New data reveals a significant withdrawal of foreign aid amounting to tens of billions of dollars last year, primarily led by influential nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and France.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has highlighted a dramatic drop in global aid contributions, which plummeted by $56.7 billion in 2025. This 23 percent reduction marks the most severe cutback in aid on record.

This funding gap has likely resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths in many developing countries, with the potential for millions more fatalities in the future.

The United States, following the closure of USAID under Donald Trump’s second presidency, accounted for a substantial portion of this decline, contributing to three-quarters of the reduction.

Additional substantial cuts from other key donors—such as an 11 percent decrease from the UK, 5.6 percent from Japan, and 10.9 percent from France—have further intensified the global development assistance crisis.

With the United States stepping back from its role in aiding the world’s most vulnerable, Germany emerged as the leading foreign aid donor last year when measured in real terms.

Germany’s development assistance hit $41 billion in 2025, ahead of the United States by almost $200m.

In terms of percentage of a country’s gross national income (GNI), Norway was the most generous, giving 1.03 per cent.

Australia, by contrast, is of below-average generosity, ranking 25th of 32 donor nations, giving 0.18 per cent of GNI, behind the UK (0.43 per cent) and New Zealand (0.27 per cent).

Countries not meeting UN goal

Wealthy countries, including Australia, have signed up to a United Nations goal of giving 0.7 per cent of GNI — or 70c in every $100 from each nation’s budgets — to lesser developed nations.

Just four nations did so in 2025: Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark, with an average of 0.26 per cent.

Oxfam Australia said the figures should spur Australia to step up its global giving to fill gaps left by others, helping to combat diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria.

“Oxfam analysis found that global aid cuts mean a child under 5 could die every 40 seconds by 2030. If this trend continues, aid cuts could kill over 9 million people by 2030,” head of humanitarian Lucia Goldsmith said.

“The governments of wealthy nations are turning their backs on the lives of millions of women, men and children in the Global South through severe aid cuts.”

Oxfam research from January found a child under five years old could die every 40 seconds due to the US aid cuts.

Another study published by global health publication Lancet last year suggested aid cuts — at 21 per cent — would kill almost 700,000 people last year, and cumulatively 9.4 million people by the decade’s end.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has budgeted $5.1 billion in official development assistance this financial year, with a small increase in line with inflation.

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