Building Stability Overseas

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr William Hague)]

I, together with my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for International Development and the Secretary of State for Defence, wish to inform the House that the Government are publishing today our “Building Stability Overseas Strategy” which will help us to prioritise and implement a distinctive UK approach to building stability overseas with maximum impact.

The national security strategy (NSS) identified shaping a stable world as a core Government objective to reduce the likelihood of threats affecting the UK or our direct interests overseas. The strategic defence and security review (SDSR) made a commitment that we would reduce such threats by tackling them at source. The “Arab Spring” has highlighted the need for a strategic UK approach to early engagement in places at risk of instability, and to be prepared for a fast, flexible and integrated Government response.

The “Building Stability Overseas Strategy”, which is being published online today on the websites of all three Departments, sets out clear, achievable proposals for how we can improve the way we identify, prevent and end instability and conflict overseas by using our diplomatic, development, defence and security tools, and by drawing on Britain’s experience, relationships, reputation and values. We will prioritise action on those fragile and conflict-affected countries where the risks are high, our interests are most at stake and where we know we can have an impact. The strategy is based around three mutually-supporting pillars:

Early warning—Improving our ability to anticipate instability and potential triggers for conflict. To this end, we will establish an early warning system that will take a global view of countries in which political, economic and security shocks over the next 12 months could trigger instability. We will also produce a new internal watchlist of fragile countries in which we assess that the risks of conflict and insecurity are high and the UK has significant interests at stake.

Rapid crisis prevention and response—Improving our ability to take fast, appropriate and effective action to prevent a crisis or stop it escalating. We will therefore create a £20 million annual early action facility within the tri-departmental conflict pool. This will be a cross-Government facility with a mixture of official development assistance (ODA) and non-ODA resources to help us move more swiftly in response to warnings and opportunities. We will also continue to develop and improve the readiness of our stabilisation response teams (SRTs). These are integrated teams drawn from across Government—including military, police or civil servants and other experts—that can deploy swiftly into difficult environments and enable the UK to rapidly help shape the response to emerging crises, either bilaterally or with international partners.

Investing in upstream prevention—Helping to build strong, legitimate institutions and robust societies in fragile countries that are capable of managing tensions and shocks so there is a lower likelihood of instability and conflict. We are already investing more in upstream prevention, increasing to 30% by 2014-15 the proportion of UK official development assistance that supports conflict-affected and fragile states. In addition, we will work to ensure that the conflict pool provides predictable multi-year resources for: free, transparent and inclusive political systems; effective and accountable security and justice (including through defence engagement); and building the ability of local populations and regional and multilateral institutions to prevent and resolve the conflicts that affect them. We will also increase our work with other key groups such as local government, communities, the private sector, faith groups, civil society and the media.

I have deposited a copy of the strategy in the Libraries of both Houses. It is also available on the FCO website at: www.fco.gov.uk, the DFID website at: www.dfid.gov.uk and the MOD website at: www.mod.gov.uk.