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March 24, 2024 | UK, Education, Agriculture, Gender Equality, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Family Planning, WASH & Sanitation, Climate, Global Health, Security policy | Share this update
On March 24, 2024, BOND published a new manifesto setting out the steps the next UK government should take to help deliver on the SDGs and work in solidarity with its partners.
The manifesto is based around seven key asks:
December 19, 2023 | UK, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, Climate | Share this update
On December 19, 2023, the UK government released a new policy paper entitled Global Food Security Summit 2023 Chair's Summary: towards zero hunger and ending malnutrition, which provided a summary of the key outcomes and announcements of the UK-hosted Global Food Security Summit, held in November 2023 in London.
The summit was organized around three key themes:
Thematic Area 1: New approaches to ending preventable deaths of children.
This session highlighted that nutrition is an essential part of UHC and called for the need to integrate nutrition services into primary health care. The session also called for a more coherent approach to addressing early prevention and detection of child wasting and highlighted the need for more sustainable financing to address the issue. Associated announcements at the Summit included:
Thematic Area 2: Anticipating and preventing famine and food security crises.
This session focused on the importance of prevention and anticipation strategies in countries facing the intertwined impacts of climate and conflict and the need to mainstream early warning systems. It also highlighted the need to scale-up disaster risk finance for fragile and conflict-affected states and ensure that flexible social protection systems are in place that can respond to shocks. It recognized the crucial role of civil society in crisis response and women’s empowerment as key to tackling food insecurity. Associated announcements included:
Thematic Area 3: Building a climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture and food system.
This session focused on the need to support the transition to sustainable nutritious food plans, and systems via country, region-led and global initiatives, plans, and platforms. It also noted the need to use evidence-based approaches based on what has worked and called for more climate finance to be mobilized for agriculture, with a particular focus on supporting small-holder farmers. Associated announcements included:
Thematic Area 4: Harnessing science and technology for food security.
This session highlighted the importance of science and innovation in supporting food security and nutrition and called for improved accessibility to the benefits of scientific and technological advancement. It focused on the need to support sustainable scaling up of research and innovation through consistent, stable political and financial support and innovative finance models. Associated announcements included:
December 1, 2023 | UK, Agriculture, Agricultural R&D, Climate | Share this update
On December 1, 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced GBP1.6 billion (US$1.9 billion) in climate commitments at COP28, of which GBP887.8 million (US$1.1 billion) is considered new additional climate funding.
The announcements included up to GBP60 million (US$72 million) of funding for loss & damage, including up to GBP40 million (US$48 million) for the Loss & Damage Fund and a further GBP20 million (US$24 million) for funding arrangements for interventions such as early warning systems and disaster risk finance.
The announcements also included:
November 20, 2023 | UK, Agriculture, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, Climate | Share this update
On November 20, 2023, the UK partnered with the government of UAE, who are the forthcoming hosts of COP28, and the government of Somalia to host a Global Food Security Summit in London.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and UAE Minister for Climate Change and Environment Mariam Almheiri opened the summit. They were officially supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CIFF.
The summit gathered representatives from more than 20 countries. It had the stated goal of focusing international attention on the increasing global good security crisis and boosting action against hunger and malnutrition, including through innovations in science and technology. Almost 1 billion people were severely food insecure in 2022, and more than one in three people in the world were not able to afford a healthy diet in 2023.
The UK government launched its new White Paper on International Development at the summit, and also announced:
The summit also saw the launch of the new CGIAR UK science center to develop new climate-resilient crops and identify risks to global food systems. The new virtual hub will help to link UK scientists with global research initiatives to develop climate- and disease-resistant crops.
The end of the summit produced a joint Ministerial Statement by the UK, UAE, and Somalia that urged the international community to address underlying causes of food insecurity, act earlier to prevent crises, and work towards delivering more resilient agriculture and food systems in the face of climate change. The declaration called on governments to sign the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action ahead of COP28 in UAE on November 30, 2023, in order to support policy tools and resources needed to enable a transition to sustainable food systems.
November 20, 2023 | UK, Education, Gender Equality, Agricultural R&D, Nutritious Food Systems, WASH & Sanitation, Climate | Share this update
On November 20, 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched a new White Paper on International Development, the first since 2009, which set out a progressive, whole-of-government approach to accelerate the delivery of the SDGs over the next seven years.
The White Paper provided a return to focusing UK development on the goal of eradicating poverty, which experts noted was largely neglected by previous strategies. It presented two further key goals: tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. The paper called for a new approach to partnerships based on country ownership, accountability, and transparency.
Though experts noted that the paper seemed to signal that the UK has recommitted to international development, it did not make new major financial commitments. The focus of the paper was on mobilizing resources beyond ODA for development, including the City of London’s private finance and expertise, stretching multilateral finance, and tackling trade, tax and illicit flows, as well as outlining policy priorities.
A return to delivering 0.7% ODA/GNI when fiscally feasible was mentioned briefly in the paper. Neither the Foreign Secretary nor the Minister for Development mentioned 0.7% ODA/GNI as a goal in their respective prefaces.
Six key themes from the paper included:
One of the most significant commitments was the aim to spend 50% of UK bilateral ODA in LDCs, prioritizing ODA resources to LICs. In 2021, the UK only provided 19.1% of resources to LDCs and has never exceeded 33% since 2013. A commitment to 50% is seen by experts as a monumental change in bilateral allocations. The White Paper also committed the BII to invest half of its resources in so-called poor and fragile states by 2030.
The 2024 UK election sets a narrow timeframe for the current Conservative government to implement the goals laid out by the paper. The progressive and broad framing, however, indicated to experts that the paper may not necessarily be jettisoned by a potential Labor government.
Development NGOs in the UK have been broadly welcoming of the document, but have criticized the government for ODA cuts and called for a return to 0.7% ODA/GNI.
November 1, 2023 | UK, Education, Agriculture, Gender Equality, Nutritious Food Systems, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, Family Planning, Agricultural R&D, WASH & Sanitation, Climate, Global health R&D, Global Health | Share this update
On November 1, 2023, the UK government announced that it will provide GBP38 million (US$46 million) to a new GBP80 million (US$96 million) global initiative to speed up the use of AI to support international development.
The announcement was made at the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, UK. The initiative, which is also being supported by Canada, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US, and partners in Africa, aims to utilize AI to combat inequality and boost prosperity, primarily in Africa. It will focus on building the capacity of and supporting African AI expertise to address long-standing development challenges.
The UK’s funding will come from a new phase of the UK AI for Development Programme. The following goals were listed as priorities until 2028:
US$ amounts are cited directly from sources; in the absence of an official conversion, they are calculated using the previous week's average of the US Federal Reserve's daily exchange rates.
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