UK to focus aid budget on economic development, job creation

Britain vowed on Tuesday to focus its aid budget on economic development in the world's poorest countries in a bid to create jobs and help it foster future trading partners as it prepares to leave the European Union. In its first economic development strategy, the Department for International Development said it would use its $15 billion budget to support countries to mobilise their domestic resources and reduce their reliance on foreign aid. As more than a billion young people will need jobs over the next decade, mainly in Asia and Africa, focusing aid on economic development will help the poorest countries stand on their own two feet. Recent examples include Britain's support for a plan to give Ethiopia, which hosts around 750,000 refugees - the largest number in Africa - $ 100 M to create 100,000 jobs.