In recent years, the world has been reshaped by global instability. Faced with growing global security threats the Government last year took the decision to increase spending on defence by reducing official development assistance to the equivalent of 0.3% of gross national income by 2027. The UK will return to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA when fiscal circumstances allow.
Our commitment to international development is as important as ever—it reflects UK values, supporting those in conflict and extreme poverty, and is also in the UK national interest because in an interconnected world, crises and instability across the world undermine our security and prosperity at home. Over the past year we have taken the time to review our priorities and redefine how we work. We are modernising and improving our approach to development to have the greatest impact abroad and secure the best value for money for taxpayers at home.
The spending review 2025 set the FCDO’s ODA budget from 2026-27 to 2028-29; it will no longer be automatically adjusted for unforeseen changes to the ODA budget. The new cross-Government ODA delivery and impact board chaired by the Minister for Development will ensure all departments work coherently together. This means we have been able to set three years of ODA programme allocations, providing teams with the predictability required to effectively manage the transition to 0.3% of GNI. All future plans are subject to revision as, by its nature, the Department’s work is dynamic. Programme allocations are continually reviewed to respond to changing global needs, including humanitarian crises and other ODA allocation decisions.
In the attachment available online, see table 1: cross-Government ODA programme allocations.
Priority themes
Our priorities remain humanitarian, global health, and climate and nature, underpinned by economic development. We are prioritising support for fragile and conflict-affected areas and linking it to conflict and atrocities prevention. We will ensure that women and girls are central to development decisions.
The UK plans to spend approximately £1.4 billion each year in the places with the highest humanitarian need over the next three years, in addition to our planned commitment to the UN and Red Cross for humanitarian work. Over the next three years, the UK will spend around £6 billion of ODA as international climate finance. We will balance support between mitigation and adaptation and maintain a focus on nature. By using different instruments and levers, we will aim to generate an additional £6.7 billion of UK backed climate and nature positive investments and to mobilise billions more in private finance.
We have fully protected central programme spending on violence against women and girls, women peace and security, and preventing sexual violence in conflict. We are strengthening our approach to mainstreaming gender equality across the FCDO’s work and have raised our ambitions, committing that at least 90% of FCDO bilateral ODA programmes will contribute to gender equality by 2030.
Multilateral ODA programming
We are increasing the share of FCDO’s programme ODA which we spend through multilateral organisations, targeted strategically towards the most effective multilateral organisations. We have already confirmed we will honour our pledge to IDA’s 21st replenishment, an increase of 40% from our previous contribution. We are pledging £650 million to the African Development Fund, as the largest donor to a record replenishment of $11 billion.
We have already pledged £1.25 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We also announced in November our commitment of £850 million from 2026 to 2028 for the eighth replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We will continue to support the World Health Organisation and UN Population Fund in delivering vital support on reproductive and maternal health. To prioritise the most effective investments, we plan to end our funding to the pandemic fund, the global polio eradication initiative, and support these objectives through other investments. We will match our current pledge for the 2027 to 2030 period to Education Cannot Wait, delivering an effective humanitarian response to education in crisis settings. In due course, we will set out our multilateral plans on climate and other education multilateral organisations when negotiations are further advanced.
In the attachment available online, see table 2: planned multilateral ODA programming.
Country and regional ODA programming
FCDO bilateral ODA allocations are reducing as a proportion of our ODA budget. We will prioritise our country and regional ODA where humanitarian needs are most acute—to reach those in greatest need and reduce the harm caused by violence and atrocities. The proportion of spending in fragile and conflict-affected states will increase by around 13 percentage points to over 70% of all country and regional spending by 2028-29.
Set within the UK’s 100-year partnership with Ukraine, we remain committed to providing vital humanitarian, development and economic support to Ukraine. We have protected Ukraine’s bilateral ODA allocation at £240 million per year. In addition, FCDO will provide $2 billion of loan guarantees through the World Bank to help meet Ukraine’s 2026 financing needs. FCDO has also allocated over £109 million ODA over three years to Ukraine from the integrated security fund and British International Investment has committed £250 million over five years. The UK remains ready to play its part in fully supporting Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s illegal aggression, provides for its population under constant bombardment, and rebuilds its economy and society. The UK will explore financing options to Ukraine to ensure support remains durable and as effective as possible in addressing Ukraine’s most pressing needs.
We are limiting our reduction of bilateral aid to humanitarian crises across the middle east. We are fully protecting our allocation to Palestine. The UK is committed to providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, supporting Gaza’s early recovery, and strengthen Palestinian institutions, governance, accountability, and civil society, including reform of the Palestinian Authority. In Lebanon, we will protect funding at current levels during the ongoing crisis. The UK’s humanitarian programme in Lebanon provides lifesaving support, while strengthening national disaster preparedness and shock responsive social protection systems, in turn reducing the drivers of irregular migration.
We are fully protecting our allocation to Sudan. UK ODA is responding to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis alongside making progress towards ending hostilities and laying the foundations for a political process and civilian-led transition, protecting civilians and mitigating regional threats.
In a range of countries, we will transition away from spending high levels of grant ODA, but our ambition and effort will remain high, delivering through modernised partnerships, and making the most of what the whole UK has to offer. We will also make the shift to investment and mutually beneficial partnerships and phase out FCDO bilateral country allocations to G20 countries, except in Turkey where we help to share the burden on account of their hosting of refugees.
This approach means that the proportion of FCDO country and regional ODA allocated to Africa will reduce. However, we are pivoting our multilateral ODA even further towards the African continent including the African Development Bank and the World Bank’s International Development Association, which delivers two-thirds of its financing in Africa. The UK’s new Africa approach recognises that delivering strong partnerships requires looking beyond aid, consistent with our modern international development approach. It is a shift towards modern, equal partnerships based on shared interests—growth, security, climate, and global reform—using the full range of UK tools, not just ODA.
As we rethink and reset our approach, we will shift from donor to investor and providing expertise rather than grants. We will support systems capacity building rather than service delivery and support local solutions. Areas where partnerships are in place, but bilateral funds have been substantially reduced, will have the opportunity to draw on the communities of expertise, central funding and mobilise British International Investment and climate finance.
In the attachment available online see table 3: planned country and regional ODA programme allocations.
Thematic directorates
To support our international development reset, FCDO’s ODA programming managed from headquarters has been restructured to focus on: the delivery of effective multilateral programming and reform of the international development system; programmes that support financial leverage and private capital mobilisation, and the provision of a responsive offer to partners in areas where the UK can add value or broker expertise. Communities of expertise will help our posts bring the most innovative and practical thinking to joint problem solving with their hosts. Financial transactions will fund investment in developing economies.
We will prioritise our ODA-funded research and development where high-quality evidence, science and innovation can deliver the greatest impact for people most in need, and where the UK has a clear strategic role to play. Through the global research and technology development portfolio, we will invest in high potential R&D to tackle shared global challenges, focusing primarily on fragile and conflict affected contexts in Africa and south and west Asia, where poverty, insecurity and climate risks are increasingly concentrated.
In the attachment available online, see table 4: thematic directorates.
Arm’slength bodies, public corporations, private sector investments, subscriptions
In addition to the regional and thematic directorate programming set out above, the FCDO delivers through arm’s length bodies such as the British Council, public corporations such as the BBC World Service and through the UK’s development finance institution, British International Investment, which will deliver on the UK’s shift from donor to investor.
This Government will increase ODA and non-ODA funding for the BBC World Service, providing an additional £33 million in total across the spending review period, or £11 million per year for the next three years. That means this Government have increased its contribution to BBC World Service funding by 42% since coming to power, showing how highly we value it. This Government are also providing a non-ODA uplift of £40 million across the spending review period to the British Council. This supports our objective of a financially sustainable British Council for the long-term.
In the attachment available online, see table 5: arm’s length bodies, private sector investments, subscriptions.