBP600 million of the increase must be allocated to private sector investments via BII and other development finance institutions rather than as frontline assistance.

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, the UK’s ICAI published the findings of its review into the FCDO’s management of fraud risk at the country level, which found underinvestment in the central anti-fraud team despite robust mechanisms and processes in place to tackle fraud, resulting in staff overseas lacking sufficient support.

The review found that underinvestment stemmed from a number of factors. The COVID-19 pandemic limited travel and reduced support, ODA budget cuts often impacted monitoring and evaluation, reducing oversight, and the FCDO merger led to new financial systems being put in place that took time to implement and train staff, resulting in inefficiencies. The review recommends that the FCDO:

• Take a more robust and proactive approach to anticipating and finding fraud in assistance delivery;
• Focus on the 20 ODA partner countries and ensure there are dedicated, well-trained and sufficiently senior resources to manage fraud risks; and
• Increase the Head of Mission's oversight of and accountability for fraud risks.