Integrated Review: Development Aid

Lord Bishop of Rochester Excerpts

Wednesday 28th April 2021 Grand Committee

[The Lord Bishop of Rochester]

My Lords, UK aid is important because it works. This is not money that is wasted; it is well targeted, well managed and, some of our history notwithstanding, not exploitative. Yes, there have been well-publicised scandals in some aid organisations and some aid may be misapplied, but the overall picture is of effective partnerships and fruitful work. Because UK aid works, its reduction will have tangible effects.

My diocese has close links with the dioceses of Mpwapwa and Kondoa in central Tanzania; I should have been there next week. We work with our colleagues on various small-scale development projects. When there, I also see the importance of other projects funded in whole or part with UK government funding. Over the years, British aid has been of great significance in Tanzania.

But—and this is where this links with the other strands and objectives of the review—others are very clearly seeking to increase their involvement and hence their influence. For most of the years of my visiting, a building site has run right through the diocese of Kondoa: a key stretch of the pan-African highway from the Cape to Cairo. While the workers have been local, the engineering oversight and management has been very largely Chinese. My point, I hope, is clear: when we withdraw, others are poised to come in. We take care that our involvement is well motivated and for the good; that of others may be less so. The Chinese ambassador to Tanzania has been very clear about his country’s aspiration to expand its involvement there. Reference has already been made to some of those initiatives.

I dare to hope that Her Majesty’s Government might increasingly realise that reducing aid will turn out to be a false economy. What is lost could far outweigh the relatively small financial gain. I therefore urge Her Majesty’s Government to take the earliest opportunity to reinstate the 0.7% commitment. I note that the noble Baroness the Leader of our House restated this at various points a few weeks ago in another debate. I hope that it will be done very soon.