Official Development Assistance Reductions

Bambos Charalambous Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Bambos Charalambous (Southgate and Wood Green) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing this important debate and on his excellent speech. I declare an interest as the chair of the APPG on global education. I will focus on the transformative nature of ODA for the education of children worldwide.

Education has been a crucial component of the UK’s international development effort over the past two decades. It has long been recognised that providing education improves health outcomes, contributes to economic growth, improves gender equality and reduces poverty. In 2013, the percentage of the UK ODA budget spent on education was 13.5% of 0.7% of GNI, but just a decade later it was 3.5% of 0.5% of GNI. With the further projected cuts to ODA—to 0.3% of GNI by 2027, equating to a real-terms cut to funding of roughly 73% since 2019—the situation in the education sector looks dire, with a projected 2.2 million fewer children in school and learning.

The Global Partnership for Education is the largest multilateral fund for education in the world. Its work started here in the UK and now reaches every corner of the globe. It works tirelessly to ensure that every child has, in its words, the “hope, opportunity and agency” that a quality education brings. In 2021, the UK pledged £430 million for GPE. That money has helped to enrol 5 million more girls in school, train 4.7 million teachers and support 372 million children with better education. Although 60% of partners have kept or raised their education budgets to over 20% of total spending, planned cuts raise the possibility of limited or no funding for the upcoming replenishment of GPE. Without UK aid, GPE will struggle to continue its life-changing work.

In the past, UK development has allowed the FCDO to support the strengthening of education systems world- wide, to improve teacher quality, to build accountability mechanisms and to reach the most marginalised children, particularly girls and those in crisis zones, but we cannot celebrate those achievements without recognising the dangers of the planned cuts. To understand the risks, we must understand what is being planned. By 2027, UK aid spending will fall to 0.3% of GNI. At the end of 2025-26, bilateral aid from the FCDO will be down £600 million on the year before. New aid spending decisions have been paused, and payments to multilateral bodies such as GPE have been delayed.

Alongside the planned cuts, the Government have set out new priorities for development aid: health, climate and humanitarian spending, all underpinned by economic growth. Funding allocations have not been confirmed, but those priorities cannot leave education behind. Without investment in education, low and middle-income countries cannot unlock jobs, trade and innovation, and economies cannot grow. The foundation of our priorities must be education.

Conflict zones are in desperate need of development aid. We have seen conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan and Yemen, to name but a few. One extra year of education can reduce the risk of conflict by up to 20%. Although I did not welcome the cuts, I ask the Minister whether she will commit to 0.7% when the economy allows. Will she confirm that the UK has committed to funding GPE and Education Cannot Wait in future rounds?