I help part of UK initially during recession (5)
I believe the answer is:
india
'i' is the definition.
(India is I in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
'help part of uk initially during recession' is the wordplay.
'help' becomes 'aid' (synonyms).
'part of uk initially' becomes 'NI' (initials of Northern Ireland).
'during recession' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (letters recede or go back).
'aid'+'ni'='aidni'
'aidni' reversed gives 'INDIA'.
(Other definitions for india that I've seen before include "Commonwealth state" , "Queen Victoria considered it the Jewel in the Crown" , "Type of paper, rubber etc" , "Second most populous country in the world" , "Asian sub-continent" .)