Western countries have slashed foreign aid budgets this year and reductions will steepen in 2026, with the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada cutting the most, according to a new analysis from the Center for Global Development (CGD).
  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.orgEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    The US is projected to cut the most, with a projected 56% reduction compared to levels two years ago.

    The Trump administration’s gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year has already left a hole in many international aid budgets, and several other Western nations are following suit rather than filling the void.

    “A big, big chunk of overall cuts in the next couple of years are going to be from the US pulling out, rather than other countries. But these other countries are making things worse,” said Crawfurd, a senior research fellow at the CGD.

    The UK aid cuts are estimated to represent a roughly 39% reduction compared to 2023 levels of spending. Meanwhile, Germany is cutting about 27%, Canada 25% and France 19% of their international aid budgets.

    The true level of aid cuts remains unclear, as the Trump administration’s proposed budget and other government proposals are still making their way through legislatures.

    And still we follow the United States’ example as we did for the past 80 years.

    Now that so-called world leaders showed us that ethics, morals and honesty are irrelevant, who’s going to put the geany back in the bottle again?

  • Enkrod@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    6 days ago

    Study after study has shown that the ROI for foreign aid is positive and indicative of an overall positive effect for the country giving the aid.

    I’m only writing that to express that there are no moral and no economical reasons to reduce foreign aid. Even the right should be in favour of aid, as it lessens the amount of immigration and asylum and has a positive effect on GDP.

    The only reasons to reduce foreign aid are populism, a change in political culture of the receiver (for example giving less money to Israel) and to shuffle it around in the budget, for example what Germany did with its infrastructure costs… declaring them a military necessity to be able to increase the military budget to appease Trump while still repairing our roadways.

    But that is afaik not happening here… this is stupid populism.

  • Gsus4@mander.xyzEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    They ain’t rich countries anymore. The US is not a superpower anymore.

    (that doesn’t mean that they don’t have many rich people living there, they just don’t pay the taxes they should)