The UK government has been accused of quietly slashing virtually all its direct aid to Sierra Leone, with a major £35 million grant for maternal and newborn health being dramatically reduced. This move offers the first concrete example of a country bearing the brunt of the government's plan to shrink the global development budget by 40 per cent.
A Vital Programme Facing Closure
At stake is a crucial programme that has been providing essential medicines and specialist training within Sierra Leone's hospitals. The initiative, run by a consortium including charities Concern Worldwide and Helen Keller International, also worked to secure access to blood supplies and testing for life-threatening conditions like pre-eclampsia, a major cause of maternal death.
Funding for this programme will be cut from £35 million to just £1 million by 2027, after which it will close entirely. Another component delivered by Unicef, which supplied vital medicines for pregnancy and birth and established special care baby units, is set to end as early as March 2025.
Prioritising Funds and the Human Cost
With a significantly reduced overall aid budget, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is now prioritising contributions to large international funds such as the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. While these have also seen reductions, their cuts are less severe than the sweeping 40 per cent applied to the wider budget. The UK has also pledged to maintain its humanitarian support for Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan.
Pete Baker, deputy director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development think tank, told The Independent that grants to countries were being cut "quite quietly behind the scenes." He expressed concern over the lack of transparency, stating, "You'd hope that they'd be willing to be more transparent around some of these cuts given that lives are at stake."
The impact is expected to be severe. Sierra Leone has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates. "This is one of the poorest countries in the world," Mr Baker emphasised. "It's got really terrible maternal mortality and child mortality rates."
Calls for Transparency and a Changing Strategy
The FCDO had been expected to publish detailed plans outlining where aid cuts would fall over the next three years last autumn, but this has been delayed, likely into next year. When approached for comment, an FCDO spokesperson said the UK remained committed to sexual and reproductive health rights but stated the department must "modernise our approach to development to reflect the changing global context." They noted the UK had invested over £187.9 million into Sierra Leone's health system in the past decade.
However, Mr Baker warned that the UK risked losing its legacy of leadership and transparency in global health. He pointed out that Sierra Leone had been "a very high priority for UK aid and it's getting some very severe cuts," adding, "I think that would be helpful for the public to understand."
The sudden withdrawal of funding raises urgent questions about how the Sierra Leonean government will manage the substantial financial shortfall and maintain these essential, life-saving services for its most vulnerable citizens.
