Futures At Risk

Children’s lives and futures are at risk

Children suffer first and most in the face of climate change, conflict and extreme poverty. The lives and futures of the most vulnerable children are now even more at risk as the UK Government is cutting the aid budget by 40% by 2027, and yet cuts set out for this year (2025/26) are falling on the services children need the most, like health and education in some of the poorest countries in the world. These further cuts to aid will mean millions of children will lose out on critical healthcare, nutrition and education.   

In 2015, a commitment to aid spending of 0.7% of national income was put into law and maintained until 2020. But it was reduced – supposedly temporarily – to 0.5% in 2021.   

Now the Government is cutting aid spending to 0.3% – taking the aid budget to less than half of what it was in 2020. This will have a devasting impact on the world’s most vulnerable children.   

We are urging the UK Government to re-prioritise aid spending to protect children. The UK must play its part in securing the futures of children by spending at least 25% of aid on the vital, basic services children need like life-saving healthcare, nutrition and education, and working with their communities, and local and national governments to make sure that these services can withstand the increasing impacts of climate change.   

Children’s lives and futures are at risk. We must act now.

What are we calling for?

UNICEF UK’s Futures at Risk campaign urges the UK Government to play its part in securing children’s futures by spending at least 25% of aid on the vital, basic services children need like:  

🩺 Life-saving healthcare 

🥫 Nutrition 

📖 Education