Development Aid Budget

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, on securing this important debate and I thank her for her thought-provoking opening remarks. I pay tribute to the contributions that we have heard across the Floor of the House and to the wonderful insight and experience that noble Lords present have brought to the debate.

When the aid budget is under attack in the press—as it is—it is important to ensure that hard-earned taxpayers’ money is shown to be spent effectively when delivering policy that helps the poorest in the world. Collecting data on inputs, outputs and outcomes which allow us to measure its impact is essential if we are to do that.

UK aid works, not only in helping some of the poorest people in the world to live in dignity and to begin to take charge of their own lives and livelihoods through economic development but benefiting us in the UK. The Overseas Development Institute recently published a report entitled Aid, Exports and Employment in the UK, showing how in 2014 UK direct bilateral aid generated an increase in UK exports and provided an estimated 12,000 extra UK jobs. It is a win-win relationship. I make this point because all too often DfID’s work is castigated in the press and those of us who support the fabulous work that it is doing need the ammunition to fire back.

UK aid strategy is changing. Over the past several years, more and more of the UK’s ODA is being spent by departments other than DfID through the FCO’s Prosperity Fund, the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, the Ross Fund and few other pots in other government departments, in total amounting to a good third of the overall ODA budget. While it falls to DfID to ensure that all UK ODA complies with the OECD’s ODA rules, DfID, nevertheless, in its annual report and accounts makes it clear that aid administered by other departments is the responsibility of the Secretary of State of those individual departments. Those other departments have published precious little information about the increasingly large sums of ODA they spend. This situation must be rectified.

DfID, on the other hand, is in many ways an exemplar department when it comes to openness and transparency, which is vital if we are to collect the data we need to assess development impact. My noble friend Lord Purvis referred to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact which scrutinises DfID’s work and provides independent evaluation of all UK aid spending. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, gave useful information about the work in depth that ICAI carries out. As well as ICAI, DfID also commissions independent evaluations such as the DfID evaluation annual report, and bilateral and multilateral reviews give in-depth analysis of country and sector expenditure. In addition, DfID is subject to further external scrutiny by the International Development Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office, as we have already heard.

The other departments do none of this and, although ICAI’s remit includes scrutiny of ODA spend by all UK government departments, this has not happened. When may we expect ICAI to undertake a review of ODA spend by other departments?

Since the last general election just a few weeks ago we have seen changes to ministerial posts such that we now have DfID Ministers with shared responsibility across other departments. Can the Minister confirm that this bodes well for future transparency? While DfID has displayed openness and transparency, there are a number of wider issues that I would like to raise where some joined-up thinking could maximise the impact of the UK aid budget.

The first is in respect of the policy on energy, an issue referred to quite extensively by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Truro. DfID is doing some good work on ensuring clean energy access for people in developing countries. However, at the same time the UK Government overall have spent more on fossil fuel projects in developing countries than on renewable energy projects. This needs to change as it is counterintuitive to help developing countries to mitigate against and adapt to climate change but to fund so many fossil fuel projects as well. In the same vein, DfID should use its position as a major shareholder in the World Bank to persuade it to switch to supporting more renewable energy projects. Between 2011 and 2015 the World Bank invested more in oil, gas and coal than it did in renewables.

Secondly, I want to talk about the Commonwealth Development Corporation. The CDC Act came into force earlier this year as a consequence of which, by 2020, a massive total of £6 billion will be made available to the CDC by DfID. In spite of the plethora of reports produced by DfID and its scrutineers, we still lack sufficient data on CDC’s activities. It must publish what it funds and it must do so in a timely way, given that all capital transfers to the CDC as of 2014 count immediately as ODA. Why is it that other development finance institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank all appear and are rated in the multilateral aid review, but the CDC does not? Where in the department’s bilateral and multilateral reviews can the public see what impact the CDC is having?

I want to deviate from my speech a little and say in response to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, that sound methodologies must be developed. The CDC does have at its disposal £5 million for just this purpose, but it lies unused. I think that we can put pressure on the CDC to use that money to develop some of the methodologies that are going to be necessary.

Lastly, I should like to talk about double standards. Britain was a driving force in ensuring that women and girls were front and centre in the drawing up of the UN sustainable development goals. Our commitment to this group, representing half of the world’s population, is enshrined in legislation and our then Secretary of State was a founding member of the UN High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The UK has been a driving force in putting issues such as gender-based violence in conflict zones, forced marriage, teenage pregnancy and FGM at the forefront of international decision-making, so when a high-scoring project, properly assessed for impact and aimed at tackling the serious issues facing girls in developing countries, is sacrificed on the altar of the Daily Mail’s vitriol, something is seriously wrong with decision-making at the highest level. I am talking of course about Yegna, the Ethiopian Spice Girls. To make an impact, we must be consistent. There is little point in carrying out assessments and then ignoring the results, and I hope that cash transfers will not go the same way.

The Conservative Party’s manifesto stated that the party will,

“work with like-minded countries to change the rules”,

related to overseas development assistance. Will the Minister share with us what definition of aid the Secretary of State will be content with and at what point she will depart unilaterally from the OECD’s ODA definition, as she has stated she is prepared to do? Where is her red line? For my part I am concerned that this Government’s preoccupation is solely with Brexit and it is no secret that the Secretary of State herself is wedded to a hard Brexit. Will the Minister reassure the House that there will be no return to tied aid as the Government pull out all the stops to get trade deals in the limited time at their disposal? Will he further reassure your Lordships’ House that trade with developing countries will continue to support development, including through improving market access, strengthening capacity to trade and building better livelihoods?

I end on a point made by the noble Lord, Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale. The International Development Committee produced a damning report on the Government’s implementation of the UN’s sustainable development goals. There is also precious little mention of them in the bilateral or multilateral aid reviews. This is in spite of this commitment made at the G20 summit in the middle of last year:

“The UK is intending to publish a report in due course on its contribution to the Global Goals which will cover both international and domestic implementation”.


When can we expect this report?

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Wednesday 26th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

First, I pay tribute to the work of the noble Lord in his chairmanship of the all-party parliamentary group on the SDGs. Certainly, he is right to acknowledge that we have been at the forefront of the negotiating of the global goals and that we will be at the forefront of their implementation. On his specific point about data, we have passed that across to the Office for National Statistics. There are 17 goals and 240 measures. It is quite a big task to undertake. The ONS has come up with a consultation document. Initially it was delayed from October to 9 May; that was its own decision. Now, unfortunately, that 9 May announcement has been delayed by the purdah rules of the general election, so I would expect it go ahead soon after. It is very important that civil society organisations and business groups participate in that because, as the noble Lord suggests, data will be critical to ensuring that the goals are monitored and delivered.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, SDG 16 commits the Government to tackling illicit financial flows, which lose developing countries an estimated $100 billion a year. That is why it is all the more disappointing that the Government have blocked any talk of transparency in our overseas territories as part of the Criminal Finances Bill. Following the Panama papers leak, does the Minister agree with me that the Government must get a grip and set up public central registers of beneficial ownership, ensuring the same transparency in our overseas territories as we have in the UK?

[Lord Bates]

I do not know whether the noble Baroness was present last night, as I was, when we had the debate on this issue. The Government brought forward an amendment which commanded the support of this House—including the Liberal Democrat spokesman. I am sure that the noble Baroness will be very happy to speak with her colleague about that if she has any disagreement.

Neglected Tropical Diseases

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Monday 3rd April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I add my thanks to those of other noble Lords to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for finally securing this debate. It comes at an opportune moment for me as just last week I visited the headquarters of global health institutions working in the fight against malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB. While none of those is, technically, neglected tropical diseases, there are nevertheless many lessons that we can learn from the global fight against these big three killer diseases. I will pick out just three from among the many challenges.

The first is communicating key messages to affected communities, a point made by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans. The other two points were picked up by other noble Lords. The second issue concerns the in-country training of medical practitioners to administer drugs effectively. The noble Baronesses, Lady Chalker and Lady Barker, spoke forcefully on that. Thirdly, we need to recognise that prevention and long-term sustainable control are key to success in tackling NTDs. My noble friend Lady Northover made the point that no resurgence is a key goal if we are to be successful.

I focus on TB as an example. That disease was the scourge of Victorian times in the UK. However, with improved public health, less overcrowding and better nutrition we were able to control it effectively—crucially, without the use of drugs, although, of course, antibiotics helped with the final push. That is the key message I want to get across.

Prevention has to be the first line of defence. Effective prevention needs an integrated holistic approach, starting with disease surveillance to identify hotspots, to enable an effective targeted response. In hotspots, to be effective, the mass administration of drugs must be followed by WASH initiatives—again, the noble Baroness, Lady Chalker, spoke about this—that is, water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives, coupled with vector control and education about local factors that perpetuate the disease. Overarching all this is the need to tackle gender and child inequalities, ensuring that women and children are not left behind, because all too often they are left untreated. They are inadvertently most active in infecting others—women through their role as primary carers and children as they play together.

Why have these diseases been neglected and why are they called neglected tropical diseases? The reason lies in the fact that in general they tend not to be direct killers but instead leave people with disfiguring disabilities, which impact on their schooling, work and economic independence. In 2010, the Global Burden of Disease Study, the precursor to the 2012 London declaration, confirmed that collectively they rank as the most common affliction of the world’s poor, blighting the lives and livelihoods of more than a billion people. If developing countries are to pull themselves out of poverty, these diseases must be eradicated. Eradication, however, will need increased focus on research and development. The Ebola outbreaks in 2014 and the 2015-16 Zika epidemics in the western hemisphere highlighted an almost empty pipeline of new NTD products. I would be very interested to hear the Minister’s response to the Ross fund’s work with respect to NTDs.

The 2012 London declaration will come to an end in 2020. Given that NTDs are an indicator for a number of SDGs, in particular SDGs 1, 3, 6, 10 and 11—I might say what they are later if I have time—what commitment or strategy is planned for post-2020? Could international diplomatic pressure be brought to bear to expand commitment to the London declaration? Lastly, could the Minister and his colleagues in government give some thought to placing NTDs on the G20 agenda given that most NTDs and other poverty-related diseases are also found among the poor in developed countries?

East Jerusalem: Access to Emergency Care

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Sheehan]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of back to back transfers between ambulances at checkpoints on the health of Palestinians seeking to access emergency care in East Jerusalem hospitals.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported in 2015 that 84% of transfers from West Bank to East Jerusalem hospitals underwent back-to-back transfers. The UK has consistently called on the Israeli Government to ease restrictions that reduce access to medical care for Palestinians.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

I thank the Minister for his reply. A number of noble Lords have asked me about back-to-back ambulance transfers. Basically, when somebody in the West Bank is critically ill—it is an emergency case—there are no tertiary hospitals in the West Bank and the referral is made to one in East Jerusalem, which is on the other side of the barrier. So the person will get into an ambulance in the West Bank but then be made to get out at the checkpoint and either be wheeled or have to walk through, regardless of whether he is having a heart attack or she is in a difficult labour. They will then have, on average, a 27-minute wait at the checkpoint, before transferring to an ambulance on the Israeli side to be taken, finally, to the hospital. This is an enormous barrier to the coexistence funding programme that DfID has announced to ensure better outcomes for Palestinians needing emergency care. Will the Minister confirm that he will make the strongest possible representations to his counterparts?

[Lord Bates]

We will certainly continue to make our representations. More importantly, we fund the UN Access Coordination Unit, which helps in this area. We agree that the waiting times are unacceptable. Of course, the long-term solution lies in the resumption of peace talks.

East Africa: Famine

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Thursday 23rd March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

I have taken my opportunity to do so. I was grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, for his excellent suggestion. I attended the EU Foreign Affairs Council for Development last week and made exactly those points and the plea. The Secretary of State also wrote to High Representative Mogherini on the same issue. Later today, the Foreign Secretary will be chairing the Security Council on this issue at about 8 pm GMT. That will be an opportunity to reinforce the need for the international community to do more—and do it quickly.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I commend the Government on their high-profile response to the famine in east Africa, which has helped to galvanise not just public support but support among the international community. DfID’s hunger safety net programme in Kenya provides small, regular cash transfers through secure biometric systems and has been shown to be very effective in reducing extreme hunger. Notwithstanding attacks from the Daily Mail, are there plans to extend this proven programme to other countries in east Africa—and if not, why not?

[Lord Bates]

Certainly this is a tool that has been used to get relief to the people who need it most, but often there is a scarcity of food supplies. To come back to insecurity, when there are terrorist organisations, conflicts and civil wars, sometimes just handing out cash to individuals fuels the conflict because the money finds its way to the terrorist organisations. We need to be extremely careful in these areas that we provide relief to those who need it and not resources to those who are causing the conflict.

Gaza Strip

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

As the right reverend Prelate may know, our support of healthcare in this area is directed through the UN Relief and Works Agency, which channels support into the health sector there. A number of hospitals, particularly in Jerusalem, are providing help, particularly for those in Gaza, but there has been significant difficulty, to which the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, referred, in getting those in medical need to those hospitals to get that care, so we have been providing help at the border through an access and co-ordination team, to try to facilitate that. The situation is very fraught, tense and difficult, and there needs to be a political solution very shortly.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister share my concern that a lack of credible investigation and accountability for repeated attacks on medical facilities, such as the destruction of the Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza in 2014, is hindering the development of grossly overstretched health facilities? Can the Minister reassure me that the UK will support the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on Friday calling for accountability for such attacks so that hospitals can be rebuilt with some guarantee of future protection?

[Lord Bates]

For the people who are suffering so terribly in Gaza in a situation that looks so bleak as we move towards 2020, as the UN forecast, there should be several steps in addition to our supporting resolutions in various bodies. First, Hamas and the terrorist organisation should cease their terrorist attacks. Next, the Palestinian Authority should take over control of the operation of Gaza. Finally, we need to see the opening of the borders, not just with Israel but the border at Rafah with Egypt as well.

Iraq: Displaced Minority Communities

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Thursday 9th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The Marshall plan initiatives in post-war Europe are certainly topical, for not only the Middle East but the needs of Africa, which is facing famine. I think we will look at that, but we can take pride that the UK has consistently been at the forefront of efforts to raise funds in that region: £169 million, including £90 million in the present year, has already been raised to be spent in Iraq to help people, along with £2.3 billion for Syria, our largest response ever. However, I totally agree that more needs to be done.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, what representations have the Government made to the governor of Kirkuk in light of last November’s Amnesty International report, Destruction and Forced Displacement in Kirkuk, which documented the demolition of homes and forced displacement of Sunni Arabs in the wake of attacks by Daesh?

[Lord Bates]

I am sorry, I do not have details of our response, but I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness on that point.

Girl Effect: DfID Funding

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Sheehan]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why Department for International Development funding to the non-governmental organisation Girl Effect has been withdrawn.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, the International Development Secretary decided to end the partnership with Girl Effect following a review of the programme. Empowering women and girls around the world remains a priority, but she judged that there are more effective ways to invest UK aid and to deliver even better results for the world’s poorest as well as value for taxpayers’ money.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Popular culture is used to tackle difficult issues because it works. For example, many in your Lordships’ House will be familiar with “The Archers”. The storyline of domestic abuse endured by Helen Archer resulted in a 20% increase in calls to the domestic abuse helpline. The very popular Ethiopian girl group Yegna—dubbed the Ethiopian Spice Girls by the Daily Mail—reaches 8.5 million people and helps transform the lives of some of the hardest-to-reach and most disadvantaged girls in the world. Why, when faced by attacks from the Daily Mail, did the Secretary of State withdraw funding from this multi-A-rated DfID project?

[Lord Bates]

The decision was taken, as I mentioned earlier, because it was deemed that there were other things which it would be more effective to spend the money on. There is another programme operating in Ethiopia, End Child Marriage, which focuses more on the rural areas that the Girl Effect programme was not reaching, and was deemed to have more effect because it actually worked directly with the communities concerned. Although we will not continue to fund it, because we will be sending the money elsewhere, we hope that Girl Effect will continue. We acknowledge that it did some good work.

Commonwealth Development Corporation Bill

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords & Report stage (Hansard): House of Lords
Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, I add my thanks to the Minister for introducing this Bill to your Lordships’ House. Having listened to the speeches of other noble Lords, I am also reminded—if I needed reminding—yet again about the wealth of experience, and the breadth and depth of geographical knowledge, that exists in this House. I thank everybody who has contributed to my knowledge in this area.

This is a Bill that seeks to divert the policy of a government department quite significantly. It is a Bill that was neither trailed in the Conservative Party manifesto, nor mentioned in the Queen’s Speech. Moreover, it has been hastened with unseemly speed to its place on the statute book. Indeed, the passage of the Bill through the Commons gave rise to a good number of complaints from NGOs and think tanks that they had not been able to meet the very tight timescales made available to them and had had their submissions to the International Development Committee’s inquiry committee rejected. The Bill has been designated as a money Bill, so we in your Lordships’ House have no means by which to amend it or add conditions and safeguards—in short, no means to carry out our responsibility to give it proper scrutiny and make refinements which the Government may in time have come to appreciate. This is a pity, because taxpayers’ money—quite a lot of taxpayers’ money—is being moved from under the jurisdiction solely of Governments to an organisation which is not wholly accountable, given that it invests through funds of funds, as the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles, pointed out. That money is then outside of accountability through the Government and through DfID.

I am not the only one who thinks that the Bill’s designation as a money Bill is inappropriate. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, agreed with me, as did the report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, which said:

“We consider that the Bill contains an inappropriate delegation of power unless the Government can provide a convincing explanation of the need for this Henry VIII power”.


The Government did respond, but not convincingly. The need for development aid confronts us daily on our screens. Surely this is not the time to open up another line of attack for the vitriolic campaign that the Daily Mail and other rags are waging against the Department for International Development. That is what I fear this Bill will encourage. As we have seen, the CDC is vulnerable to attacks. In making this momentous and generous increase in the budget of the CDC, the Secretary of State risks exposing the entire 0.7% of GNI available for aid, yet again, to another round of attacks from parts of the media. She could have given herself some ammunition to rebut the attacks by putting some safeguards into the Bill, but then she has hardly been beforehand in rebutting any of the attacks levelled at her department. I know to his credit that the Minister is supportive of the 0.7% ODA, but will he convey to his boss that her history of attacks on DfID during the EU referendum campaign and her record of failing to defend the department on becoming its head are not reassuring?

I move on to why I think this Bill would have benefited from some refinements. It seeks to allow the CDC a massive increase of £4.5 billion to its overall spend to raise the ceiling to £6 billion, with an option to increase it further by another £6 billion by secondary legislation to a total of £12 billion. This raises eyebrows as the CDC has a chequered past—historically coming under heavy criticism in the really bad old days. Before 2012, the CDC spent 100% of its budget through funds of funds in projects that could hardly be described as pro-poor, including as they did, the arms trade. Nowadays, one-third of the CDC’s investments are made in other intermediary funds—funds of funds—a third are syndicated with other funds, co-invested; and a third are direct investments. We hope that the proportion of direct investments which give greater accountability to taxpayers will increase under the new strategy, once that is published.

First, let me address the problems posed with respect to transparency in the reporting of data. This is important because we need to be sure that ODA invested in the CDC can be traceable and accountable to taxpayers, in line with DfID’s international commitment on aid transparency. It is true that reporting has improved; however, a full two-thirds of the CDC’s investments remain opaque.

The CDC needs to take this on board and push for greater transparency in the deals it does with intermediaries, be they co-investees or other funds. These deals are rarely published with clarity, giving rise to allegations of secrecy and nefarious goings-on. It must publish what it funds. This has become even more imperative given that, since 2014, all capital transfer to the CDC is now reported as ODA by DfID to the OECD credit reporting system, but not all CDC investments are eligible as ODA.

The International Aid Transparency Initiative standard in 2012 rated the CDC as poor—a point mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Judd—and asked it to publish what it funds. Why can it not publish country-by-country data? Neither DfID nor the CDC publishes data that give us a complete picture of how public money is invested. We do not know who is accountable: DfID or the CDC. This is unsatisfactory, and some clarity from the Minister on this question would be appreciated.

Given that 100% of the capital transfer from DfID to the CDC will now count as ODA, it is essential, to avoid controversy, that CDC projects demonstrate that they are focused on ending poverty. Closely linking its performance framework, evaluation and reporting, strategies and policies to the International Development Act 2002, the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014 and the UN sustainable development goals would go some way to countering media attacks. However, the recent NAO report on the CDC’s development impact framework does not include indicators for development impact achieved. Moreover, the CDC is not formally required to report on that. Why not?

Will the Government change their current reporting structure so that the CDC is subject to and compliant with the International Development Act 2002—surely not a big ask? Measuring impact is so important, and a really hot topic in the sector. The CDC has £5 million put aside to invest in a research project to develop a methodology to measure impact, yet that money lies unused. That is inexcusable.

The CDC’s preference for using job creation as a measure of impact is crude. Nor is it readily verifiable, as its intermediaries and co-investees can choose to provide no back-up data for their assertions. The CDC itself must not remain silent when it is attacked in the press. It is imperative that it defends itself, and to do so it must have facts and figures at its fingertips. It is no longer enough to say that it is in the business of job creation: that is only one indicator and is, moreover, unqualified. To be more meaningful, we need to know the quality of the jobs, pay and working conditions of employees, gender and age of the workforce and whether any training or education is delivered.

I move on to the criticism that the CDC has come under because of its use of tax havens. I hear what Diana Noble, the CDC’s CEO—for whom I have great regard, incidentally—says in defence of their use: that it is sometimes unavoidable when co-investees will not commit to a project where they believe there are not sufficient safeguards for the money or to avoid double taxation. My response is that the use of tax havens leads to the diversion of tax revenues from the poorest nations in the world—revenues that could be spent on health, education, clean water and so on—and all efforts must be made to put in place extra precautions and lend expertise to develop more robust financial practices that move that agenda forward. Development is, after all, the key word. These precautions may eat into profit margins, but profits at the CDC are still well above the 3.5% agreed with Ministers—for example, last year’s profits were 16%. The Prime Minister cannot on the one hand promise a crackdown on companies’ use of tax havens and at the same time sanction their use by a government-owned company.

The CDC must be careful to guard against scandal. It must not appear in the press for the wrong reasons. Every deal must meet the Daily Mail resilience test. Will it stand up to allegations of propping up corrupt leaders? Can a luxury mall be justified—for example, would the project struggle to attract investment elsewhere if the CDC were not to invest in it? Can the project withstand allegations of “public money, private profit”? The CDC’s remit is to invest in private enterprises that would typically struggle to attract investment elsewhere, as stated in its mission statement. Does it really need to invest in high-end private education or for-profit private health? These highly profitable enterprises, targeted at the well-off, usually in middle-income parts of a country, are justified, the CDC says, because the country is overall a low-income country. The CDC would do itself a favour if it were to cease investing in such businesses and stick to its objective: invest to contribute to economic growth for the benefit of the poor.

That is not to say that investing in health is wrong—far from it. The health sector is a key area where the impact of aid is clear and one that the public can connect with—very important—so the economic benefits of spending on health are strong, estimated to exceed cost by a factor of 20 in lower or middle-income countries. However, recently published figures for UK bilateral aid show that health has dropped from being the largest area of spending to fourth place. There is a trend of moving away from social development sectors into areas such as economic development and infrastructure, which may not always be pro-poor. That is something we must guard against. Each has its place, but we must ensure that one important sector does not lose out in place of another—a point my noble friend Lord Bruce made far more ably than I can. The CDC’s investment in health can be targeted so that it is demonstrably pro-poor.

In drawing my remarks to a close, I highlight the lack of strategy. The current strategy ended last year. During the Bill’s passage through the Commons, the Minister, Rory Stewart, said in his response that the amendments addressing the points I have highlighted were all valid, but that they were best addressed through internal governance and the forthcoming investment strategy rather than primary legislation. We were told by the Minister that this already much-delayed strategy would be with us by last December. It is now February, and we have had no sight of the new strategy which will guide the investments under which up to £12 billion of taxpayers’ money will be spent. This is unsatisfactory.

We must add to that the fact that the current CEO, Diana Noble, is due to leave shortly and the CDC will be under new leadership. I congratulate Ms Noble on her work for the CDC over the past five years. It cannot have been easy. The changes she has wrought have moved the organisation in the right direction. However, as I have outlined, this is very much work in progress. The appointment of a new head of the organisation will inevitably mean a different way of doing things but, without knowing who the new head will be or what the CDC’s vision for 2017-22 will look like, we are being asked to give our consent to a blank cheque.

I confess that I feel uncomfortable about doing that. However, the Bill’s passage is assured. I hope that the Government and the CDC will take on board not only my comments but those made by others in your Lordships’ House, and ensure that the CDC does not become the weak underbelly of DfID and leave itself open to attacks from those elements in the media which have never understood the imperative for the 0.7% commitment of GNI towards international aid.

UN figures tell us that more than 65 million people across the world have had to leave their homes to seek safety and to try to meet basic human needs for both themselves and their families. If we are to deter even more of them, in their desperation, from exposing themselves to the risks of dangerous journeys across continents, then we must work to ease their misery in their own countries. This is a moral imperative that benefits us as much as them.

Refugee Camps

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Wednesday 8th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

A Written Ministerial Statement will underscore that, far from doing that, Section 67 of the Act—and I pay tribute to the noble Lord’s work on that—stands. Under that scheme, some 200 children have been brought to this country already. I know that the noble Lord also visited the Greek reception area and saw the conditions for himself, but there is also the work that DfID personnel are doing on the ground there, trying to provide help.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, do the Government recognise that there are many informal refugee camps in Greece and Italy? Will Ministers visit those and familiarise themselves with the huge suffering and plight of those children there? Secondly, will the Minister confirm that of the more than 25,000 unaccompanied refugee children in Italy, only three have been transferred to the UK?