On 3 September 2026, City AM published an opinion piece arguing against foreign aid spending. It claimed £88m had gone to a contraception programme in Pakistan, “with £74m of that specifically used to promote branded condoms through shops and pharmacies”.

The claim matters because it is being used to argue against UK aid, and it misrepresents a programme designed to reduce maternal deaths and unsafe pregnancies among some of the poorest women in the world.

The facts

The money funded Delivering Accelerated Family Planning in Pakistan (DAFPAK), an FCDO programme begun in 2017 to widen access to family planning, particularly for underserved groups such as rural women.

The £74.3m was a projected budget for one component of the programme, not a sum spent on condoms. That component uses “social marketing” – commercial distribution and advertising – to get contraceptives, predominantly condoms and pills, into local shops and pharmacies. According to the FCDO’s transaction list, around £59m has actually been paid to the three organisations delivering it.

Across the whole programme, the UK has spent around £96m over ten years. By December 2024, the programme’s own review reported it had reached 10.8 million family planning users, and averted 5,412 maternal deaths and 7.11 million unwanted pregnancies.

City AM reaches up to 1.6 million people.

This is a summary of a full fact-check by Emma Monk of Monk Debunks.

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