Since the closure of the US Agency for International Development last summer, cuts in overseas aid budgets have followed from one Western government to the next like falling dominoes.
The UK is just one of many relatively prosperous nations steadily moving away from the UN-mandated target to devote a modest 0.7 per cent of GDP to development in the world’s poorest countries. Last week, the foreign secretary indicated that British assistance will be much more focused on war zones, such as Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon and Sudan, with the savings going to boost UK defence.
