ODA Spending

How much ODA does the UK allocate to global health?

The UK is the second-largest government donor to global health in absolute terms. ODA for health represented 16% of the UK’s total ODA in 2023. This makes it the second-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. It increased in 2023, particularly due to contributions to multilateral organizations.

FCDO's FY2022/23 report laid out upcoming funding plans for global health. 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

While overall ODA to global health increased, bilateral ODA to health fell by nearly half between 2021 and 2023.

Multilateral Spending and Commitments

The UK is a strong supporter of multilateral health initiatives. The UK provided 69% of health ODA as multilateral funding and 9% as earmarked funding through multilaterals.

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

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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.