July 16, 2026 — Responding to the release of the FCDO Annual Report 2025-6, IRC UK Executive Director, Flora Alexander, said,
"The scale of the UK's ODA cuts has been laid bare today, and it is severe. Crisis is not limited to a handful of headline emergencies. From Somalia to Afghanistan, humanitarian needs are surging while the UK and other major donors are cutting the support needed. Political will, funding, and respect for rules-based order are in simultaneous decline. In the DRC, an Ebola outbreak is unfolding against a backdrop of conflict and mass displacement, while funding shrinks.
We're particularly disappointed to see cuts to Lebanon after the Foreign Secretary pledged to maintain funding to Lebanon into next year, while over a million Lebanese people are projected to face acute food insecurity in 2026.
"We welcome the decision to protect funding for Ukraine, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). These are places where people have lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones to conflict, and this protection shows that the UK is willing to stand behind those in acute humanitarian need.
"Our call to the incoming government is simple: extend that same protection to the people living through the crises that don't make headlines."
ENDS