Rebuilding Britain’s reputation as a reliable development partner: The state of UK Aid in 2024

In this second brief, we examine the ways that the primary legal mandate of UK ODA – to contribute towards eradicating poverty – has been eroded in recent years. Dramatic cuts to the overall ODA budget have been the key contributor of this trend, as has use of ODA resources for supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. In 2023, nearly a third of the UK’s ODA budget was spent in the UK to support refugees and asylum seekers.

This further reduced the funding available for critical ‘overseas’ programmes which provide essential support to groups of people who are most marginalised and in need of assistance. However, it is also clear that the limited level of ODA budget available for overseas spending has not been adequately focussed on reducing poverty and inequality. The limited ODA budget allocated for ‘overseas’ programmes makes strengthening this focus all the more critical.