Boris Johnson’s cuts to international aid look set to undermine his efforts to secure pledges of $5billion for education in the developing world at an international summit being chaired by the UK this week, campaigners have warned.
There are fears that the recent Commons vote to indefinitely extend the cut – from the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP – has hit the UK’s “diplomatic muscle” said the development movement One.
The campaign’s UK advocacy head Lis Wallace told The Independent that Mr Johnson was on track to fall as much as $1bn short of the money needed to fund the Global Partnership for Education over the coming five years, putting learning for 175m boys and girls at risk.
She said that failure to hit the target at the London summit on Thursday would amount to a judgement on the UK’s decision to slice £4bn a year from its aid budget in response to the financial crisis caused by the Covid pandemic.
And she warned that, coming after a G7 summit in Cornwall which fell short of expectations, missing the target would set a bad precedent…
