International development charities have called on the government to reverse cuts to the UK’s global aid budget following warnings to ministers that already marginalised communities across the world will be hardest hit.

The charities, including Christian Aid and Save the Children, are urging the government to restore the aid budget to 0.7% of gross national income after reducing it to 0.5%.

Evidence of the impact of the cuts presented to ministers and published this week by MPs has warned that hundreds of thousands of women will face unsafe abortions and thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth.

'No ifs and no buts, the UK's aid budget must be restored.'

The UK Government’s cuts to the #AidBudget represent a 'betrayal of the world's most marginalised people'.

Read our full statement: https://t.co/DB89rsdrdZ pic.twitter.com/vYYY3BWoo6

— Christian Aid (@christian_aid) August 2, 2023

“Even when marking their own homework, Ministers cannot escape the horrible truth that their erosion of international aid represents a betrayal of the world's most marginalised people,” said Christian Aid head of campaigns and UK advocacy Jennifer Larbie.

“The UK has a historic and moral responsibility for ending extreme poverty. We must not accept the false choice between responding to poverty at home and fulfilling our responsibilities to the vulnerable women and girls around the world.

“No ifs and no buts, the UK's aid budget must be restored.

“We need a government that will release new resources, not just by restoring the aid budget but also by getting private creditors such as the big banks to cancel the debt of countries whose people are in jeopardy.”

Meanwhile Save the Children UK has said the aid cuts are “shameful”. The charity’s CEO Gwen Hines added that reducing aid budgets “is a death sentence for children in some of the most dangerous parts of the world”.

It is shameful that the UK government decided to reduce the aid budget when they knew it would cost children’s lives.

These cuts fly in the face of the government’s commitments to ‘leave no one behind’.

We urge them to restore the UK's #AidBudget to 0.7% of GNI. pic.twitter.com/eGZruyEOKw

— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) August 2, 2023

Evidence presented to ministers around aid cuts to disadvantaged communities was revealed in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)’s impact assessment of the official development assistance budget for 2023/24, and published by the House of Commons’ international development committee.

“Evidence submitted to the committee over the last few years told us the cuts to UK ODA would take a human toll,” said the committee’s chair Sarah Champion.

“But this astonishingly honest assessment of the real impact makes grim reading. It is a litany of the people - living in poverty, suffering hunger, women, girls, disabled people – who will no longer be supported by the UK’s direct aid spending, and the consequences they will face.

“By the FCDO’s own assessment, critical support to tackle malnutrition will not be delivered. Programmes aimed at reaching those furthest behind – including women, girls and people with disabilities – will be cut. Hundreds of thousands more women once again face unsafe abortions, thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth.”

Gideon Rabinowitz, policy and advocacy director at NGO network Bond, said the evidence “illustrates the devastating impact of continued cuts to the UK aid budget and the urgency of restoring spending so we can meet our international obligations”.

He added: “Though the allocations of some vulnerable countries have increased we are still short of the funding needed to reverse the damage of multiple rounds of cuts, and the most marginalised communities continue to bear the brunt of these politically driven cuts.”

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