HEAVY BLOW!
UK SLASHES AID TO SIERRA LEONE
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Amid the hype about continual donor funding to the Maada Bio-led Paopa-led Government, what has come as a shock to Sierra Leoneans is the drastic reduction in funding and cuts in development assistance to the country by the United Kingdom.
It has now emerged from monitored media reports that a £35 million grant for the improvement of maternal and newborn health in Sierra Leone has been severely slashed to £1 million. The remaining £34 million has not just been withdrawn and halted, but the UK government has eliminated almost all other bilateral aids to Sierra Leone.
Reports suggest that the cut and elimination of aid came following the clearly strong and unwavering determination of the UK government to reduce its global development budget by 40%.
The £35 million cum £1 million programme is jointly managed by Concern Worldwide and Helen Keller International for the provision of essential medicines, staff training, and supported access to blood supplies and testing for life-threatening conditions like pre-eclampsia in hospitals across Sierra Leone. But funding for this project will now be cut from £35 million to £1 million by 2027 and then face a final closure.
Not only that but sources further disclosed that “a separate component delivered by UNICEF, which supplied crucial medicines for pregnancy and childbirth and established special care units for premature and sick newborns, is also set to end in March”.
However, this sudden halt raises immediate concerns about how the Sierra Leonean government will cover these vital healthcare costs, with the UNICEF’s spokesperson in Sierra Leone, Suzanne Wooster, quoted as saying that “reductions in funding for newborn and child health risk disrupting essential services at a critical time,” though maintained that UNICEF is working with the government to lessen the looming severity of the impacts from the halt.
The Deputy Director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development think tank, Pete Baker, also reportedly averred that such cuts put lives at stake, especially when they were being done “quite quietly behind the scenes,” raising concern over the severity of the decision.
“This is one of the poorest countries in the world. It’s got really terrible maternal mortality and child mortality rates,” reports quote Baker as emphasising.
Accordingly, with a significantly smaller overall aid budget, the FCDO is now prioritizing contributions to large international funds like Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which have seen smaller cuts. The UK has also pledged to maintain humanitarian support for Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, leaving little funding for direct bilateral programmes in other nations like Sierra Leone, according to the monitored report.
An FCDO spokesperson affirmed the UK remains committed to sexual and reproductive health rights but it must modernise its approach to development reflecting the changing global context.
The UK is said to have invested over £187.9 million in Sierra Leone’s health system over the past decade. The FCDO was expected to detail further aid cuts this autumn, but publication has been delayed, likely until next year.
Baker warned that the UK’s historic leadership and transparency in global health were at risk, stating, “I think that would be helpful for the public to understand” the scale of cuts to a former high-priority country like Sierra Leone.