ODA Spending

How much ODA does the UK allocate to global health?

The UK is the fourth-largest government donor to global health in absolute terms, after the US and Germany. ODA for health represented 15% of the UK’s total ODA in 2022. This puts the UK in line with the DAC average of 15% and makes it the ninth-largest donor to health in relative terms.

How is UK global health ODA changing?

The UK’s ODA to health declined significantly in 2021 and again in 2022 after a previously strong stretch, likely due to the reduction in the overall ODA budget.

FCDO's FY2022/23 report laid out upcoming funding plans for global health. Funding stood at GBP1.1 billion ( US$1.4 billion) in FY2021/22 and fell by 15% in FY2022/23 to GBP1 billion ( US$1.3 billion). Projections showed funding is scheduled to fall again in FY2023/24 to GBP809 million ( US$997 million) (21% from FY2022/23) and then to rise by 32% to GBP1 billion ( US$1.3 billion) in FY2024/25.

How much ODA does the UK allocate to global health?

Bilateral Spending

The total US$1.4 billion spent on bilateral funding to health in 2021 was a significant 36% drop from the 2020 figure of US$2.2 billion. It increased slightly in 2022 to US$1.3 billion, despite a reduction in overall global health ODA due to cuts in funding to multilaterals.

Multilateral Spending and Commitments

The UK is a strong supporter of multilateral health initiatives. The UK provided 38% of health ODA as bilateral funding and 14% as earmarked funding through multilaterals, above the DAC average of 30%, however, this is a decrease in both absolute and relative terms from previous years.

Funding and Policy Outlook

What is the current UK government's outlook on global health ODA?

Concerns around multilateral health spending: Going forward, global health will remain a policy priority for UK development assistance but is likely to face financing pressures, as the UK’s ODA budget remains below 0.7% ODA/GNI and other spending areas compete for resources.

The 2023 White Paper on International Development outlined the UK’s vision that in 2030 that everyone, everywhere, has access to affordable essential health services. The paper identified a number of priorities including strengthening health systems, reforming and strengthening the global health architecture, ensuring, a comprehensive vaccination process for children, strengthening disease surveillance systems, tackling AMR, defending SRHR and adopting a ONE health approach. Support for health research, technology, and innovation is also a significant priority.

Renewed vision on global health: The White Paper builds upon two policy papers on global health published by the FCDO in 2021, which outlined its agenda on strengthening health systems and ending preventable deaths, which will remain core priorities for UK development assistance moving forward. The papers did not, however, set out any financial commitments or specific results targets, except contributing to relevant UN SDGs.

Key Bodies

Global health R&D is also important to addressing many of the global health challenges that disproportionately affect the world’s most disadvantaged people. For more information on how donor countries are supporting global health R&D across three main areas — 1) EIDs; 2) PRNDs; and 3) SRH — read the excellent G-Finder reports and explore the interactive data portal created by Policy Cures Research. Not all funding mentioned in these analyses qualifies as ODA.