How hard will UK aid cuts hit projects helping women and girls?

The scale of UK cuts to foreign aid means virtually all projects currently being funded in developing countries will be affected. But the cuts are tipped to fall particularly heavily on projects specifically for women and girls.

“The depth of the cuts means that there will definitely be cuts for nearly every programme,” said Ian Mitchell, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s slashing of international aid from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI).

Among the programmes that could be at risk is the UK-funded Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) initiative, which provides sexual and reproductive health services across 12 countries in West and Central Africa. The programme has reached 2.6 million people - mostly women in rural communities with no other options.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where fewer than 15% of women use contraception, the WISH initiative has introduced access to family planning options and information, for some women for the first time.

The programme has averted an estimated 33,000 maternal deaths and prevented 100,000 children from losing their mothers, according to MSI Reproductive Choices, one of the world’s biggest providers of contraception and abortion services.

Family planning is often not seen as life-saving - certainly by the current US administration - but an unintended pregnancy in a country with high maternal mortality and no access to safe abortion can spell death, and does for tens of thousands each year.

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Source: The Independent, 18 July 2025