UK Aid Provision in Numbers

This chapter explores the trends and patterns of UK development aid provision between 1997 and 2022, structured by five time periods that broadly follow different administrations—1997–2001, 2002–2009, 2010–2016, 2017–2019, and 2020–2022. We note that throughout the two-and-a-half decades under observation, the biggest regional recipients of UK aid have been Eastern and Western Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South and Central Asia. However, while the largest country recipients of UK aid at the beginning of the time period were usually former British colonies, later the UK began to prioritise conflict-affected countries of high strategic interest, measured through refugee flows, arms purchases, and terrorist attacks. Changes over time also occurred in the sectoral distribution of UK aid. In the early years examined, the UK provided relatively more aid to transport, industry, and agriculture, shifting more towards investing in social sectors including education, health, and government and civil society. The most recent years have been marked by an ever-larger portion of the aid budget being devoted to domestic refugee costs and administrative costs of aid to and tying the remaining external aid provision more closely to the UK’s commercial interests.