Ministers have been accused of offering “words over action” on protecting women and girls in conflict zones in the wake of MPs warning that aid cuts are undermining Britain’s global leadership on women’s rights.
In its long-awaited response to a cross-party parliamentary inquiry, the government has insisted its commitment to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda remains “unwavering” despite deep reductions to overseas aid spending and staffing changes within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
MPs on the International Development Committee (IDC) had warned in their report that Britain was at risk of standing by while “hard-won gains” in gender equality were reversed – rising global conflict and a growing backlash against women’s rights. The most immediate pressure comes from cuts to official development assistance (ODA), reduced from 0.7 per cent of national income to 0.5 per cent in recent years, before Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced late last year that would now become 0.3 per cent.
The IDC report argued that successive cuts to official development assistance were already weakening programmes supporting women and girls in conflict-affected countries, warning that reductions in funding, staffing and specialist expertise threatened Britain’s ability to deliver on commitments made under the WPS agenda, a framework designed to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and protect them from violence during conflict. . Funding women’s rights organisations has been slashed by as much as two-thirds.
In the government response, published in recent days, ministers pointed to diplomatic efforts at the United Nations, support for women peacebuilders and plans to ensure that 90 per cent of bilateral aid programmes include a focus on women and girls by 2030. But they stopped short of backing calls for ringfenced funding, dedicated budgets or stronger parliamentary oversight.
“The government response to the IDC report is another example of how they choose words over action on protecting women and girls”, Zoe Swanwick, policy manager at the Coalition for Global Prosperity, told The Independent. “[The development minister} Baroness Chapman and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper have repeatedly claimed their support for the women, peace and security agenda, but the recent cuts to the aid budget which disproportionately affect women suggest otherwise,” she added.
While ministers accepted some of the IDC’s recommendations in principle, they rejected the committee’s criticism that Britain was losing its leadership role and repeatedly defended their record. The government said women and girls remained “at the heart” of UK foreign policy and highlighted efforts to protect language on women’s rights in UN Security Council resolutions relating to Libya, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia.
Campaigners said the government response failed to address the central concern raised by MPs in that commitments are becoming increasingly difficult to deliver as resources shrink. The government argued that “mainstreaming” women’s rights across all foreign policy work would deliver greater impact than relying on standalone programmes and said central funding for WPS, preventing violence against women and girls and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative had been protected at existing levels. But it provided no commitment to ring-fenced future budgets and made no attempt to account for the bilateral programmes that sit outside that protected pot and are being cut regardless.
Around the world, Ms Swanwick said, programmes tackling violence against women and girls, supporting maternal healthcare, safeguarding reproductive rights and keeping girls in education are already closing – with direct consequences for women’s safety, health and economic independence. “How can women be at the table on peace and security when their own rights are being systematically violated? Either drop the rhetoric or show real support,” she said.
The consequences are sharpest in the places those programmes were designed to reach. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape has long been used as a weapon of war, Human Rights Watch and the SOFEPADI Congolese women’s rights organisation warned in January that conflict-related sexual violence is rising while support for survivors is collapsing.
Expanded fighting in North and South Kivu has coincided with funding cuts and shrinking health services, leaving many women unable to access treatment, with some clinics providing care to survivors already forced to close. The FCDO’s own multi-year equality impact assessment, published in March, acknowledged that equalities targeted programmes in DRC and Tanzania may close as a direct result of the cuts.
Tim Morris, a former British ambassador to both the DRC and South Sudan, said women were often the people holding communities together during conflict. He told The Independent: “In all these conflicts, sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war by many of the parties, as has the abuse of children, including their recruitment as child soldiers. Peace agreements, when they eventually come, must be supported by women, who are the fabric of society, often the breadwinners, and those who can set future generations along the road to peace. It is an inescapable responsibility of the international community both to call out this evil and support the rebuilding of those shattered societies.”
The committee had urged ministers to commit to stable, multi-year funding for women’s rights organisations, a cross-government monitoring framework and the reinstatement of annual reporting to parliament on delivery of the National Action Plan. The government’s answer on most of these was “partially agree”, with a promise to review commitments as part of a national aciron plan refresh due later this year.
A spokesperson for FCO said: “As the foreign secretary has made clear, there cannot be peace, security or prosperity without women playing their part, free from violence and free from fear.
“For the first time, this foreign secretary has made women and girls a standalone priority for the UK’s foreign policy, and that is why our funding for initiatives to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, Prevent Sexual Violence in Conflict, and promote the Women, Peace and Security agenda, will all be protected at 2025/2026 levels.
“Where the UK is providing bilateral ODA, we will also ensure that by 2030, 90 per cent of it is geared towards the needs of women and girls, protecting them against violence, championing their education, healthcare and rights, and supporting their ability to earn a living.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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