Scrapping aid for dedicated gender-based programmes is a mistake

Sudan, 2024: Children at a school in Al-Iskan, north of Omdurman | Image by: Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo

4 min read06 June

Narrowing the international gender employment gap doesn't just lead to healthier families and more stable societies – it could add trillions of pounds to global wealth

When we talk about Britain’s role in the world we often speak of leadership – of values carried, influence earned, and history made. But true leadership is not measured in warm words. It reveals itself more subtly – in what we do and who we choose to stand with. And in this moment, as women’s and girls’ rights are in retreat across the globe, Britain must continue to play a key role in defending them.

I spent years working in international development before entering Parliament. I’ve seen what happens when women’s rights are upheld – and the devastation when they are denied. I’ve sat with survivors of gender-based violence in refugee camps who never saw justice. I’ve worked with campaigners fighting for girls to stay in school while systems and structures conspired to push them out. I’ve met women’s rights organisations leading change in the toughest contexts – fighting for progress but also fighting to keep their doors open and specialised support for women available.

Around the world, progress on gender equality and Sustainable Development Goal 5 is unravelling. Women and girls are being erased from public life in Afghanistan. Women’s bodies are battlegrounds in Sudan. In too many places, hard-won rights are being stripped away, piece by piece.

This is not just a crisis for women and girls – it’s a crisis for all of us. Because no society can thrive when half its people are silenced or unsafe. And no sustainable peace or prosperity can be built without gender equality at its core.

No society can thrive when half its people are silenced or unsafe

The data is unequivocal: investing in women and girls leads to healthier families, stronger economies, and more stable societies. Narrowing gender gaps in employment could add trillions of pounds to global wealth. Peace agreements are 35 per cent more likely to last when women help shape them – not by coincidence, but as a consequence of committing to community-rooted processes where women’s voices are heard. This isn’t ‘charity’. It is smart, evidence-based policy.

With the painful cuts to the aid budget, there are difficult choices ahead, but the UK must not step back from a leading role in supporting women and girls globally. Previous aid cuts, under the last Conservative government, saw gender-focused aid slashed almost in half – with 41 per cent cut from programming to prevent violence against women and girls, and a 66 per cent cut in funding for women’s rights organisations (from its peak in 2017). Today – again – rather than retaining dedicated gender-focused funding, we are being told that gender equality will be ‘mainstreamed’ across the aid budget.

To be clear: gender mainstreaming is a welcome ambition. But dedicated resources matter too. Without targeted funding, we might reach women and girls – but we leave intact the systemic barriers that hold them back. To be transformative, mainstreaming must be built upon a foundation of robust, standalone investments. Funding that supports grassroots women’s organisations, expands reproductive health access, tackles gender-based violence and puts rights – not rhetoric – at the heart of policy. This is what modernising development and leadership looks like.

And it’s what the British public expects. New YouGov polling shows that 63 per cent of the British public believe UK aid should prioritise the rights of women and girls. Among Labour supporters, that rises to nearly 80 per cent. I agree because it’s not only the right thing to do but in our own interests too.

I welcome the government’s appointment of Baroness Harman as UK special envoy for women and girls – it shows we believe this does matter. We must now also be clear that funding for women and girls is not optional or an ‘add-on’. That their rights are not negotiable. And that our commitment to their freedom, safety and equality is unshakeable.

Let’s not look back in 10 years and say we let this moment pass us by. Let’s choose to lead – boldly, proudly, and with women.

Alice Macdonald is Labour-Co-operative MP for Norwich North and member of the International Development Select Committee