Official Development Assistance: Bilateral Allocations

Debate between Baroness Chapman of Darlington and Lord Grayling

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I hear the noble Baroness’s suggestion and I disagree with it.

[Lord Grayling (Con)]

My Lords, on biodiversity aid—and I declare an interest as a trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation—both the United States and France are establishing new-type foundations, which are partnerships between public money and private donations, to increase the amounts of money going into biodiversity-support projects because of the pressures on aid generally. Will the United Kingdom Government consider engaging with those who are doing this in the US and France with a view to doing the same thing here?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We have been doing this for quite a long time. I do not know specifically the programmes that the noble Lord is talking about, or the funds that he is talking about, but his suggestion is very much in line with the approach that we are taking, whether that is on water and sanitation, humanitarian interventions, infrastructure support or governance improvements. This is the right approach. It is about leveraging support and enabling new participants who really want to work to have a social impact, and to be able to do so alongside Governments so that we really work together and get the absolute maximum benefit out of every penny that is invested for our partner countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Diplomatic Relationships

Debate between Baroness Chapman of Darlington and Lord Grayling

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary’s priorities for this are around growth, security, government and climate. These are things that we are working hard on through our engagement not just with sub-Saharan Africa but in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. The noble Earl is absolutely right that every penny we spend on official development assistance must be the very best value for money that we can secure—yes, because of fairness to the UK taxpayer, but also because a bad programme funded by ODA means that a good programme somewhere else does not get to take place. The Foreign Secretary is very keen that we make sure that happens. He is reviewing our spend and the effectiveness of programmes, and he is right to do that.

[Lord Grayling (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation. I ask the Minister to look carefully at how we spend our aid money. So much of it goes through international or regional bodies and, often, when the money gets to practical solutions on the ground, the UK is not visible as a donor. That weakens our soft power, so can the Minister look at the different ways in which we spend aid money to make sure that our soft power really is visible on the ground?