Echoing the dismantling of USAID, other countries are changing funding priorities and health and hunger programmes in Africa will lose out

In December, Sweden announced a 10bn kronor (£800m) cut in development funding to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Tanzania and Bolivia. Germany’s humanitarian budget of €1.05bn (£920m) for 2026 will be less than half of last year’s, with spending refocused on areas deemed a priority to Europe.

The UK also announced earlier this year that it would be cutting aid to fund defence spending. Norway has increased its civilian support to Ukraine by 2.5bn kroner (£185m), to a quarter of its aid budget, but has been accused of making Africa pay for that rise with a 355m kroner cut (£26m).

France’s budget for 2026 will also see a €700m cut to aid spending, with a 60% reduction in food aid, while increasing defence spending by €6.7bn.