Country: World Source: Oxfam Published: 9th April 2026 In response to the publication today of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) preliminary data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for 2025, Oxfam’s Development Finance Lead Didier Jacobs said: ‘Wealthy governments are turning their backs on the lives of millions of women, men and children in the Global South with these severe aid cuts. They collectively slashed aid by 23% in 2025. Based on aid’s crucial role in combating diseases like HIV-AIDS and malaria, the Institute of Global Health of Barcelona estimated that global aid cuts of such magnitude would kill hundreds of thousands of people in 2025 alone. If this trend continues, aid cuts could kill over 9 million people by 2030. At a time where aid cuts are already driving instability and fostering greater inequality, government donors are cutting life-saving aid budgets while financing conflict and militarization. Cuts from donors including Germany, France and the UK will be felt by the world’s poorest. The United States shut down USAID and recklessly cut aid by $37 billion in 2025, and the Trump administration has been preparing to ask Congress for tens of billions in additional funding for bombs, ammunition, and other military equipment relating to its unlawful war against Iran. Governments must restore their aid budgets and shore up the global humanitarian system that faces its most serious crisis in decades. There are other ways to find tens of billions, such as by taxing the $2.84 trillions of dollars that the super-rich hide in tax havens.’ Notes to editors The OECD preliminary data shows the DAC countries’ aid spending for 2025 was $174.3 billion, a cut of 23% from 2024. The Institute of Global Health in Barcelona released a study in Lancet Journal (February 2026) that evaluated the impact of ODA on mortality rates around the world. It estimates that aid cuts in 2025 alone, assuming a 21% aid cut, would be responsible for 695,238 excess deaths, and that, if the aid cut trend continued, it could kill 9,416,417 by 2030. The US Administration is reportedly planning to seek a war appropriation of $80-$100 billion from Congress. Oxfam estimates that the top 0.1% richest people worldwide hide $2.84 trillion in tax havens. Even a small tax on that wealth would yield much more than the amount of aid cuts. Contact information Cass Hebron in Brussels [email protected] +32485913688

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