PBI joins call by Over 100 NGOs call on the new government to prevent further cuts to UK aid

Further reductions to the UK aid budget will take take funds away from human rights defenders and other key allies in tackling poverty, abuses and climate change

Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK has joined over 100 NGOs in urging the new UK government to take immediate action to prevent further cuts to the UK aid budget. In a public statement - which was picked up by the Guardian, the BBC and other news outlets - directors of a broad range of organisations warn against simply proceeding with the slashed spending plans of the previous government. “If these plans are not urgently revised”, the NGO leaders say, then “the Prime Minister and his government will be withdrawing vital services and humanitarian support from millions of marginalised people globally and turning up empty-handed to global forums over the coming months.” 

Following the statement’s publicaton, PBI UK Director Ben Leather said “If the new Labour government is to reposition Britain as a progressive ally in the fight against authoritarianism, terrorism and climate change, then it will need to work with and for global civil society. Sticking with the previous government’s threadbare aid bidget would mean doing this with one hand tied behind their back, while leaving those on the front lines under-resourced and over-exposed”.

PBI UK is one of over global fifty organisations which have called for the UK government to put engaging, supporting and protecting civil society and human rights defenders at the core of its foreign policy, including through the provision of effective funding.

The full statement by 122 leaders of NGOs said:

As leaders of the UK’s development, humanitarian and peacebuilding sector, we are deeply concerned that the spending plans the new government has inherited from the previous government will slash UK aid programmes to levels not seen since 2007 including under recent Conservative governments.

If these plans are not urgently revised, the Prime Minister and his government will be withdrawing vital services and humanitarian support from millions of marginalised people globally and turning up emptyhanded to global forums over the coming months.

At a time when the UK is trying to demonstrate to the world that it is once again a reliable development and humanitarian partner, the government must take immediate and bold action in the autumn budget to maintain UK aid at current levels (0.58% of GNI), reduce the amount of UK aid being spent within the UK on refugees and asylum seekers, while still ensuring adequate support for this vulnerable group, and urgently set out new plans for how and when the government will return to 0.7%.

Read more about why new UK government must step up in the fight to protect front line defenders here.