UK government axes flagship global health project

A flagship health project in Africa, which UK ministers said would play a vital role in protecting Britain from future pandemic threats, is being axed due to aid cuts, the Guardian can reveal.The Global Health Workforce Programme (GHWP) which supported development and training for healthcare staff in six African countries, will close at the end of the month, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.“That is a genuinely historic decision, and the UK now risks ceding ground in global health that we will struggle to recover,” said Ben Simms, chief executive of Global Health Partnerships, which ran the programme.Since its launch, the GHWP has been highlighted by ministers and officials as an effort to boost global pandemic preparedness by strengthening national health systems, and a way to meet the UK’s moral obligations to invest in countries from which it recruits large numbers of staff for the NHS and social care.Similar programmes have run since 2008. The current scheme involved projects in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi and Somaliland. Its current three-year contract was due to end this month, but had been expected to be renewed, as with previous iterations.Renewing funding in 2023, under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, then health minister Will Quince said: “This funding aims to make a real difference in strengthening the performance of health systems in each of the participating countries, which will have a knock-on effect on boosting global pandemic preparedness and reducing health inequalities. The pandemic showed us that patients in the UK are not safe unless the world as a whole is resilient against health threats.”In one project, the Power for the People Africa Trust is funded through the programme to train staff to tackle gender-based violence and reduce linked teenage pregnancies and HIV infections in Kenya’s Homa Bay county.Acommunity health worker screening a patient in Ndiwa, Homa Bay County. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty ImagesCaren Okombo of the trust said gains would reverse if funding stopped, adding: “New HIV infections in Homa Bay today: at some point these infections would cross borders. They would get to [Britain’s] population as well. So stopping them from where they start is something that should be of importance to a country like Britain.”However, the Labour government announced last year that it would reduce overseas aid funding from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP in order to boost military spending. That followed an earlier cut under Boris Johnson’s premiership from 0.7%.The GHWP cut was revealed in a written answer to a parliamentary question asked by former development minister Sir Andrew Mitchell.FCDO minister Chris Elmore said the GHWP would close at the end of March.He said: “The UK should be proud of the progress made in international development this century. But the world has changed, and so must we. With less money, we must make choices and focus on greater impact.”Elmore said efforts were being made “to ensure the sustainability of projects beyond the programme’s lifetime” and that the government “remains committed to international development and will continue to support countries to build resilient, sustainable health systems”.A review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) published this week found that the system for allocating official development assistance budgets in recent years was “not always based on shared strategic priorities or evidence of value for money”.In a statement, Global Health Partnerships said: “We understand the fiscal pressures that the government faces, but we are clear that cutting investment in health workforce development in low- and middle-income countries has real human consequences – and ultimately costs more in the long run.”Partnerships could not survive on goodwill alone, they added. “They require sustained investment and institutional commitment and once that thread is cut, it is very difficult to pick it back up.”The FCDO was approached for comment.