“The dramatic fall is completely unexpected,” Asif Saleh, executive director of BRAC, told The Guardian.
“It’s like a gut punch. We did not anticipate it would be a complete withdrawal from the partnership. From a commitment of £200 million over five years to absolutely nothing – it’s a mistake.”
Saleh says the withdrawal of funding will leave hundreds of thousands of girls without an education, millions of women without family planning, and hundreds of thousands in extreme poverty without support.
“There have been programmes that have been shut down with 90 days’ notice,” Saleh told The Guardian. “We are trying to fill the gaps. Our health programme is continuing because of Covid. Our ultra-poor graduation programme, our education programme, is being scaled down. I’m having to make tough calls. When I’m not being able to start schools, when I’m having to stop programmes to reduce child marriage, to those people, it will be seen as a betrayal.”
His remarks came in response to the UK announcing it would spend £430 million on girls’ education in 90 countries over the next five years, weeks after it cut £200 million set aside for the same cause.
Sarah Brown, chair of global children’s charity Theirworld, described the cuts as ‘savage’ in a statement to The Guardian, saying the funding was ‘a drop in the ocean’ compared to the massive scale of the education crisis across the world.
BRAC runs the largest non-formal school programme in Bangladesh. About 12 million children have graduated from the programme.
“The UK has given support to a global south organisation that has delivered and provided transparency,” said Saleh. “To take it away so abruptly sends the wrong message. The UK should not abandon the amazing reputation it has built as a global development powerhouse. Britain has been a great friend. This needed a thoughtful response. These are people’s lives.”