Extracts below from a BBC news item and a comment from me.
Read online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg584grxwwo
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Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to travel to Washington to meet Donald Trump after setting out plans to increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2027.
On Tuesday, the prime minister said he would cut the foreign aid budget to fund the military boost - a move welcomed by the Trump administration but labelled a "betrayal" by development charities...
Announcing the defence spending plan, Sir Keir said the UK's aid budget would be reduced from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027, "fully funding the investment in defence", which will rise from 2.3% of GDP...
Charities were stunned by the aid cut, with Save the Children calling it "a betrayal of the world's most vulnerable children and the UK's national interest".
"There is nothing respectful about slashing lifelines for families in the most dangerous places," the charity's chief executive Moazzam Malik said.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the Commons International Development Committee, called on the government to "rethink today's announcement".
"Cutting the aid budget to fund defence spending is a false economy that will only make the world less safe," she said.
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COMMENT (NPW): In the past few weeks we have seen a withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, dismantling of USAID and freezing of US aid spending, and now a reduction in UK aid spending. I invite HIFA members to share what this means for their work, particularly in relation to health education, information and communication.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org