In November 2018, the British government announced its plan to give £50 million in aid money to help stop female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa. Government legislation stipulates that the UK must spend 0.7% of gross national income on overseas development assistance (ODA) or foreign aid as it's commonly known. While the whole figure for 2018 is yet to be released, in 2017 £13.9 billion was spent on foreign aid, a 4.2% increase from 2016. But where exactly does all this money go? We find out...

There are two main delivery channels for the UK foreign aid budget: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral aid is earmarked spend which the donor has control over, and specific countries, regions or programmes receive this money. Africa is the region that received the largest percentage share of UK bilateral ODA in 2016, £2.9 billion, accounting for 51% of the total bilateral budget. According to statistics in 2017 Africa remained the largest recipient with 58.5%, £2.5 billion.

In 2016, the UK gave the most bilateral aid to Pakistan. The south Asian territory received £463 million which was allocated towards spending in education, other basic social services and urban and rural development. The size of this allocation has been criticised by parts of the UK media who feel that a country that is able to afford a nuclear weapons and space programme is not worthy of so much foreign aid. Spending in Asia dropped by £149 million in 2017.

War-torn Syria received the second largest country allocation of UK bilateral aid – £352 million. This has gone towards helping to educate children and humanitarian aid for those affected by the civil war. Following allegations of UK aid money being diverted and used in human rights abuses in Syria, the UK government suspended one particular programme, highlighting the difficulties involved in monitoring foreign aid operations.

Ethiopia received £334 million, the third largest allocation. It's thanks to this money that the east African country's social infrastructure and services have been improved. Between 2011 and 2016, the UK's involvement in Ethiopia has helped to support 2.76 million children in education, deliver 940,000 babies, and reach 4.91 million people with one or more water, sanitation or hygiene promotion intervention.

In 2016, the Americas received 4% of the UK's bilateral aid budget, this was up £83 million from 2015 to £242 million. The majority of this money went on infrastructure development in the Caribbean and a project in Brazil focusing on sustainable low carbon land use and forest management in farms.

Recognising that the Civil War in Syria was having repercussions on its neighbouring countries, Jordan and Turkey saw whopping increases year-on-year in bilateral aid from the UK. In 2016, Jordan was given £175 million, up from £57 million in 2015. Turkey was given £98 million, up from £6 million in 2015. This money was largely given to help support displaced refugees from Syria with vital supplies, health and education.

In 2015, India was the country that received the ninth largest percentage of the UK bilateral aid spend. In 2016 it dropped to 23rd. The UK's contributions to India's spending on education, health and government sectors fell by more than half year-on-year. This is reflective of the UK government’s policy to end traditional financial aid to India and move to an aid partnership based on technical cooperation and private sector investments.

Just over a third of the UK's bilateral aid in 2016 was not assigned to any single benefiting country or region. Included in this allocation was centrally-funded research, other global public goods or programmes that develop policies that benefit several developing countries at one time, general development work overseas and support for asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.

Multilateral aid covers un-earmarked funds that are pooled with other governments and other donor funding and distributed by multilateral organisations. The International Development Association, a division of the World Bank Group that helps the world’s poorest countries through loans and grants, received £1,145 million – the largest proportion of UK multilateral foreign aid in 2016. In 2017 the vast majority of the additional foreign aid spend also went to multilateral organisations.

The European Commission's development arms received the second and third largest proportions of the UK's multilateral budget for 2016. £1,031 million was allocated to cover the development share of the European Commission's budget and £473 million went to the European Commission's European Development Fund, which is the EU's main body for providing development aid to overseas countries and territories.

The International Monetary Fund – Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust's aim is to make the objectives of poverty reduction and growth more central to lending operations in the IMF's poorest member countries. It offers an extended credit facility for low-income countries with protracted balance of payment problems, a standby credit facility for short-term payment issues and a rapid credit facility for emergencies. It received £446 million from the multilateral aid budget in 2016.

The African Development Fund, part of the African Development Bank Group, helps to promote the economic and social development of 40 of Africa's least developed countries by providing concessional funding for projects and programmes and technical assistance for studies and capacity-building activities. Sustainable agriculture, green energy and transport improvements are just some of the projects it has benefited. It received £214 million from the multilateral aid budget in 2016.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) works with public and private sectors to create equal access for children living in the world's poorest countries to new and underused vaccines. As many as 640 million children have benefited from its services since its creation in 2000 and it's believed that more than nine million deaths have been prevented as a result. GAVI received £200 million from the 2016 multilateral UK foreign aid budget.

The Green Climate Fund received £162 million from the 2016 multilateral UK foreign aid budget. Set up by the 194 countries who are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its mission is to support developing countries in their efforts to respond to the challenge of climate change by helping them to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and shift to low-emission and climate-resilient development projects.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is committed to accelerating the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. It invests nearly £2.95 billion a year to support programmes run by local experts in the countries and communities most in need. The UK multilateral foreign aid budget contributed £153 million towards this and has helped the Global Fund to save more than 22 million lives as of 2016.

The International Finance Facility for Immunisation's mission is to rapidly accelerate the availability and predictability of funds for immunisation. The funds that it raises are used by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to fund the purchase and delivery of life-saving vaccines and strengthen health services in the world's poorest countries. The UK's multilateral foreign aid budget contributed £92 million to this agency in 2016.

Launched in January 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a multilateral development bank whose goal is to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond. Headquartered in Beijing, it invests in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors in a bid to better connect people, services and markets that will impact the lives of billions and build a better future. The bank received £72 million from UK multilateral foreign aid budget in 2016.

The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund, which delivers funding quickly to humanitarian responders and brings greater balance to emergency assistance, received £55 million from the UK. It provides time-critical support, including supplies, basic services and protection to millions of people in need and helps those caught up in the world’s most neglected, underfunded and long-lasting crises.

Working in about 170 countries worldwide, the United Nations Development Programme concentrates on achieving the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. The £55 million aid from the UK will help in its mission to assists countries in developing policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and building resilience to sustain development results.

The Private Infrastructure Development Group's goal is to mobilise private sector investment to assist developing countries in providing infrastructure vital to boosting their economic growth and combating poverty. In 2016, the UK gifted it £53 million which will help in the construction of roads, bridges, ports, hydro-electric plants and fibre-optic cabling, services that the public sector often can't afford to fund in developing countries.

The UK gave £53 million to the Global Environment Facility's Special Climate Change Fund to help in tackling the earth's most pressing environmental challenges. Since it was established in 1992 it has provided over £12.5 billion in grants and mobilised an additional £64.9 billion in financing for more than 4,000 projects in 170 countries.

The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is committed to aiding the Member States and the Secretary-General in their efforts to maintain international peace and security. Receiving £51 million from the UK in 2016, it offers political and executive direction to UN Peacekeeping operations around the world.

The Clean Technology Fund is a funding window of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF). It was given £51 million from the UK in 2016 and is focused on empowering transformation in developing and emerging economies by providing resources to scale up low carbon technologies with significant potential for long-term greenhouse gas emissions savings.

The Asian Development Fund provides grants to the Asian Development Bank's lower-income developing member countries. The Fund received £50 million from the UK to help support projects that promote poverty reduction and improvements in the quality of life in the poorer countries of the Asia and Pacific regions, such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar, Nauru and Nepal.

The United Nations Children’s Fund works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child and improve the lives of children and their families. When necessary, the Fund helps children to seek safe shelter and provides them with nutrition and protection from disaster and conflicts. The £48 million aid from the UK will contribute towards this.

The World Food Programme (WFP) provides food to around 80 million people in around 80 countries each year. It fights hunger worldwide by delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Every day the WFP, which received £40 million aid in 2016, has 5,000 trucks, 20 ships and 70 planes in transit getting food to those most in need.

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The United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is committed to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Given £35 million in 2016, it works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home.

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. With departments all over the world it's tasked with "creating friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries". It works with over 100 countries in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. In the planned Foreign Office ODA spend for 2015/16, the British Council was allocated  £115.7 million. 

The Commonwealth Foundation is an international organisation established by the heads of Commonwealth governments to support people's participation in democracy and development. It has six projects running, one of which is supporting the South African Alliance on Youth Employment to broker a learning exchange with community organiser Citizens UK. The Commonwealth Foundation was allocated £1.06 million from the planned Foreign Office ODA spend for 2015/16.

It's not just the UK that gives wisely, What the world's richest countries give in foreign aid might surprise you.

On 23 November 2018, the UK government pledged £50 million in aid to help end FGM by 2030, the largest ever donor investment given to the cause. International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt revealed that the money would target community and grassroots projects in the African countries that are most affected by FGM as well as UNICEF's 'Saleema' project which aims to reduce social acceptance of FGM in Sudan. The UK previously gave £35 million to fighting FGM in 2013.

There are lots of stars who help other countries in need, too. Read about The celebrities who give away their millions.