Disability-inclusive Development

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 13th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I too thank my noble friend Lady Anelay for introducing this debate so ably, as always, and I thank other noble Lords who have made inspirational speeches. The noble Lord, Lord McColl, and I share a room and talk about these matters often; it is always a great pleasure to follow him.

DfID is clearly delivering on its promise to work towards a fairer world where no one is left behind. I am sorry to have left my global goals badge behind this morning; I would otherwise be wearing it with pride. The current Secretary of State has continued the work of her predecessor, Priti Patel, in making disability a key focus. Her first speech in November 2017 reinforced this commitment and, notably, the Secretary of State was also the first Minister to use sign language at the Dispatch Box when discussing this summer’s Global Disability Conference.

I welcome the substantive action taken by DfID and the Secretary of State to meet the commitments made at that summit. The recent release of the Strategy for Disability Inclusive Development demonstrates its seriousness in making society inclusive for all those who live with a disability, setting out in some detail how it will achieve those goals. It is worth reminding ourselves that we still have challenges with our own disabilities policy in this country, as raised by my noble friends Lord McColl and Lord Holmes. As a member of the 2016-17 Select Committee on the Equality Act 2010 and Disability, chaired so ably by the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, I am only too well aware that we do not get everything right and still have much to do in this country.

The 1 billion people worldwide with disabilities are often trapped in a cycle of poverty, unable to access key social services; they face exclusion and stigma. Nineteen million children have no access to education and many face unequal health outcomes due to little or no access to services and treatments. As my noble friend Lady Anelay mentioned, the strategy has been welcomed by organisations such as Sightsavers, which by happy coincidence has had its exhibition, “Cast Your Vote”, in the Upper Waiting Hall this week. It has focused on how, for people with disabilities living in developing countries, there can be multiple barriers to participation, which prevent their taking part in decisions that affect their lives. The pledge of £250,000 to cover disability-related expenses will help resolve problems that people might face when seeking elected office. These are all clear indicators of DfID’s commitment to tackling barriers to democratic participation.

DfID has a record of achievement to be proud of. It is championing female education, with 46,000 disabled girls given access to schooling through the Girls’ Education Challenge. The construction of accessible toilet facilities in Mozambique and trained health workers in Ghana are further examples of support. Others include the funding of education programmes in opposition-held areas of Syria—pioneering the use of new assessment tools to help meet the needs of children with disabilities—and a young boy of 11, himself with a disability, teaching coding to people with autism and Tourette’s in Bangladesh.

By centering the strategy on inclusive education, social protection, economic empowerment and humanitarian action, DfID is committing to empowering disabled people and enabling them to exercise their rights and freedoms. Practical initiatives are what will make a difference: ideas such as improving access to financial services and digital technology, with best practice sought from countries that do this well. The department itself has pledged to increase the number of disabled people in its workforce, with minimum standards on inclusion to be implemented by the end of 2019. Like my noble friend Lady Anelay, I look forward to hearing more from the Minister, with details of how DfID intends to implement the strategy, how it will measure change and by when.

Gender Pay Gap

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

As the noble Baroness will know, McKinsey has estimated that bringing more diversity to the workplace—particularly women—will increase the economy by over £150 billion by 2025.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, what are the Government’s plans to monitor progress? In particular, do they have plans to include a sectoral analysis?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

In terms of monitoring progress, businesses with over 250 employees will have to do this exercise every year. I am pleased that all the businesses in scope actually reported their gender pay gap. There is clearly scope to start to disaggregate those figures by sector, and I hope that that will be where we get to at some point soon—but I think we have made a great start.

Official Development Assistance

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

It does indeed. Of the 750 million people in extreme poverty today in the world, 215 million —the greatest proportion—are found in India as a middle-income country. It is right that we work with countries across a range of issues to ensure that we tackle poverty. Of course, one of the DAC elements that we commit to and achieve—as well as being one of the few to achieve the 0.7% target—is the target to spend 0.15% to 0.2% in least developed countries. Again, that is a record of which we should all be proud.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, the Department for International Development is, quite rightly, respected and admired for its work throughout the world—both developing and developed—and most especially for its humanitarian work. Will my noble friend update the House on what is happening to the Rohingya refugees, many of whom have had to leave their homes and are currently ending up in Bangladesh?

[Lord Bates]

I am grateful for the opportunity to do that. My noble friend Lord Ahmad and I had the opportunity to brief interested Peers on the situation there. How we operate there demonstrates what is great about this country. Not only are we at the forefront in delivering aid in cash terms—at £129 million, one of the largest commitments of any country—but we are also leading the charge with our diplomatic and security efforts at the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Commission. It is that spectrum of reach which makes our aid so effective.

Domestic Abuse

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome this debate on the support available to survivors of domestic abuse and how we can prevent further abuse taking place. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, on securing the debate.

Not so long ago, the police felt that it was not appropriate to intervene in what was then known as a “domestic”. Now, thankfully, we talk about it, read about it, watch and listen to dramas about it—and I pay tribute to “The Archers” and dramas like “Big Little Lies” for telling these stories about domestic abuse in such brilliant and accessible ways. These open conversations are absolutely crucial to destigmatising the issues.

Whether we realise it or not, I bet that everyone in this Chamber knows someone who has been abused. Someone close to me was bashed up by her husband for years before it finally became known, and then only because of a more serious injury that could no longer be hidden. I am glad to say that her husband went to prison.

The statistics on domestic abuse are alarming. During 2016-17, 82 women were killed because of domestic violence. Nearly 2 million people, the majority women, live with the threat of violence, and 41% of the prison population have witnessed or experienced abuse—an indication of the wider social harm and presence that this crime has in our society. Incidentally, it is worth bearing in mind that 95% of prisoners are men, and the disproportionate monetary cost to women, who make up 42% of taxpayers, should be included in the tally of other costs, including the cost to women’s lives, healthcare services, the economy and our society at large. The new domestic abuse Bill will lead the way in bringing about the change we need. The consultation on the proposals is welcome, and I hope that experts, charities, front-line professionals and as many people affected by abuse as possible, from all walks of life, will contribute to it.

Not all abusive behaviour is physical. Controlling, manipulative and verbally abusive behaviour ruins lives and means that thousands end up isolated and living in fear. I am sure we all welcome the fact that the Bill will provide a statutory definition of domestic abuse that includes economic abuse, alongside other, non-physical abuse.

I welcome the recognition of the lasting impact that domestic abuse can have on families by allowing for tougher sentences in cases involving children. I also welcome the better protection for victims by using new domestic abuse protection orders, which allow the police and courts to intervene earlier. It is good news that we will have a domestic abuse commissioner to act as a national champion for victims. I congratulate the Prime Minister and recognise that these proposals build on the work she started in the Home Office. I also congratulate her on hosting an event for victims at her International Women’s Day reception.

It is critical that people fleeing violent partners have a safe place to go. I know that the Government are committed to delivering a sustainable funding model for refuges, so that there is no postcode lottery. Here, I ask my noble friend whether she can confirm the current level of funding across England. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, used, as others have, a briefing from Women’s Aid. Will my noble friend comment on the briefing, which shows that over half of refuges’ weekly costs in England come from housing benefit, with the remainder coming from support funding, which is not ring-fenced? Incidentally, I wish the chief executive good luck in her search for a Labour parliamentary seat, because her expertise in this area would be most useful in the House of Commons.

Is there a way of simplifying the process of competitive tendering to local authorities, which can be time-consuming and complicated, especially for smaller and more specialist organisations? Will the Minister confirm the action that will be taken to ensure that victims are supported at the earliest possible opportunity, before abuse escalates and they are left with no option but to flee their own homes?

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a warm and loving home. It is hard for those of us who have safe and happy lives to truly walk in the shoes of those who live with domestic abuse every single day. All of us here want everyone to live free from that threat and every child to grow up safe and protected, just as I did. I very much hope that this work, this consultation and the Bill will provide an important step change in bringing that about.

International Women’s Day: Progress on Global Gender Equality

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Thursday 8th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Flather. The noble Baroness, Lady Northover, led us through some rather incredible “who would have thought it?” moments. It is also rather incredible that today we have a female monarch, Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Leader of both Houses of Parliament, Scottish First Minister, head of the fire service and head of the Metropolitan Police. Despite all these great achievements, it feels very fragile, as though it could disappear in a minute.

It is eight years since I made my maiden speech in this same International Women’s Day debate and it is therefore always, for me, a moment of reflection. What have I achieved over the past year? What have I done for women over the past year? What more can I do next year? I am not going to dwell on the general election and the effect it had on women in my own party, and how well the Labour Party did, because I covered that ground pretty comprehensibly in the debate on the centenary of the Representation of the People Act last month. It is quite possible that no one would notice if I repeated myself, but I shall resist the temptation.

Let me start on the global stage and set the scene by looking at overpopulation—by which I mean the growth of restless and surplus labour. This is a massive problem, although it is by no means universal. Things are going the other way in Japan, which has the highest living standards in the world, and in much of the West. This gives us a clue about the solution. If we look at the countries where population is growing fastest, where unemployment is highest and where tensions are greatest, without exception we find a common factor: female illiteracy. The correlation is astonishing. Look at the high birth rate in countries of sub-Saharan Africa and you will find female illiteracy running at 50%, 60% or sometimes even 70% plus. Among adult women in Pakistan it is 66%; it is 33% even in India. Small wonder that India’s population is set to overtake that of China, where female illiteracy has been all but eliminated.

It really is that simple. It is not just a moral outrage; it is directly contrary to the interests of world peace, prosperity of country and community, health and happiness that such a huge proportion of our population—so many women and girls—should be unable to participate, alongside their brothers, in the economic life of their country. Female education is the tool that helps tackle so many challenges in the developing world. Societies where women can read, write and do maths as efficiently as their male counterparts will be healthier, happier and more prosperous. They will be in stabler populations and smaller families and, therefore, there will be fewer alienated and maladjusted young men whose egos require them to think of women as childbearing chattels.

This ambition and focus on women and girls is at the heart of the UK’s overseas policy—a policy shared by both Penny Mordaunt at DfID and by the Foreign Office—and will be at the heart of the Commonwealth summit in April. It is not just a campaign for fairness and freedom, but its essential contraceptive impact will help to fix so many other problems—not just overpopulation and poverty but the threat of war, disorder, terrorism, climate change and the loss of habitat and species. Mankind is conquering so many of today’s challenges—from famine to disease—but, if we are to solve the problems of today, mankind needs to prioritise the education of girls and easy access to contraception so that they can have control over their own bodies. Twelve years of full-time education is not the only answer to the world’s problems, but it is a jolly good start.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, mentioned, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that equality in the job market would yield an extra £20 trillion to global GDP by 2025. I have no feel for what £20 trillion looks like, but it is a heck of a lot of money and a life-changing, even world-changing opportunity.

Along with thousands of men and women, I attended the International Women’s Day march on Sunday, organised by Care International on the theme of #March4Women from here, just outside this building, up to Trafalgar Square. We listened to inspirational speeches. Marchers from all backgrounds, all political parties and none supported all kinds of causes. Many were marching because of their anger at injustice, at girls being denied an education, angry that half the women in the world have experienced physical or sexual violence. I pay tribute to the Prime Minister for today inviting many victims of domestic violence and charities which support these women into Number 10 for a reception to celebrate International Women’s Day. Many on the march were angry that 12 year-olds are even today being forced to marry, and that those young teenagers are becoming mothers before they are ready and often die in the process. Still today in 18 countries women need permission from a man to have a job. Around the world millions of girls, and here in the UK 24,000 girls, are at risk from FGM. It was a privilege for me to walk during that march with the inspirational and brave anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali, a woman who has spoken out about her own experience and is determined to do what she can to prevent others suffering as she did. Many on that march were concerned that the World Economic Forum report found that the gender pay gap internationally is widening for the first time in decades. All were frustrated at the wasted talent and potential.

I applaud Penny Mordaunt and DfID for continuing to place women and girls at the heart of their efforts, particularly those to bring an end to conflict and bring peace, which includes everyone. I welcome her announcement yesterday of a £10 million fund in the name of Jo Cox, which will focus on Jo’s social, economic and political empowerment work continued by the Jo Cox memorial fund.

I had half hoped to be able to talk about the #MeToo movement today, but that is for another day because, for today at least, Time’s Up.

Women: Political and Public Office

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I think that the sharing of care has become more equal, but perhaps not as equal as many would wish it to be. As I said at the beginning, the GEO is commissioning a wide-ranging evidence review that will encompass the range of approaches that will be taken, both internationally—the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, mentioned Sweden—and here at home to provide political parties with a variety of solutions that they can draw on. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, is absolutely right to raise that flag of women being less likely to participate in public life, particularly in Parliament. It is more difficult to get women to stand as candidates in elections and we need to change that.

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s recent report highlighted the fact that women candidates, and disproportionately Conservative women candidates, received intimidation and abuse, which is obviously a deterrent to their coming forward. The Conservative Party has now put together a code of conduct based on responsible behaviour and showing respect. Is my noble friend aware of whether any of the other political parties are planning to make the same pledge?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I certainly know that there is a cross-party working group, chaired by the Leader of the House of Commons, which is developing an independent complaints and grievance procedure. I cannot answer for other political parties but I am pleased to say that I have seen and signed the code of conduct. I think it is absolutely right. I cannot believe that standards of conduct on this Estate were not in the Ministerial Code before now but they now are—writ large.

DfID Economic Development Strategy

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome both the noble Baroness’s introduction to her excellent debate and the discussion about DfID’s economic development strategy. I admit to having had something of an essay crisis this morning when preparing for this debate but I am grateful for the words and works of Professor Paul Collier, the CDC, the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, and his co-author Dr Kim Tan for making the case for social venture capital through their pamphlet, Fighting Poverty Through Enterprise, as inspiration and background reading for this debate.

What is clear is that the economic development strategy is good but that certain elements need expanding—namely, the opportunity for DfID to catalyse private sector skills and organisations and mobilise the best of Britain and British to assist, through advice, in supporting the sustainable building of poorer economies. I know, for example, British businesspeople who have helped to develop Nigeria’s venture capital system to the benefit of both the UK and Nigeria. Using experienced people on a voluntary basis costs the UK nothing. They ask for no return or benefit for themselves, just the satisfaction of seeing the UK and Nigeria prosper. These are programmes on which to build. As a founder of the Conservative Friends of International Development, I meet successful businesspeople on a regular basis who are keen to share their expertise and experience by helping the UK and DfID develop programmes of this kind. May I ask my noble friend what is being done to harness the energy and enthusiasm of experienced entrepreneurs of this kind? Are there programmes within DfID to which they could be signposted?

The decision by DfID to allow more of the UK’s aid budget to flow via the CDC to support private investment met with predictable criticisms from some quarters. There are still some who want aid to be uncontaminated by business and, on the other side of the coin, there are those who believe that aid allows Governments to avoid facing reality while crowding out private finance. When such different arguments agree, we should be careful. Shifting aid to support for business will be essential for the small low-income countries that are the core of the development challenge. What is more, other advanced countries are also building up public agencies like the CDC. The ascent out of poverty depends on transforming the productivity of the vast workforce engaged in private economic activity. This transformation is not mysterious. It is achieved by reaping the gains from scale and specialisation. Modern countries perform this miracle of productivity as a matter of course but in poor countries proper companies have not yet developed. Informal microenterprises, while important, are not a substitute. Any of us who have travelled to poor countries will have seen intense activity by one-man bands working their socks off to make a living but unable to scale their businesses to soak up the workforce in any meaningful way.

In Africa in particular, few companies have scaled up, so their workers are condemned to poverty. The reason is that the economies of many African countries are tiny, environments are risky and the markets are undeveloped. Groups making investments will often be pioneers. Being a pioneer is even more important in poor countries than in rich ones. While in advanced economies, most investment simply deepens existing forms of capital, in the poorest countries this is not the case, so a much higher proportion of investment is likely to be pioneering, not technologically but because it is market-creating. A mechanism that supports the public benefit is therefore especially important. Aid is needed to pay for the substantial public benefit of bringing reputable companies into difficult countries. Without such groups the poorest countries will struggle to develop, and without public support there will be too few of them. This view should not be contentious, and, happily, development agencies are belatedly recognising its merits.

To channel aid to companies, aid agencies need specialist vehicles with private sector expertise. The African Development Bank has created the Africa50 Infrastructure Fund for this purpose. In December last year, donors signed off the £65 billion, 18th three-year replenishment of the International Development Association—the World Bank’s aid programme. For the first time, this includes a private sector window, whereby about $2.5 billion can be channelled to the International Finance Corporation—the bank’s specialist vehicle for the private sector. The CDC is the British equivalent of the IFC. For a period it lost its way, and policy mistakes made a decade or more ago have left a scar. In 2011, a policy rethink brought in excellent new management and a new mandate. I pay particular credit to the recently departed chief executive, Diana Noble, who did so much to turn things around. I wish her successor, Nick O’Donohoe, continuing success as he builds on her legacy and continues to scale the work of the CDC to help build businesses and create jobs in Africa and south Asia. It is a crucial tool in the part that business and enterprise can play in reducing poverty.

I turn to microfinance and social impact investing, most particularly used in Africa as another tool. Micro- credit has been a crucial first step in directly helping the poor escape poverty. The development of microfinance institutions providing small uncollateralised loans to poor entrepreneurs to start up micro-businesses has been successful. The loan repayment rate amongst these MFIs is exceptionally high, especially if the loans are made to women rather than men. Social venture capital has the potential to be a successful asset class and an important second step to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries and thereby create crucial jobs. So what is social venture capital? These are for-profit social venture funds investing in SMEs in developing countries. They take an enterprise approach to poverty alleviation by building commercially sustainable companies that create jobs and empower the poor to improve their livelihoods. They adopt the principles, discipline and accountability of venture capital investing, but with a sub-venture capital rate of financial returns. Henry Ford once said, “A business that only makes money is a poor kind of business”. This is an attitude and business model which increasingly resonates amongst a new generation of social entrepreneurs. The old business model of existing solely to make a profit for their shareholders looks increasingly dated.

Social enterprise businesses look beyond just financial returns to social and environmental returns as well. Of course, they do not lose money—to be sustainable, a business has to be profitable—but a social VC does not require the same high rate of financial return, and this is a sector that is growing rapidly. Furthermore, some 10 years ago there were very few players in this market —for example, the Shell Foundation and Google.org— but it is growing rapidly and mainstream investment funds are allocating capital to this area. I would like to hear from the Minister what the Government are doing to encourage growth in this sector.

I would like to share with noble Lords an example of a successful social enterprise in a developing country. The Agape call centre operates in the largest men’s prison in Singapore. It employs convicts to try to rehabilitate them. It has helped inmates with remaining sentences of 12 to 24 months to rebuild their self-esteem and confidence. It helps offenders on their release to integrate back into society and the marketplace, and often reduces reoffending. The prison is now releasing inmates six months earlier on parole if they demonstrate good behaviour and if they work in the Agape call centre. It also leads to other things.

Anil calls himself an “unbankable” person—someone who is not reliable to bankroll or invest money in because he served time in that prison. He worked in that same call centre and worked his way up to the centre’s manager position. As he puts it, “To be in a call centre for a prisoner is the most effective work there is. In the prison environment, there are no distractions. They are completely focused and hungry for more. And we tell them that if you make 100 calls, you get 80% to 90% reject calls, but you know that you have actually learned perseverance. At times when customers call them and berate them, you know that they will not react because they value their jobs and they have developed the skill of patience”.

When he completed his jail term, armed with his industrial know-how, Anil decided that he wanted to give back and start a call centre business for inmates and fellow ex-convicts. However, because of his ex- convict status, he could not get a bank loan to start the business, so two methods were devised to impose corporate governance systems to ensure that Anil managed the provided capital effectively and wisely. His investor and mentor said, “Here’s a guy who has transformed himself, having been through what he’s been through, and now he has a vision to go and build a business that can help others along the same journey and give them a second, third or fourth chance. So for us as investors, at the end of the day, we are wholeheartedly behind the vision. The key question for us was: is this the right person? Anil is willing to learn, teachable and transparent about his background, and he is treasuring his existing chance ... So we see that as something we are willing to take a bet on”.

And Anil has delivered. In all, he has given employment to 85 prison inmates, including six senior citizens, three people with disabilities, three single mothers and one stroke patient, and his call centre manager is a fellow ex-convict. He has won the social entrepreneur of the year award at the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.

DfID should support this agenda where possible. Here is the opportunity but here too is the challenge. Looking back to 1960, per capita income in Africa and east Asia was roughly the same. By 2004, GDP per capita in east Asian countries was five times higher than in Africa. My noble friend Lord Eccles used more up-to-date figures to illustrate the same point. Such a divergence in income between poor and wealthier countries has been a contributory factor to greater illegal migration out of Africa, but if we in the UK could play our part in developing and investing in businesses such as these, just imagine what the future of Africa and other tragically poor countries across the developing world might look like.

Sierra Leone: Ebola

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Monday 30th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for introducing this debate so ably and for her constant campaigning, particularly on neglected tropical diseases. I have only visited Sierra Leone once, and before the Ebola outbreak, but it was easy for me to visualise, as the noble Baroness was speaking, the challenges I saw even then, before it was so ravaged by this terrible disease.

The 2014-16 outbreak in west Africa was the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. There were more cases and deaths in that outbreak than in all others combined. It spread between countries, starting in Guinea then moving across borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Following a delay in international action, Britain played a leading role in the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone and continues to lead the way in supporting developing countries to quickly and efficiently tackle such threats at their source and prevent them from spreading.

A number of reports and studies commissioned in the aftermath of the crisis have recognised that community engagement is a key strategy to successfully controlling future outbreaks. It is clear that any attempt to guard against future outbreaks must prioritise community engagement and education. Linked with the concept of community engagement is that of community resilience and preparedness for disasters and emergencies. The prospect of the re-emergence of the Ebola virus is an issue of real, live concern in Sierra Leone. Individuals and communities that were most affected by Ebola are perceived to be most at risk of re-emergence and, as a result, remain stigmatised, marginalised and vulnerable, while much of the promised welfare support for these communities has yet to materialise. Preparedness and resilience of communities is crucial in the light of possible re-emergence. Thankfully, important lessons have been learned with regard to transmission of communicable diseases through good hygiene practices, phasing out high-risk cultural practices and road blocks to prevent mobility. The real test, however, would be the speed of an effective response and the degree of co-ordination of government, NGO and community efforts and resources, having learned these recent lessons.

Alongside DfID initiatives in this area, NGOs such as Restless Development—I declare an interest as a patron—have been at the forefront of efforts to support and promote community engagement schemes in Sierra Leone, uniting high-level strategic response with a bottom-up approach. Much of their work has been around their tried-and-tested model of mobilising youth energy to address safety and protection, as well as adopting an intergenerational approach to restoring livelihoods and stability. I pay particular tribute to the efforts of the Social Mobilisation Action Consortium, formed by Restless Development, GOAL, Focus 1000, and BBC Media Action, which have worked hard over the last few years to promote greater awareness. The consortium has been instrumental in leading the largest community mobilisation ever seen in Sierra Leone, with over 1,500 youth around the country trained by Community-Led Ebola Action, reaching over 3 million people with life-saving messages—and mobilised at speed, unlike much of the international response which was slow and clunky. The bottom-up approach has built a foundation of trust, at the community and national level, which may be successfully built upon to ensure that communities are more resilient and better prepared to prevent further outbreaks and deal with what happens if an outbreak occurs.

To conclude, I ask my noble friend the Minister: how are the Government building on and recognising the contributions that both younger and older people play in strengthening resilience within their communities? To what extent are the Government considering how intergenerational responses to development challenges such as the Ebola crisis can be used to fulfil their commitments to leave no one behind?

Development Aid Budget

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, imagine my disappointment on arriving in the Chamber today to find that, due either to technical incapability on my part or to a malfunction of the machine in the Whips’ Office, I was not on the list to speak after all. I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak briefly in the gap so forgive me for darting about a little bit with slash, slash, slash—it is not all that easy.

I join the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge and the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, in focusing some of my remarks—I make no apology for this—on the value of access to contraception and family planning programmes as a way to break the cycle of poverty. By empowering women to plan their futures and reach their fullest potential, voluntary family planning gives women and girls the opportunity to complete their education and take up better economic opportunities. We know that it transforms lives, creating more prosperous, stable societies, which is in the UK’s interest.

The UK is continuing its leading role by hosting an international summit on family planning in London next week and I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s personal commitment to prioritising this agenda. Working with the UN Population Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the summit aims to boost global commitment to ensuring women and girls have access to family planning services. Can any of us here in the UK imagine not having this access and the choices it provides? The summit will procure a range of new commitments from developing countries, donors and other partners. These commitments will increase access to family planning services for women and girls in the world’s poorest countries, fix problems with supply chains and prioritise the needs of women and girls in humanitarian crises.

Jumping to the fact that the aid budget is taxpayers’ money, I will just illustrate this with two small stories. I had a conversation recently with someone who had been a consultant in one of the big consultancies where I was making the case that so many girls were now educated in a way they were not before. The consultant said to me: “How do you know? I have worked in remote areas in Pakistan and a girl will turn up once and the box will be ticked and she may never turn up again”. I encourage my noble friend to be aware of what is actually going on. In another story, a friend was looking at a project in Pakistan where they were feeding children and giving them lunch. A sign said that meat was included in the rice. My friend, understanding Urdu, heard the project leader say to a worker, “Where is the meat in this rice? I told you today we have important visitors coming and we need the meat in the rice”. That could be happening far more on the ground than we are probably aware of.

The noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, talked about small charities. I strongly endorse his point. Mary’s Meals, of which a number of noble Lords will be aware, gets not a penny from the taxpayer but provides fantastic value for money and feeds millions of children across Africa. The aid budget is taxpayers’ money and the Government have a duty to communicate to the UK public how this hard-earned money is spent effectively, delivers results for the world’s poorest people and is not subject to waste or corruption. They should continue to drive for greater efficiency and value for money and I commend the Minister for the work he is doing in this space.

US Overseas Aid: Global Gag Rule

Baroness Jenkin of Kennington Excerpts

Tuesday 21st February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Con)]

My Lords, as other noble Lords have said, this measure will have a devastating impact on millions of women around the world. Will DfID issue guidance to country offices on how to mitigate the impact of this new policy?

[Lord Bates]

We have to remain calm in this area. We know what the policy is and we have worked within this context before. The Secretary of State in her letter of 8 February to Stephen Twigg, the chairman of the International Development Committee, made it abundantly clear that our position is absolutely resolute in support of sexual and reproductive rights. We need to work with international partners. That is part of the constructive engagement which will take place at the London conference later this year.