Policy paper

Delivering the UK's international development strategy: 2023 progress update

Published 29 August 2023

Executive summary

The UK’s Strategy for International Development was published in May 2022 and set the direction for all the UK government’s international development work. The Strategy placed development at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy. It established a patient approach to development and a focused set of priorities designed to support low- and middle-income countries achieve lasting, sustainable growth, address suffering and tackle the root causes of shared global crises.

Over this year the headwinds facing international development have grown stronger, exacerbated by Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine and the intensifying effects of climate change. Reflecting the pace of change internationally, the government published the Integrated Review Refresh in March 2023 and at Chatham House, the Minister for Development and Africa launched a campaign to re-invigorate UK leadership on international development (April 2023).

These confirmed that sustainable international development is central to UK foreign policy and fundamental to the goals of the Integrated Review. They committed this government to further efforts to strengthen UK delivery of development, to modernise our development partnerships and to deliver a global campaign to progress 7 initiatives critical to our partners and achievement of the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our new brand – UK International Development, or ‘UKDev’ – signals our commitment to advance development progress, build shared prosperity and work through a diverse range of partnerships.

This report summarises how our approach and priorities have been implemented since May 2022. Highlights include:

• supporting sustainable growth: over £2.3 billion of new guarantees signed with Multilateral Development Banks; £1.1 billion of UK investment into Africa; Just Energy Transition Partnerships agreed with the governments of South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal to accelerate the transition to secure, clean and affordable energy access; 33,000 green jobs and £588 million in private and public finance for clean energy innovation through the Ayrton Fund

• alleviating suffering: life-saving humanitarian support to those affected by natural disasters and war, with UK humanitarian spend totalling £1,060 million in 2022 (provisional figure); an estimated 15 million children immunised through UK support to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI)

• tackling crises: UK-funded research providing evidence on how to increase yields of a major food crop by over 20%; with significant potential to impact food security, whilst protecting biodiversity; launch of the UK’s Atrocity Prevention Hub

Over the next year, we will continue to step up our contribution to the SDGs at major international events and galvanise action through our London event on food security (November 2023) and the next UK-Africa Investment Summit (April 2024).

The UK will, this autumn, publish a white paper on international development setting out how we can tackle poverty and climate change and deliver the SDGs, in a fast-changing world. Consultation with our partners, across government, in the UK and internationally, will shape the white paper, ensuring it represents the voices and needs of our partner countries and the strength of the UK offer across all stakeholders.

Introduction

The UK’s Strategy for International Development, published in May 2022, and the Integrated Review Refresh (IRR), published in March 2023, serve as the guiding frameworks for the UK’s international development work. These strategic documents emphasise the pivotal role of international development in the UK’s foreign policy, recognising its fundamental contribution to our goals for a freer, safer, more prosperous, healthier and greener world.

The UK adopts a patient approach to development, aiming to support sustainable and enduring growth in low- and middle-income countries and tackling the root causes of shared global crises. The UK does this by using a wide-ranging toolkit to deliver our development objectives, including diplomacy, research, trade, and investment.

The Strategy for International Development established key priorities for the UK’s development work, including delivering honest and reliable investment; providing women and girls with the freedom they need to succeed; providing principled humanitarian assistance; and supporting progress on climate change, nature and global health. The IRR reconfirmed our commitment to accelerating progress in these areas.

This report reflects our commitment to transparency in our international development work, summarising the implementation of our approaches and priorities over the last year.

A challenging year for development

Since the publication of the Strategy, international development has faced increasingly formidable challenges. Three decades of progress in poverty reduction have given way to the most substantial increase in poverty since World War 2. This has been accompanied by the UN’s Human Development Index’s first-ever decline, due to rising mortality rates and falling learning outcomes.

In low- and middle-income countries, domestic government spending has been crucial in providing a lifeline for the poor, facilitating economic recovery and protecting social services. However, many countries now find themselves constrained by fiscal limitations, grappling with low growth, rising interest rates and reduced access to sources of finance.

A confluence of events, including Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine and the intensifying effects of climate change, have increased pressures on individuals and countries, affecting food and energy prices, and are driving migration. This is leading to an unprecedented surge in humanitarian crises and caseloads, with 1 in 23 people globally requiring external support.

The scale of current emergencies and crises challenges our ability to maintain long-term development support to countries most in need. This task is especially urgent as we approach the half-way mark of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where global progress is significantly off-track. It is crucial to demonstrate to partner countries that the multilateral system and our partnerships can offer a pathway to prosperity, whilst tackling climate change and nature loss and supporting those most in need.

Reinvigorating progress on development

Recognising the challenges faced in international development and partners’ growing dissatisfaction with the global system, the Minister for Development and Africa launched a campaign to re-invigorate the UK’s leadership and contribution to international development. This campaign refines our approach, outlining how the UK will go further and faster to deliver the Strategy.

Our new brand – UK International Development, or ‘UKDev’ – signals our commitment to advance development progress, to build widely shared prosperity and to do so through a diverse range of partnerships. It places even greater focus on long-term partnerships which are mutually respectful, beneficial, and accountable, drawing on the full range of the UK’s strengths and expertise. The campaign has 3 strands:

1. Strengthening UK delivery of development

We are working to re-establish our reputation as a predictable, transparent and reliable partner who embraces scrutiny. We will ensure that UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) is strategically allocated through enhanced governance across the whole of government. This includes driving value for money for the UK taxpayer, ensuring every pound we spend contributes to sustainable development. In the last year, changes to facilitate this progress include:

• the Minister for Development and Africa now attends Cabinet and the National Security Council, integrating development into decision-making processes
• we have established a new Ministerial ODA Board, co-chaired by the Minister for Development and Africa and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to improve oversight of all aid spending
• a Second Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is overseeing our development priorities

There have been positive trends in our development capability work, including increased integration at post, a growing number of Heads of Mission (HoMs) with development backgrounds and the strengthening of the Development Faculty in the FCDO International Academy which is helping to grow development capability across our staff contingent. We have also driven down bureaucracy, making it quicker to get programmes delivering on the ground after consultations with delivery partners. We have further streamlined our programme approval processes and programme documentation. We will continue to deliver on both of these in the coming year.

2. Modernising development partnerships

In response to calls from the Global South to shift power dynamics in development, the UK has placed partnership at the core of our approach. We will prioritise listening to our partners and working collaboratively to advance shared objectives, with a focus on ensuring that national, regional and global systems support long-term development. This builds upon the patient approach outlined in the Strategy for International Development, highlighting that international development isn’t about charity, handouts and dependency. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of partnership, enabling individuals and countries to shape their own future. Our partnerships strive to create more equitable relationships between traditional donors and partners within the global system, fostering long-term strategic alliances that extend beyond development. In July 2023, we published our Country Development Partnership Summaries, outlining shared objectives with the countries and regions we work with and providing an overview of the breadth of our development activities, extending beyond aid and leveraging cross-government collaboration.

3. Championing 7 key initiatives that matter to our partners

We identified 7 initiatives, critical to delivering the SDGs, on which the UK wants to make a difference. These initiatives, to be delivered within 18 months, contribute to the priorities set out in the Strategy for International Development. They are:

1. reforming and greening the global financial system – to ensure the international financial institutions and capital markets are better equipped to meet the needs of developing countries in dealing with the economic, debt, climate and nature crises
2. championing global efforts to make global tax systems fairer – ensuring revenues and assets lost are identified and recovered, so countries can self-finance their development
3. delivering clean, green infrastructure and investment through British Investment Partnerships, by leveraging the support of capital markets and the private sector
4. conducting a campaign to improve global food security and nutrition, including increasing the availability of malnutrition treatment and prevention, driving the shift to sustainable agriculture, making greater use of research and development, and anticipatory action on famine risk
5. delivering a global campaign on ‘open science for global resilience’, ensuring low- and middle-income countries have access to knowledge and resources for progress
6. catalysing international work to prevent the next global health crisis, brokering more ambitious international agreements on pandemic preparedness and response, strengthening health systems, driving more equitable access to affordable vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, and tackling antimicrobial resistance
7. coalescing a collective response to the accelerating, well-financed and organised attacks on the rights of women and girls, including online. Working to improve education, health and rights, support empowerment, reduce gender-based violence, and amplifying the role of women’s rights organisations

Figure 1: Diagram demonstrating the 7 initiatives and their support to progressing the SDGs and delivery of the Strategy for International Development

Description of figure 1

Each of the 7 initiatives support progress of the Sustainable Development Goals and the delivery of the IDS.

1. delivery of clean, green infrastructure and investment supports SDG goals 7 (affordable and clean energy), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 12 (responsible consumption and production). It also supports the IDS theme on honest and reliable investment

2. leading global efforts to crack down on stolen and lost money supports SDG goals 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). It also supports the IDS theme on honest and reliable investment

3. reforming and greening the global financial system supports SDG goals 1 (no poverty), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 13 (climate action) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). It also supports the IDS themes on honest and reliable investment, and climate change and nature

4. challenging the rollback of women’s and girls’ rights supports SDG goals 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 10 (reduced inequalities) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). It also supports the IDS theme on women and girls

5. delivering lasting solutions to food insecurity and malnutrition supports SDG goals 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 13 (climate action) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). It also supports the IDS themes on humanitarian preparedness and response, and climate change and nature

6. open science for global resilience supports SDG goals 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 13 (climate action), 14 (life below water) and 15 (life on land). It also supports the IDS themes on climate change and nature, humanitarian preparedness and response, and global health

7. preventing the next global health crisis supports SDG goals 3 (good health and well-being), 6 (clean water and sanitation) and 17 (partnerships for the goals). It also supports the IDS theme on global health

Over the last year, we have made good progress delivering against the themes in the Strategy for International Development and 7 initiatives to progress the SDGs.

British Investment Partnerships delivering clean, green infrastructure and investment

British Investment Partnerships

British Investment Partnerships (BIP) brings together a range of financial instruments and expertise to help incentivise investment into developing countries. Our work through BIP represents the UK’s contribution to the $600 billion G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). At the 2023 G7 Summit the Prime Minister announced that that the UK would aim to mobilise up to $40 billion of UK-backed finance by the end of 2027 as our contribution to the G7 PGII, through BIP. We are helping countries to get the investment they need to grow secure, open, thriving economies and address important financing gaps. We are deepening our engagement with like-minded partners such as the G7 and capital markets to provide this support at scale.

British International Investment

British International Investment (BII), as the UK’s Development Finance Institution, is a major part of the BIP initiative and at the heart of delivering this priority, including green investment (see case study). BII’s mission is to help solve the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, long term, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation. In 2022, BII made £1.27 billion of new impact-led commitments, investing £591 million of climate finance and committing £640 million to businesses which quality for the 2X Challenge, a joint initiative to increase financing for women. BII’s investments in electricity generated 50 terawatt hours – equivalent to 16% of all electricity generated in the UK in 2021.

BII investing in hydropower solutions across Africa

In June 2022, BII announced it would invest $200 million into the Norwegian DFI’s Joint Venture with Scatec, a leading renewable energy solutions provider, to support hydropower projects across Africa. The Joint Venture’s investments are expected to help create 180,000 jobs, avoid at least 270,000 tons C02 of greenhouse gas emissions annually, and could provide enough clean energy to meet the equivalent demand of over 3 million people. This is the largest investment in hydropower in BII’s 75-year history, showing our increased commitment to boosting the African continent’s renewable energy.

Private Infrastructure Development Group

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative sustainable infrastructure project developer and investor underpinned by UK funding. Through its activities across Africa and Asia, PIDG aims to mobilise large volumes of finance from the private sector to support climate-resilient infrastructure. In 2022, PIDG-supported projects are estimated to have provided new or improved infrastructure access to 3.6 million people and mobilised over $750 million from the private sector.

The UK is a strong advocate of achieving development through trade that is free, fair, and inclusive. In 2022 we took a major step towards further liberalising UK market access for developing countries with the launch of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme. The new scheme cuts tariffs and simplifies rules for 65 developing countries. Combined with our network of 8 Economic Partnership Agreements, the UK now offers duty-free or nearly duty-free trade in goods to over 90 developing countries. These tariff reductions will support more jobs in partners countries.

Centres of Expertise

We have also developed Centres of Expertise (CoEs), which will channel technical expertise and policy advice from the UK to our posts overseas. At the end of April 2023, the Minister for Development and Africa announced the first new initiatives and services under the 5 economic development CoEs (Finance, Trade, Public Finance, Green and Inclusive Growth, Cities and Infrastructure). They will draw together UK expertise across the private sector, academia and government.

Responding to humanitarian needs and investing in lasting solutions to global food insecurity and malnutrition

The UK continues to prioritise humanitarian support and, as set out in the Strategy for International Development and our new Humanitarian Framework, is working to ensure that the international humanitarian system is more targeted and effective. Since May 2022, we have provided lifesaving support in humanitarian emergencies (see infographic for some examples) and have announced additional investment of over £370 million for global food security.

£43 million of UK aid providing life-saving support to earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria

Since the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023, UK aid has delivered vital lifesaving and life-sustaining assistance. In Turkey, our support included an international search and rescue capability; and a co-located Turkish-UK medical facility that treated over 18,000 patients. In Syria, the UK committed an additional £4.3 million to the White Helmets for life-saving search and rescue and emergency relief operations. Across both countries, the UK provided 530 tonnes of vital relief items, including blankets and tents, and provided £5 million match-funding to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s emergency appeal, which reached over £100 million within the first 2 weeks. The UK’s response was strengthened due to the integrated skills and capabilities of the new single FCDO organisation.

The UK continues to be recognised as one of the leaders on humanitarian thinking and action and has made progress to help ensure people most at risk are better protected, including from gender-based violence. In December 2022, the UK supported a UN Security Council resolution to exempt trusted humanitarian actors from UN asset freeze sanctions, a significant step towards removing obstacles to aid delivery to the most vulnerable. This reflects our commitment to ensure national security efforts do not hinder humanitarian action. We have also helped address barriers to access in acute humanitarian crises, such as in Afghanistan following the Taliban restrictions on female aid workers.

The UK has been working to improve the humanitarian system so that it can provide more prioritised assistance to those who are in the greatest need. This includes ensuring people receive the specific help they require to recover from crises. For example, working alongside other donors, we successfully advocated for improved prioritisation of the 2022 to 2023 humanitarian appeal for Sudan, resulting in aid better reaching those most in need.

We have continued to play a significant role in supporting initiatives that improve the humanitarian system’s ability to anticipate and reduce the impact of future shocks. In 2023, the UK committed to an 18-month campaign to improve global food security and nutrition. In line with the Gilbert Initiative, which will transform climate-resilient food systems through research and innovation, we will drive efforts to address malnutrition, anticipate and prevent crises, and accelerate progress toward sustainable, productive, climate-resilient and nutritious food systems. This will help break the cycle of famine and prevent future threats to food security.

In June 2022, the Prime Minister announced the UK’s additional investment of over £370 million for global food security, to provide both immediate relief and longer-term action to prevent hunger and malnutrition. This included £17.7 million working through the Green Growth Centre of Expertise to increase food production in vulnerable countries, which supported nearly 60,000 smallholder farmers in 2022 to 2023 to improve their access to markets, incomes, and climate resilience.

Examples of UK providing life-saving support in humanitarian emergencies

Provisional aid figures show the UK’s humanitarian spend totalled £1,060 million in 2022.

The UK remains one of the largest bilateral humanitarian donors to Ukraine with bilateral support totalling £167 million in the financial year 2022 to 2023. An integrated response structure from the outset, with political and development experts working together enabled the quick delivery of food aid and medical supplies. UK support has contributed to an international response that reached 15.8 million people in 2022.

The UK provided £1.3 million in emergency response to Mozambique following the exceptionally severe cyclone, Freddy, in March 2023. UK aid included 4,320 sets of household relief items including shelter and repair kits, dignity kits and solar lights.

Following cyclone Freddy in Malawi, the UK aided affected communities with search and rescue experts and equipment and extended medical assistance. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) released $5.5 million for this disaster, enabling UN agencies and partners to provide food aid, emergency shelters and wash, sanitation and hygiene. The UK is the largest overall donor to the CERF.

In May 2023, we announced £21.7 million funding for Sudan, part of a £143 million package of humanitarian aid for East Africa. UK funding will directly assist in protection of victims of gender-based violence, provide families with access to health and other basic services, nutritional support, emergency food and cash assistance and sustainable water supplies.

Delivering for women and girls and challenging the rollback of their rights

Since May 2022 the UK has made significant investments to help improve the situation of women and girls and fight back against systematic attempts to roll back on their rights. Our approach involves mobilising global and local partnerships and working more with the private sector and investors to mobilise new, innovative investments.

This work is underpinned by the new International Women and Girls strategy, launched by the Foreign Secretary in Sierra Leone. The Strategy applies to all the FCDO’s work – both in diplomacy and development – and represents a significant shift in how the department operates. The Strategy aims to tackle increasing threats to gender equality from climate change, humanitarian crises, conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, and recent attempts to roll back women’s rights, including in countries like Iran and Afghanistan.

We are making progress on our commitment to educate more girls globally, including:

• UK support helped launch the International Finance Facility for Education in September 2022, which will provide highly concessional loans through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to address the learning crisis in lower- and middle-income countries.
• we have allocated millions of pounds to new programmes, including £90 million to support education in emergencies. This will help provide more safe learning spaces, teaching materials, and psychological support for the 222 million crisis-affected children globally

Mobilising our partnerships to get more girls in school and learning

The UK has coordinated efforts to build a Global Coalition for Foundational Learning alongside USAID, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and the Gates Foundation. This included coordinating development of a Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning which calls on governments to sign up and prioritise foundational learning, especially for marginalised girls. Foundational learning comprises basic literacy, basic numeracy and socio-emotional learning – all of which opens the doors to 12 years of quality education. Over 25 countries have signed up so far. Improving foundational learning is central to the achievement of the 2 Global Objectives endorsed by the G7 in 2021 as part of the UK’s Presidency. These objectives commit us to getting 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more reading by the age of 10 or the end of their primary education by 2026.

We committed to empowering women and girls, unlocking their social, economic and political agency, and working to ensure their voices are heard at all levels. The UK is using its political and diplomatic weight to coordinate international efforts to counter the anti- Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) movement. At the 2022 UN General Assembly (UNGA), the UK co-led on a landmark joint statement, with 71 signatory countries, committing to protect and promote SRHR and bodily autonomy, within a human rights lens. We are supporting a new Women’s Integrated Sexual Health Dividend programme (£200 million over 6 years), to support 10.4 million women and adolescents to access SRHR services, avert 3.4 million unsafe abortions and prevent over 30,000 maternal deaths. UK funding supported organisations of persons with disabilities in Southeast Asia to actively contribute to the creation of the Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2023 to 2032. The declaration highlights the importance of meaningful participation of persons – especially women – with disabilities in political decision-making throughout the region.

The new International Women and Girls Strategy and National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, both launched in early 2023, commit the UK to stepping up our work with grassroots Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs). In March 2023, we announced our new flagship £38 million global programme designed to strengthen grassroots WROs, including in conflict and crisis contexts, and amplify women’s and girls’ voices. Through this, we co-fund the Equality Fund which has contributed to directly resourcing 95 WROs in the Global South and indirectly reaching 501 organisations working on gender equality. The UK also remains an advocate for ending child marriage, contributing to a series of bold commitments at UNGA from countries with some of the highest rates of child marriage. In November 2022, the UK-hosted ‘Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative’ (PSVI) International Conference which saw 40 countries make commitments to tackle conflict-related sexual violence.

Tackling climate change and protecting nature

The UK is playing a significant role internationally on climate and nature, building on our COP26 Presidency. The IRR confirmed that tackling climate change, environmental damage and biodiversity loss remains the UK’s first thematic priority. In March 2023, we published the 2030 Strategic Framework for International Climate and Nature Action and the UK International Climate Finance Strategy, which outlines how we are meeting the UK’s commitment to deliver £11.6 billion International Climate Finance (ICF) and to balance this between adaptation and mitigation.

Our work is helping lower- and middle-income countries accelerate the transition to secure, clean and affordable energy access. Within Just Energy Transition Partnerships, we led agreement of ambitious country-led plans with the governments of South Africa and Vietnam, on behalf of the G7 and other funders and supported agreements with Indonesia and Senegal. We continue to build upon UK ICF investments^{[footnote 1]} to support a fair transition away from fossil fuels and unlock billions of private finance for new clean infrastructure. The £1 billion Ayrton Fund supports clean energy innovation in developing countries. Since April 2022 Ayrton-supported innovations have reached 9.8 million people with improved access to clean energy, leveraging £588 million in private and public finance and creating 33,000 green jobs.

The UK is delivering on its commitment to protect, restore and sustainably manage nature. We helped secure agreement to the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and we are making progress on ensuring bilateral ODA is ‘nature positive’ and GBF aligned. At COP27 we launched the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership, recommitting to spend £1.5 billion ICF on forests. We are catalysing support to reform agricultural policies and have helped mobilise over £1 billion in private investment into sustainable agriculture and forestry. We are building more climate resilient and food secure coastal communities through our £190 million contribution to the Blue Planet Fund.

To support the poorest and most vulnerable to become more resilient and better able to adapt to climate impacts ahead of COP27, the UK worked closely with Egypt to make implementation of action on adaptation and loss and damage a priority. At the event, the UK pledged to triple adaptation finance from 2019 levels to at least £1.5 billion in 2025. A historic agreement was also reached to establish new funding arrangements to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including a fund for responding to loss and damage.

Increasing the quantity, quality and accessibility of climate and nature finance is a priority. We are working at country and global system levels, including with the multilateral climate funds and the MDBs, to ensure climate and nature finance is available and accessible to the most vulnerable. We are also making important steps towards achieving our commitment that all new, bilateral UK ODA aligns with the Paris Agreement in 2023.

Improving access to finance for climate vulnerable countries

Launched at COP26, the UK co-chaired Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance is pioneering a new approach to addressing the barriers developing countries face in accessing climate and nature finance, which is being piloted in 6 countries. Initial successes include Uganda’s new cross-government Climate Finance Unit; and UK support for Rwanda’s new Green Investment Facility, aiming to mobilise hundreds of millions of dollars in private sector climate finance through innovative blending. We continue to work with Bangladesh, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius on their country trials, and aim to support countries with high humanitarian need. Lessons learned will inform how all countries access climate finance and drive improvements to the international climate finance architecture.

Improving global health and catalysing work to prevent the next global health crisis

Our new “Global Health Framework: Working together towards a healthier world. May 2023” outlines how we will harness capabilities across the UK government to deliver our ambitions.

Over the year, the UK has supported efforts to improve health security at national, regional and global levels. In March 2022, we hosted the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit, alongside the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), to support CEPI’s 5-year plan to help develop vaccines against new health threats in 100 days and rapidly scale-up manufacturing, ensuring the world comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic stronger for the future. The event raised more than £1.1 billion, including a UK pledge of £160 million. In parallel, the UK responded quickly to events that have threatened health security, committing nearly £3 million to support the global response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, which was declared ended on 11 January 2023.

The UK has played an important leadership role in strengthening global health architecture, governance and financing. The UK helped secure agreement at the World Health Organisation (WHO) that a new global instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention preparedness and response should be legally binding. We have pledged a total of £25 million and disbursed £10 million from the Pandemic Fund to help fill critical gaps to ensure the world is better placed to prevent, detect and respond to future health threats.

The UK has continued to play a key role in promoting more resilient systems and work towards ending preventable deaths of mothers, new-borns and children. As the third largest donor to the Global Fund, the UK has invested £4.6 billion to date to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria around the world. The UK’s commitment last year of £1 billion alone will help save over 1 million lives around the world and avert 28 million new infections. In Ghana, the Department of Health and Social Care has trained over 10,000 health workers in 2022 through the Global Health Workforce Programme to deliver improved specialist health services, including maternal and child health.

New bed nets protect 63 million people from malaria

UK funding helped develop bed nets with a new insecticide, the first of its kind in 40 years, which stops mosquitos from flying. An international research trial^{[footnote 2]} showed the nets reduced prevalence of malaria by 43% and 37% in the first and second year respectively, compared to the standard net. The results were published in The Lancet and the bed nets have been strongly recommended by the WHO.

The UK has continued to play an important role in leveraging science and technology to improve global health. Since May 2022, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research has announced funding for 72 major new awards that will improve health in low- and middle-income countries.

Improving the evidence base on low-cost options to reduce deaths from surgery

A global trial of conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Global Surgery Unit compared the effectiveness of cheaper options to more expensive surgical stitches recommended by the WHO. The research showed no additional benefit in the number of infections from the costly option, potentially impacting global practice and savings lives, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where people are 3 times more likely to die after surgery, often from infection.

Promoting open science for global resilience

The UK is putting research, science and technology at the forefront of our efforts to address global development challenges. This includes investing more than £300 million per year in targeted research and development investments and equitable partnerships to deliver development impact and strengthened local capacity, across all priority themes. Our research collaborations and partnerships, developed over many years of patient, long-term investments, have delivered impressive results in the last year.

We are supporting innovative solutions to global challenges at scale, for example, by testing innovative insurance products which are then taken to scale by British International Investment (BII). Our innovation funds with the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) and the Global Innovation Fund have mobilised £653 million and £607 million respectively, enabling the scale-up of new technologies and innovative services that help some of the world’s poorest people. Through UK support, Apollo Agriculture, an agri-tech company based in Kenya, has developed an IT platform which uses AI/machine learning and remote sensing to bundle together finance, insurance and marketing services for smallholder farmers. Our support has helped leverage over $47 million of new investment.

We are seeing results from investing in new technologies and evidence to inform interventions and policies to reach millions of poor people. A major breakthrough on crop yields (see case study) provides an example of what can be achieved through effective global collaboration and long-term international research partnerships, to address a significant global threat of food insecurity whilst supporting biodiversity. We are building the evidence base on how to drive rapid, inclusive and green growth in developing countries, through economic policy, private sector and infrastructure development. This includes supporting the Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer start-up, Roam, through the Transforming Energy platform to scale-up its production, including of the first-ever electric motorcycle produced in Africa. In 2022, Roam established a partnership with Uber which aims to equip 3,000 of its drivers with electric motorcycles.

Boosting major food crop yields by more than 20% through improved photosynthesis

Research funded by the UK and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has had an early breakthrough – showing that bioengineering of photosynthesis can increase yields of a major food crop by over 20%. Conducted by an international consortium including UK partners, the research aims to increase global food production by improving photosynthetic efficiency in food crops for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This breakthrough is big news: early indication that improving efficiency of photosynthesis can greatly increase the yield of a major food crop, and in this case do so sustainably, without necessitating increased land use, which is the largest driver of biodiversity loss.

Reforming the international financial system and cracking down on stolen and lost money

Faced with unprecedented global challenges, Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) resources are limited, and a number of countries are constrained in their ability to borrow more from the MDBs. Since May 2022, we have signed over £2.3 billion in new MDB guarantees, enabling the release of billions more in affordable for developing countries to tackle concurring crises. One of these is the Room to Run guarantee (see case study) and we are finalising guarantee agreements to support Ukraine through the conflict and with India and South Africa to support action on climate change. We have also allocated 4 billion in Special Drawing Rights through the IMF, to provide affordable long-term financing in low-income countries and vulnerable middle-income countries to address challenges such as climate change, energy security and pandemic preparedness.

Improving guarantees to unlock finance for our partners countries’ priorities

The Room to Run guarantee agreement, signed in October 2022 by the UK and the African Development Bank, will unlock £1.6 billion of additional climate finance by 2027. This will enable, for example, resilient water infrastructure projects in Egypt (£69 million) and Senegal (£32 million).

The UK is promoting a more shock-responsive international financial system, working to normalise Climate Resilient Debt Clauses (CRDCs) in loan agreements to vulnerable countries. These allow countries to pause debt repayments in the event of natural disasters. In November 2022, UK Export Finance (UKEF) became the first export credit agency globally to offer CRDCs. We also continue to push for swift debt treatments of cases in and outside of the G20’s Common Framework for debt treatment. Our promotion of sustainable lending and transparency will help to reduce future cases of debt distress, and we are pressing for private lenders to include majority voting provisions in their syndicated loans to make restructuring more efficient and equitable.

We continue to help partner countries receive their rightful tax revenues. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) launched the OECD’s Pillars Knowledge Sharing Network in May 2023. This provides a peer support network for tax authorities and finance ministries in developing countries to implement and generate revenues from new corporate tax rules (see case study). The first meeting of the Network took place in June 2023 and focussed on new global minimum corporate tax rules which could increase annual global revenue gains by $220 billion, equivalent to 9% of global corporate tax income.

Collaborating with Nigeria on international tax

This year, HMRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to start peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and capacity building. Under this programme, HMRC will provide support to FIRS on data analysis, country by country reporting, transfer pricing and audit (oil & gas sectors). This marks an important milestone in the UK’s relationship with Nigeria and our commitment to make the international tax system accessible.

The UK reaffirmed its commitment to addressing corruption and illicit finance in the UK’ s second Economic Crime Plan. A new International Centre of Expertise on Illicit Finance is also being established, enhancing the UK’s knowledge and capacity to address global vulnerabilities related to illicit finance.

Recovering stolen money

The International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC) founded in 2017 by the UK and key partners, and hosted at the UK’s National Crime Agency, has increased much-needed cooperation on intelligence and evidence gathering. Without this cooperation, complex, multi-jurisdictional cases of grand corruption cannot be investigated, nor corrupt actors held to account. In 2022, intelligence collated by the IACCC identified more than £380 million in stolen assets and made significant progress on 2 of the largest corruption investigations in the world, in Angola and Malaysia.

Delivering our patient approach – supporting lasting foundations for development progress

The Strategy for International Development signalled a shift towards our patient development approach, rooted in long-term partnerships tailored to the needs of the countries we work with. We prioritise listening to our partners and working collaboratively to advance shared objectives, with a focus on ensuring that national, regional and global systems support long-term development. Our patient development approach treats the root causes of problems, recognising that there are neither quick fixes nor blueprints to most development challenges and global issues. Our approach recognises that institutions that support stability, open markets, green finance, free people and the free flow of ideas and technology are central to lasting development progress.

Over the last year, we have published a number of strategies (see below) which have outlined how we will deliver on our patient approach across our priorities. They explain how we are investing in prevention and finding lasting solutions to the major problems the world faces.

Since May 2023 the UK government has launched the Global Health Framework, Humanitarian Framework, International Women and Girls Strategy, 2030 Strategic Framework for International Climate and Nature Action, Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative Strategy, International Climate Finance Strategy, Women, Peace, and Security National Action Plan and the Position Paper: Addressing the climate, environment, and biodiversity crises in and through girls’ education.

As a part of our patient approach, we have supported open and accountable institutions that work for everyone, support stability and help to deliver sustained and inclusive development progress.

This includes working with our partners to support fair and free elections, strengthen women’s political leadership and defend civic space. For example, long-term British technical support contributed to a largely peaceful election day and improved electoral processes in a highly contested Kenyan Presidential election in August 2022. UK Aid Direct provide support to small and medium civil society organisations to deliver the Global Goals. Through this and through UK Aid Match II, which matches UK public donations to charity appeals, we have supported civil society organisations to reach 35 million marginalised and vulnerable people.

The Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation was formally established in February 2022 to deliver an integrated approach to the UK’s engagement in conflict and on political settlements. The FCDO’s new Mass Atrocity Prevention Hub was launched in September 2022. In 2022, we also began implementation of phase 2 of the UK’s flagship £67.5 million What Works to Prevent Violence Programme, which is scaling up evidence-based approaches around the world.

Building resilient institutions and protecting the survivors of sexual violence in the Western Balkans

We have maintained our support to security, stability and prosperity in the Western Balkans. Recent successes include establishing Bosnia Herzegovina’s Cyber Security Excellence Centre to monitor threats, assess risk and improve cyber security standards and UK support to the introduction of money laundering as a stand-alone crime in Kosovo. In Bosnia and Herzegovina we have driven new legislation that specifically protects the rights of survivors of sexual violence in conflict and helped civil society organisations who are now supporting colleagues in Ukraine to document sexual violence by Russian forces.

Delivering around the world

Figure 2: Since May 2022, the UK has succeeded in supporting the resilience of our partners globally

Description of Figure 2

Since May 2022, the UK has succeeded in supporting the resilience of our partners globally, including:

Sub-Saharan Africa:

• supporting £1 billion of UK exports and £1.1 billion of UK investment
• boosting market access through 6 bilateral Economic Partnership Agreements, covering 15 countries
• agreement between our Prime Minister and the Kenyan President to fast-track a further £3.4 billion of UK green investment in Kenya
• UK awarded the Innovation-focused Development Partner of Year by the Kenyan government

Middle-East and North Africa:

• used leadership role within UN to keep international focus and pressure on Yemen crisis with encouraging signs of formal ceasefire
• leading role in convening the international community to maintain support for UNSCR2672: providing lifesaving support for many Syrians
• first ever UK-Saudi Arabian Development Dialogue with agreement to cooperate in humanitarian assistance, food security & climate resilience

Indo-Pacific Region:

• announced the ASEAN-UK Plan of Action, which will deliver regional programmes across a range of development objectives
• helping to propel change through delivery of the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) agreed by the G7 with Indonesia and Vietnam
• through the UK-India Roadmap, supporting India’s international initiatives to address climate change and support the SDGs

Europe:

• supporting a secure and resilient Europe, by providing development assistance in response to invasion of Ukraine
• working with the government of Ukraine to address the consequences of war and support good governance and economic resilience
• supporting the EU-managed Facility for Refugees in Turkey, including providing health services and building infrastructure to support 3.6 million people

Small Island Developing States (SIDS):

• launched the UK’s SIDS Strategy to support climate and economic resilience
• established a ‘Friends of SIDS’ coalition to encourage uptake of the Call to Action on SIDS Access to Finance
• a £36 million SIDS specific offer announced under the £500 million Blue Planet Fund

Looking ahead

The past year has highlighted the pace of global change and how this is affecting our collective ability to end poverty, deliver the SDGs and secure a freer, safer, more prosperous, healthier and greener world. Only 12% of the SDGs are on track for 2030, and 30% are in reverse. The rise of AI, the impact of climate change, fracturing geopolitics, a struggling multilateral system and global migration: these challenges are emerging now and will define the next decade.

Our response must evolve to match the scale and pace of change. During the next year, we will continue to step up our contribution to the SDGs. First and foremost, we will do this by delivering on the vision and commitments of the IRR – particularly the 7 initiatives:

• reforming and greening the global financial system – to ensure the international financial institutions and capital markets are better equipped to meet the needs of developing countries in dealing with the economic, debt, climate and nature crises
• championing global efforts to make global tax systems fairer – ensuring revenues and assets lost are identified and recovered, so countries can self-finance their development;
• delivering clean, green infrastructure and investment – through BIP, by leveraging the support of capital markets and the private sector
• conducting a campaign to improve global food security and nutrition – including increasing the availability of malnutrition treatment and prevention, driving the shift to sustainable agriculture, making greater use of R&D and anticipatory action on famine risk
• delivering a global campaign on ‘open science for global resilience’ – ensuring low- and middle-income countries have access to knowledge and resources for progress
• catalysing international work to prevent the next global health crisis – brokering more ambitious international agreements on pandemic preparedness and response, strengthening health systems, driving more equitable access to affordable vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, and tackling antimicrobial resistance
• coalescing a collective response to the accelerating, well-financed and organised attacks on the rights of women and girls, including online – working to improve education, health and rights, support empowerment, reduce gender-based violence, and amplifying the role of women’s rights organisations

Our efforts will be critically evaluated by our friends and allies as we pass through the major international events of the year to come: COP28, the Africa climate action summit, the G20 leaders’ summit, UNGA, the SDG summit and the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. We will look to galvanise action and showcase UK leadership and contribution through our London event to tackle global food security at the end of the year and at the next UK-Africa Investment Summit in April 2024.

The UK will, this autumn, publish a white paper on international development setting out how we can tackle poverty and climate change and deliver the SDGs, in a fast-changing world. The white paper will build on the foundations set out in the Strategy for International Development and IRR, including on the need for modern, patient partnerships, that go beyond aid and for renewed multilateralism to tackle shared challenges. Consultation with our partners, across government, the UK and internationally, will shape the white paper, ensuring it represents the voices and needs of our partner countries and the strength of the UK offer. We will draw together global consultations, conversations and evidence to set out a positive roadmap: a pathway to prosperity that supports net zero, climate resilient and nature positive development pathways and delivers public goods, while contributing to a more open, stable, prosperous international order.

1. Since 2011 ICF investments have provided 58 million people with improved access to clean energy and installed 3,300 megawatts of clean energy capacity. ↩

2. Research was conducted by University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, alongside the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), National Institute for Medical Research and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College in Tanzania. ↩