Nigerian women and girls hit hardest by British and US funding cuts, MPs told

**Lead**

British and American funding cuts are having a disproportionate impact on women and girls in Nigeria, a parliamentary committee in London has been told. Giving evidence to the cross-party International Development Committee on Tuesday, expert witnesses said the withdrawal of bilateral aid programmes had triggered a cascade of closures among gender-focused projects across northern Nigeria, with particularly severe consequences for maternal health services, girls’ education and survivors of gender-based violence.

**Context**

The hearing formed part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the future of UK official development assistance after the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced a further consolidation of the aid budget. Witnesses drew comparisons between the recent decisions taken in London and the sweeping cuts imposed by the United States after the dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development. Nigeria, already contending with one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality and a significant out-of-school population, has been identified as one of the countries most exposed to both funding shocks.

According to evidence submitted to the committee, integrated health and protection programmes that operated across multiple Nigerian states have either been wound down or reduced to skeleton services. Several organisations that relied on a combination of British and American grants said they had been forced to terminate contracts with local health workers and counsellors almost overnight. In regions affected by ongoing conflict, the loss of funding has also weakened the limited infrastructure available to survivors of abduction and sexual violence, leaving many women without access to psychosocial support or legal assistance.

The committee heard that the burden has fallen most heavily on adolescent girls, who face heightened risks of child marriage, sexual exploitation and school dropout when family incomes come under pressure. Witnesses emphasised that cuts to health and education spending were not neutral in their impact: in a context of deep-seated gender inequality, the withdrawal of targeted support tends to magnify existing disparities, and Nigerian women and girls are absorbing the largest share of the adjustment.

**Analise**

The evidence presented to the committee underscores a broader shift in Western aid policy, moving away from long-term investment in social programmes towards shorter-term humanitarian responses and geopolitical priorities. For Nigeria, this creates a difficult fiscal and strategic challenge. The federal government has made some progress in expanding domestic health and education budgets, but the scale of the funding gap left by external donors is substantial, and state-level capacity remains uneven. The testimony suggests that external support has functioned not merely as a supplement to government services, but as a critical safety net for the poorest and most marginalised communities.

The development implications are significant. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that investment in girls’ education and maternal health yields high economic returns over time, contributing to lower infant mortality, higher household productivity and stronger democratic participation. The sudden withdrawal of such investment, at a moment of global economic strain, risks locking in generational losses that will be far more costly to reverse than the savings achieved through aid cuts. Witnesses also warned that the reduced presence of international organisations makes it harder to monitor human rights abuses and to support civil society groups advocating for legal reform.

Another concern raised during the hearing was the erosion of institutional knowledge. Many of the Nigerian organisations affected by the cuts had spent years developing trust within local communities, particularly in conservative areas where state services are viewed with suspicion. Rebuilding those relationships, should funding later be restored, will require considerable time and money. The committee also heard that the coordination between British and American programmes had previously allowed for shared data collection and referral pathways, and that the simultaneous contraction of both donors had fractured those arrangements, leaving vulnerable women with fewer entry points to access help.

**Fontes**

The information in this article is based on evidence given to the United Kingdom Parliament’s International Development Committee, as reported by parliamentary sources and corroborated by statements from non-governmental organisations working in Nigeria. No figures have been independently verified by FORTIS NEWS beyond those already in the public domain.