Yemen

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Thursday 20th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

In a sense it might be desirable, but that was the agreement made in Stockholm. That is what we have to follow with the six-week commitment. During that time we will see whether the other commitments to opening the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef and the prisoner exchanges happen. There are a number of steps along the way, but I certainly join the noble Baroness in paying tribute to British diplomats, of whom we can be proud, such as the UN special envoy Martin Griffiths and our own Sir Mark Lowcock, formerly a Permanent Secretary at DfID, for the work they have done.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, as the noble Lord will know, some of us tried to find out during the Statement yesterday what exactly is happening in the port of Hodeidah. It is such a significant port for getting humanitarian aid in. Does the Minister have any up-to-date information? Given the ceasefire, we would expect a higher proportion of the dockside facilities to be available.

[Lord Bates]

Yes, we would expect that to happen. The latest data we have is from November, with 60% of food and in particular fuel coming in through that port. We have been monitoring it very closely. The agreement in Stockholm requires a weekly update back to the UN Secretary-General to see what is happening with delivery on the ground. I am sure he will follow that closely.

Yemen: Famine

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 6th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich]

The Earl of Sandwich to ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help end the famine caused by the war in Yemen.

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

My Lords, Sir Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, recently warned the UN Security Council of the “clear and present” danger of famine in Yemen. Famine has not yet been declared. The UK is providing £170 million this year to feed millions and to treat malnutrition. Ports are open and there is food in the main markets. We are working with the Central Bank of Yemen to reverse the currency devaluation so that food is again affordable.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that. It is quite true that food is reaching maybe 8 million people, and that is in spite of the blockade, which is a year old today. But this war is not going anywhere. The port of Hodeida is still besieged; the peace process has completely stalled; half the country’s health facilities no longer function; there is cholera; and 2 million young mothers and children are malnourished. What more can our Government do to end this near-catastrophe?

[Lord Bates]

It is a catastrophe at the present time. What is happening there is a manmade disaster and, yet again, where there are manmade conflicts and wars, women and children are the first to suffer as a result. The situation is intolerable and we are working across a range of different headings. The only solution is for the parties to the conflict to come to the negotiating table. We thought that we were getting close to that in Geneva, through the work of Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy. However, one party did not turn up for that set of dialogues. The Foreign Secretary has indicated that discussions are under way with the UN Security Council to see what more can be done. In the meantime, we continue our efforts to work through international agencies to relieve some of the suffering. But ultimately, that suffering will be halted only when the conflict stops.

Official Development Assistance

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

We of course achieved the 0.7% commitment, which was reiterated by the Secretary of State. As a former aid worker herself, she is absolutely committed to this, but absolutely committed to ensuring that we also get value for money. There is so much need in our world that we cannot afford to waste one penny of the amount available. It is also true to say that the rules which govern what is scored as development assistance are set by the OECD committee, which works on a consensus basis. Consistently, many members raise issues about what they would like improved in terms of the definition. We raised vigorously last year the response to the hurricanes in the Caribbean, and we continue to do that. We will continue to work for reform, but we are absolutely committed to improving value for money, and to the 0.7%, which is a matter of law. It was mentioned in the manifesto; the Prime Minister signed up to it; and the Secretary of State signed up to it.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with the committee’s recommendation on the middle-income countries, and whether they should be eligible for ODA? Are the Government reconsidering those middle-income countries—in particular, India, which has a substantial minority of poor?

[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.

UN: Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 9th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord has raised this before. He is absolutely right that if the SDGs are to be met, they will not be met by Governments alone; they have to be met by civil society. That means business getting involved, as well as church groups, trade unions and charities. It is impossible to assess our progress towards the SDGs by looking simply at government entities in this country. Therefore, the trade unions will be a very important element in that. Individual departments will be reaching out to trade unions to ensure that their voices are heard. Proactively, however, there is also the opportunity through the website launched yesterday for trade unions and other parts of civil society to make sure that their contribution to meeting those goals is recognised in our voluntary national review.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, in view of all the bad news about climate change that we have been reading, are the Government making more effort and looking harder at sustainable development goal 13, which is about climate change? What action will they take?

[Lord Bates]

We have taken a number of pieces of action. Some of the action required of us is under the Climate Change Act, which was introduced in 2008 under the previous Labour Government. Of course, a major step forward was the Paris agreement. There will be a follow-up to that agreement. We have introduced international climate finance as a way of scaling up the amount of investment available for that very important area. The IPCC made those announcements in Seoul, South Korea, just a couple of days ago, which grabbed the headlines. They will be followed up at a special meeting in Katowice in Poland in December and we will play a full and leading part in that.

Overseas Development Aid

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 9th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

An example is impact funds, many of which already exist within the City of London; many civil society groups and organisations such as the UN Global Compact scrutinise how that is accounted for in accounts. With the CDC it is a different process. We were quite specific when we discussed the raising of the threshold—the capitalisation of the CDC—as the legislation went through this House, that no investments could be made under that without a business case being prepared, which then has to be signed off and reviewed at the end of it to ensure that the outputs it was envisaged would be delivered were achieved, and if not, why not? These are therefore all important elements in the exploration of these issues. More can be done, but again, it needs to be done transparently.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I concur very much with what the noble Lord, Lord Collins, was saying, and I well remember the CDC Bill and the criticisms that we made then. One can raise a slightly different issue about the CDC. Does the Minister recall the comments of ICAI—the Independent Commission for Aid Impact— about the impact of aid? You can put in the rubric that poverty alleviation is a purpose, but what about the measurement of that purpose, and where is the evidence of impact? We still have to wait for this to come from the CDC.

[Lord Bates]

The impact comes in three levels that we specifically target. One is the amount of money which catalyses money to come in from the private sector: if we invest £1, does it bring in £10 of private investment? We look at it in terms of the taxation it generates for revenue in the country where the investment is taking place, and we look at the number of jobs that are created by that. In alignment with the SDG requirement on this for aid, this is for decent work, so I accept all that. That is how we do it. The point which the noble Earl was right to highlight was addressed substantially by the change in the new investment strategy, which the CDC was required to have alongside the new investment. That has a much greater focus on the most fragile and most affected states, because we do not want it—not that it has ever done this in its illustrious, 70-year history—to cherry pick the investments. We want it to go where no private sector capital is going so that it can make the greatest impact. That impact and that change in the investment strategy will see results in the years to come.

Safeguarding in the Aid Sector

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

My noble friend is absolutely right on this. There is a core problem which we have seen across different organisations. We have had to wrestle with these issues in recent years: the fear of asking the difficult probing questions when they are needed or the failure to be transparent about what has happened. Organisations are doing that—one does not like to say “for understandable reasons”—because they want to protect the reputation of the organisation. If anyone wants to know whether that works, ask Oxfam today when its reputation has been so tarnished and damaged by the failure to take that kind of prompt action and to ask the most difficult and searching questions in these areas at the right time.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, this is a very painful affair for all of us who have been concerned with aid over many years. I have not worked directly with Oxfam, but I have worked alongside it and on this occasion I want to pay tribute to what the noble Lord, Lord Judd, achieved over many years in bringing standards up over that period. We must not forget what has already been done. The Secretary of State is new and it is quite right that she should send a powerful message to the aid agencies, especially those in receipt of public funds. It is obviously a shocking affair. However, the Minister has considerable experience and knows that there are limits on outrage that can be expressed. Does he not think that collectively the Government and the statutory agencies have gone over the top on this? It is not happening on the scale suggested by the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan. As other noble Lords have said, the danger is that it is affecting the work that is going on all the time all over the world. The noble Lord, Lord Collins, made this point, and Andrew Mitchell said it, as did Anna Soubry. The Secretary of State seems to understand this, but only in the last sentence of the Statement.

[Lord Bates]

We need to communicate that, but the noble Earl will recognise that we have had many debates on these things and we are almost always on exactly the same page. The message needs to go out that there is zero tolerance on this. We need to come down very hard to change the culture within the aid sector. That was one of the reasons why the previous Secretary of State took such a strong approach on the allegations against UN peacekeepers and was at the forefront of driving that up the agenda, to the extent that it was at the UN General Assembly and the Secretary-General has taken action on it because it goes to the heart of the problem. People who are there have a duty to protect, not to exploit. As in every type of organisation and institution that faces allegations of this type, the very few people who are doing this are having a devastating effect on the 99% of people who are carrying out that work selflessly and, as my noble friend said earlier, putting their lives at risk to help others, which is in the great tradition. It is in their interests and for them that we ought to be so ruthless in rooting it out.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Public Services and Governance

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 23rd January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

I pay tribute to the right reverend Prelate for his long-standing work in Burundi and his advocacy for peaceful solutions. We are supporting initiatives there. We are helping the refugees, 400,000 of whom, as he said, have fled to neighbouring countries —Tanzania and Rwanda, for example. We are also supporting democratic institutions leading up to the elections, which we hope will take place in 2020 and offer some hope for stability in that country.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, is not Zimbabwe a good example of what the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, was suggesting? The new President of Zimbabwe is looking for friends. Are we active enough in the Foreign Office at the moment in seeking ways of introducing longer-term development to balance humanitarian aid?

[Lord Bates]

When the opportunity came, after the former President Mugabe left office, one of the first there was Rory Stewart when he was a joint Foreign Office and DfID Minister. I know that the new Africa Minister, Harriett Baldwin, will be looking to make a visit early on. It is precisely the type of country that has been locked into instability for too long, and yet has immense potential in terms of education and its natural resources, which can be liberated.

HIV: Global Response and Young People

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Thursday 30th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

As the noble Baroness will know, we are the second-largest contributor to the Global Fund, with a commitment of £1.1 billion. She is also absolutely right to say that the fastest growth areas in terms of new infections are eastern Europe and central Asia. Following a significant decline in infection rates in the early part of this century, we have found that those rates have plateaued out, with around 2 million new infections last year. That is way too high and is way short of the objectives that we all signed up to in SDG 3, which includes achieving the eradication of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I know the Minister has been in Africa quite recently. Can he say which countries are most successful in reducing the infection rate? Is Uganda still in that position?

[Lord Bates]

Of the 15 countries which are at the highest risk, it is correct that 10 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Regarding those which have been most effective, there has been a combination of two things. First, there is a need to remove the stigma: in far too many countries, same-sex relationships are criminalised; there is a stigma attached to talking openly about sexual relations; and therefore, particularly among young people, that is not conducive to reducing infection levels. Secondly, there is the question of healthcare systems. We are working with many countries in sub-Saharan Africa to address those issues.

East Africa: Refugee Crisis

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further action they are taking to address the ongoing refugee crisis and acute food emergency in East Africa.

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

My Lords, across east Africa the UK is providing life-saving humanitarian support, including reaching over 3.3 million people with food assistance and over 2.4 million people with water and sanitation. We are leading a new approach to support refugees, who are often displaced for many years, focusing on the provision of long-term investments in jobs and education.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. I know that our humanitarian aid and our soldiers are making a huge contribution at the moment, as are the Ugandan Government, as he knows. However, my concern today is about security. This is one of the most dangerous places in Africa. He will recall that the United Nations almost overlooked the rapes and killings that were going on quite close to Juba in July last year. Can the United Kingdom do any more about this? Does the UN have it in its power to make this country more secure?

[Lord Bates]

It is trying its best. It is a dire situation, to be quite frank, and some 80 humanitarian workers have lost their lives since the beginning of this crisis. The 400 British troops there are doing incredible work as part of the UN mission and are led very ably by David Shearer. There was a commitment last year at the UN for a further regional deployment of 4,000 troops. That needs to happen. However, ultimately it is for the Government and the Opposition to honour the ceasefire that was declared and to allow humanitarian aid to get through. We continue to keep that under review. Major General Patrick Cammaert undertook a review into the incident he talked about and we will continue to follow that inquiry very closely.

Overseas Development Assistance

Debate between Earl of Sandwich and Lord Bates

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The partnership agreements to which we are party will continue until we exit the European Union. The Secretary of State for International Trade and the Department for International Development announced an indication to say that with 48 countries in particular we wanted to ensure that that duty-free, tariff-free access to our markets—which is so crucial for them, as well as beneficial for us—continues. The details with regard to the other countries, again—I am sorry to keep repeating this—will be handled as part of the exiting the European Union strategy.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, the problem is that we are having to think the unthinkable. It is unthinkable, for example, that we will not be beside the EU in rescuing refugees from the Mediterranean and putting them into Italian ports. Has the department made any plans for the biggest humanitarian programme, which is ECHO, and how we are going to relate to that?

[Lord Bates]

I share the noble Earl’s view that it is inconceivable. Wherever I travel around the world, the EU is there, represented in force. We have to remember that wherever we operate, particularly in development, we are always working in partnership. We are working in partnership with the G20—for example, at the Hamburg summit this weekend. We are working in partnership with the African Union and the UN agencies; the whole thing is about partnership. That is one of the reasons it is so effective.