Integrated Review: Development Aid

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Wednesday 28th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Goudie (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I dedicate my speech to the late Lord Judd and agree with what my colleagues have said about him. I knew him for many years and he gave us great leadership on these issues.

I am also upset by the way the Government have handled these cuts at a time when countries around the world need us and Britain is pretending to be a world leader. By making these cuts, we can no longer see ourselves as a leader, especially in soft power.

I want to continue the discussion started by the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, on PSVI. I want a commitment from the Minister that we will continue to work on these issues and be supportive of women at the peace table in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, the DRC and other countries. We made a commitment to supporting women at the peace table, as well as to providing training for the military to ensure that women and boys are not raped. Along with America, we were one of the foremost countries to sign the commitment to PSVI. Why are we going against that now?

I ask the Minister to promote our continuing with our funding for this scheme, as well as with our funding for women and girls. How can we see ourselves leading the G7 and the G20 while asking other donors to pay for something that we have committed ourselves to over the next five years? I ask the Minister to reinstate these figures now because there are other cuts that the Government could make.