UK review of overseas aid prioritises health, hunger, girls’ education, and conflict prevention

The UK Department for International Development has announced a major shake up of its aid programme in the wake of a comprehensive review of existing expenditure. Overall the aid budget will continue to rise, but the number of countries receiving aid directly will drop from 43 to 27, and assistance channelled through aid organisations will be reallocated to “bring maximum value” for UK taxpayers.

This means major boosts in funding for several organisations that deal with global health issues, including the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unicef.

Next year’s total aid budget is £8.4bn (€9.8bn; $13.7bn), and the annual figure is due to rise by 42% between now and 2014-15 in line with the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance by 2013. …