UK FOREIGN AID
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SPENDS AND WHERE
THE amount the UK spends on foreign aid has risen by a third since 2012.
But it still only makes up 70p of every £100 the average person earns.
Foreign aid is money that developed countries donate to poorer countries. While other departments have faced significant cuts in recent
years, foreign aid has been largely protected. The total amount spent on foreign aid hit £13.4bn in 2016, compared to £8.8bn in 2012.
That sounds like a huge figure - until you factor in that the government’s total budget is £772bn, meaning foreign aid makes up just 1.7% of all spending. Foreign aid is made up of two types of spending bilateral and multilateral.
Bilateral spending is money that goes directly to projects in specific countries, while multilateral spending is aid that travels via institutions, such as the United Nations.
In 2016, 63.8% of UK foreign aid was bilateral (£8.5bn), while 36.2% was multilateral (£4.8 bn).
Humanitarian aid received the biggest chunk of UK money in 2016 at £1.3bn, or 15% of all bilateral foreign aid. It is the sector that has seen the sharpest rise in UK support, with just £425m spent this way in 2012.
Multisector projects were given £1.1bn last year - 13.3% of all bilateral aid - and £1.bn million was also given to governments and civil society sectors.
Health sectors received £1.0bn, down from the £1.1bn they saw in 2012.
In terms of individual nations, Pakistan received the most bilateral aid from the UK last year, at £463 million.
Syria was given £352 million, followed by Ethiopia with £334 million. Nigeria got £320 million, and Afghanistan £235 million.
Tanzania was given £186 million, Jordan £175 million and South Sudan £161 million. Just 20 countries received 77.2% of the bilateral aid given by the UK in 2016. In 2012, £28 million was given to refugees in donor countries, which soared to £410 million last year. The UK has been signed up to the United Nations’ target of spending 0.7% of its money on foreign aid since 1974, but only started meeting it after it was put into law in 2015.