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While foreign policy and international development/foreign aid are not devolved to Wales, the Welsh Government and the Welsh Third Sector (charities and non-governmental organisations) have established what could be considered a bare bones “Welsh foreign aid programme”.

This is justified because it helps Wales meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Since the introduction of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2017, the Welsh programmes also help to meet the wellbeing objective for Wales to become a “globally responsible nation”.

Wales: The First "Fair Trade Nation"

Wales became the first “Fair Trade nation” in 2008¹. Despite the title, this doesn’t mean that all trade involving Wales is “fair”, which makes it something of a mislabel.

What it means is Wales has met certain targets for promoting and understanding “fair trade”. “Fair trade” is the principle that suppliers in developing countries should have better access to export markets, be paid a fair price for their goods and be helped to raise standards (such as abandoning child labour).

These shouldn’t be radical ideas, but that’s capitalism for you.

Wales & Africa Programme

The Wales & Africa programme forms the core of the Welsh Government’s “foreign aid” policy.

This work is supported by Hub Cymru Africa, an umbrella organisation consisting of Wales-based third sector organisations/charities that work with African communities at home and abroad.

The programme provides grants for small-scale projects across Africa². This is managed by the Welsh Centre for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and totals around £230,000 per year.

There are other programmes related to this too.

One of these is “Size of Wales“. This is a programme supporting reforestation (and opposing deforestation) in tropical countries.

Perhaps their most well-known (maybe controversial) project is a tree-planting programme in the city of Mbale, Uganda. As of 2025, 25 million trees have been planted or grown in nurseries³.

While the Welsh Government has (rightly or wrongly) treated hitting this target as a big positive, their record when it comes to tree-planting in Wales is abysmal⁴.

Third Sector & NGOs

A few UK-wide charities which work in overseas aid and international development have Wales-based branches or operations (notably Oxfam).

There’s also Disasters & Emergency Committee (DEC) Cymru, which coordinates Welsh-language appeals on S4C.

The Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA) – headquartered at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff – is one of the main civic society organisations focused on international development, global affairs and global citizenship. It’s also home to Academi Heddwch Cymru – a Welsh peace/pacifism study institute.

There are very few equivalents to WCIA I can think of. The only one at the UK level that comes to mind is the Chatham House think tank, which is more heavily focused on foreign policy and foreign power.