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Official Development Assistance Update

In March, we explained that to fund a necessary increase in defence spending, the UK Government decided in the current fiscal and economic circumstances to reduce its Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget. Climate and nature remain top priorities for the UK’s ODA budget, alongside humanitarian and health, but as the overall aid budget reduces, we will need to achieve more with less by targeting our support where it has the most impact.

The UK Government has now set budgets for Government Departments until March 2029. Now that Defra knows how much ODA funding to expect, the Department must decide how much to allocate to each programme, including the Darwin Initiative.  

What does this mean for the Darwin Initiative? 

Defra now has confirmation of the funding available for Round 31 shortlisted projects. Applicants are being contacted directly, but if you have any questions, please get in touch with the Darwin Initiative team on bcf-darwin@niras.com.

At this stage, we do not have any information on future funding rounds, however, we will share an update on this in November.