International Aid Cuts to Affect Millions Across Africa
Voice of America
KAYA, BURKINA FASO - The COVID-19 pandemic has led to cuts in foreign aid from donor nations such as Britain — which cut its aid budget by $5.5 billion — Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The funding loss is being felt in Burkina Faso, where it could shut down a group that helps thousands of survivors of gender-based violence and rape.
The largest international nonprofits say the shock waves of the cuts will be felt by people across Africa in all kinds of situations and will result in deaths. "For countries like the [United Kingdom] and others to be cutting their aid budgets in a global pandemic is extremely shortsighted, and we know it will put the fight back against poverty by many decades," said Sam Nadel, Oxfam government relations chief. "So, the U.N. secretary general, for example, has called these cuts a death sentence, and it really is that stark for many people." Marie Stopes, a group offering family planning to countries in crisis like Burkina Faso, is primarily supported by British aid money.This photo provided by the Prefecture Maritime du Nord et de la Manche shows migrants continuing their journey to Britain off the northern coast of France, April 23, 2024. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a press conference at Downing Street in London, April 22, 2024. Sunak pledged that the country’s first deportation flights to Rwanda could leave in 10-12 weeks.
Women in rural Malawi pick vegetables in Chikwawa district. Statistics show that more than 20% of Malawi's 19.6 million people live in extreme poverty. With 20% of people in Malawi living in extreme poverty, UNICEF says parents and caregivers in rural areas need assistance to care for their children. These children are pictured in Malawi's Chikwawa district.
FILE - Visitors walk past a model of India's Brahmos supersonic cruise missile displayed at the Defence Expo 2022 in Gandhinagar on Oct. 18, 2022. South China Sea territorial claims India’s Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shakes hands with Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo after a joint press conference at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila, March 26, 2024. (Jam Sta Rosa/Pool via Reuters)