Committees

Committee Chair comments on the Foreign Secretary's FCDO action in Sudan response

24 May 2024

International Development Committee Chair responds to the response received from the Foreign Secretary on the FCDO’s action in Sudan.

Chair comment

Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said:

“IDC heard in evidence that Sudan has become a war on women. We were told rape is used as a weapon of war, and, one year on we're seeing a growing number of babies born of this crime being abandoned.

“This was the moment the FCDO chose to cut its aid allocation, in year, for Sudan by an unforgiveable 40%.

“To balance the books as more and more of our international aid budget leaches to the Home Office and its impossible asylum seeker backlog, the UK last year cut its main humanitarian programme in Sudan almost in half. There was a 45% cut to programmes specifically supporting civilian leaders, including women and young people, to participation in political and civic society - something Sudan needs now more than ever if it is to ever find peace.

“As famine begins to take hold, the FCDO deciding to restore some funding for nutrition programmes doesn't begin to address need for people enduring the largest displacement crisis in the world, a generational catastrophe.

“The UK is now seen as an unreliable development partner with a diminished reputation and influence, and the FCDO’s budget savings can be costed in human lives. What kind of legacy is that?”

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