Ghana’s major development partners are following the United States to slash aid to her and other developing countries, information monitored from multiple sources indicate.
This follows a global trend of shrinking support to developing nations. Various European governments are making substantial cuts to their aid budgets and prioritizing national interests.
The Netherlands, for instance, has slashed its aid budget by 30%, with a new focus on projects that directly benefit Dutch economic, security, and migration interests. Belgium has reduced its aid by 25%, and France has cut its budget by 37%. Most notably, the United Kingdom recently made a dramatic move, cutting its foreign aid budget by 40% while increasing defense spending. Germany, which had already planned to reduce aid, is expected to continue down this path after its upcoming elections.
Documents obtained by The High Street Journal show that the Dutch government plans to reduce its aid by €2.4 billion annually starting in 2027. The development aid budget will drop from an estimated €6.1 billion in 2029 to €3.8 billion, reducing the percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) allocated to development aid from 0.62% in 2024 to 0.44% in 2029. Dutch aid will now be explicitly tied to national economic, security, and migration concerns, with a focus on trade, economy, and migration control, rather than traditional aid models.
Several sectors will experience significant reductions in funding. Gender equality programmes, including support for UN Women, will be phased out, and vocational and higher education programmes in Africa will be discontinued. Support for sports and cultural projects will be eliminated, and climate-related funding, particularly for small-scale renewable energy and regional climate initiatives, will be significantly reduced. Funding for civil society and NGOs will be slashed, with a shift toward locally-led initiatives over international NGOs. However, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Sahel region will receive more focused attention under the revised aid structure.
Other major European donor countries such as, Sweden, and Finland are also drastically cutting their foreign aid budgets. These moves align with the global trend, first spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, who reduced funding for USAID. A humanitarian officer with Caritas Europe told Belgium based Radio Schuman that governments in Sweden and Finland, including coalition members from the far-right, are redirecting aid funds toward deportation programmes for irregular migrants.
Additionally, the European Union’s “Global Gateway” initiative is shifting focus toward projects that benefit EU member states, rather than addressing global development needs. According to Caritas’ Abriel Schieffelers, this marks a significant departure from previous international development priorities. With aid reductions from all major donors, Ghana will need to develop new strategies to fill the financial gap in order to avoid reversing the development gains it has made over the past two to three decades. May be one of the key issues to engage the minds of the participants at the National Economic Dialogue which opens today.
