PREVIEW
Whitehall is eviscerating aid budgets but differs with Washington over cash for radio stations and soft power
Washington’s Voice of America radio station will be back on air in dozens of African countries following a court ruling outlawing attempts by the Trump administration to shut it down. Voice of America’s 1,042 full-time employees have been reinstated by US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in a ruling on 17 March, that dismissed efforts to dismantle the news agency by Kari Lake, who runs the US Agency for Global Media created by President Donald Trump, as ‘arbitrary and capricious’ (AC Vol 66 No 7, Pretoria picks new envoy for the MAGA minefield).
One of the main instruments of American soft power in the world since its establishment following the Second World War, VoA had an audience reach of 361 million people weekly on 49 different language services in more than 100 countries, according to court filings. But it has fallen to six language services since an executive order by US President Trump last March promised to reduce its output to the ‘the minimum presence and function required by law.’
The British government is following the US monumental cuts to foreign aid but differs with Washington over the value of soft power – namely the international reach of the BBC. After a decade of severe budget cuts, some of which caused the closure of the BBC Africa Service’s daily news programmes which had an audience of over 80 million, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has promised an additional £11 million (US$14.6m) a year for the next three years, an 8% increase, for the BBC World Service.
Yet African countries will bear the brunt of hefty cuts to Britain’s Official Development Assistance budget (Dispatches 28/7/25, Africa faces the brunt of Whitehall’s aid cuts). Bilateral aid to African countries will be reduced by almost £900m by 2028-29 – a 56% cut – as part of more than £6bn in cuts that will take Britain’s overall ODA spending to 0.3% of gross national income. The diet of cuts was approved by British MPs last year as part of a broader plan to ramp up defence spending.
With the exception of Sudan, all African countries are set to receive lower aid disbursements.
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