Aid to Africa falls by over 25 percent, with women's health programmes hit hardest

From Kenya, a report on shrinking aid to Africa has set out the consequences for women and children as health programmes lose funding. Nana Zulu works with the African Women’s Development Fund.

The retreat began with a steep reduction in US support. US foreign-aid disbursements fell from roughly $73.5 billion in 2024 to $47.3 billion in 2025. US official development assistance then dropped to about $29 billion in 2025, a nearly 57 percent reduction.

That US reduction accounted for most of the overall 23 percent fall in global donor aid in 2025. Preliminary data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, put the decline in official development assistance at 23.1 percent in real terms in 2025, the steepest annual fall on record.

For Africa, international aid has fallen by over 25 percent. US-backed health programmes for women have faced cuts, and women and children are bearing the brunt of the reductions.

Eswatini shows what is at stake. The bulk of US assistance to the country in 2024 went to HIV/AIDS programmes under PEPFAR and related health systems. Funding fell to roughly $20–21 million in 2025, down by more than 70 percent from $76.6 million in 2024.

Before the cuts, adult HIV infection rates in Eswatini had declined and life expectancy had risen by more than a decade from the lows of early 2000s. The country also became one of the first African nations to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for testing, treatment and viral suppression. Those gains are now threatened by the funding reduction.

The United States dismantled USAID. Bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa is projected to fall by 11.6 percent. Western aid is also increasingly dominated by emergency spending.

The OECD expects aid to fall by a further 6.9 percent in 2026. The United Kingdom has moved towards devoting 0.3 percent of national income to aid.

The report was published on 09/10/2026. Separately, RFLD, Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement, has 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 African countries.