International Development: Budget

Lord Judd Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judd]

My Lords, it is always good to follow the noble Lord, Lord Bates, because he brings judgment, wisdom and a strong humanitarian commitment in so much that he contributes to debates on issues of this kind. He argues his case particularly convincingly. I hope that my words will underline the significance of what he has said.

I want to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Empey, on having introduced this debate. It is incredibly important and not something to be swept to one side after the remarks by the Prime Minister, so I hope we can have clarification of what exactly he meant.

It is quite a long time since I was in government. My first job was in defence and, after two years there, which I enjoyed greatly and found very challenging, the Prime Minister asked me to move to overseas development where I became the Minister for a short while, until Tony Crosland died and I moved to the Foreign Office. When I made the change, quite a lot of my friends asked me, wasn’t this an incredible change to make from defence to overseas development? I looked at them straight in the eye, because I believed it, and said, “Not at all. Both are about human security and well-being”. During my years in defence, I was always impressed by the number of senior officers, civil servants and others, who used to say in discussion, “Of course, we’ve lost if war breaks out. Our job is to prevent war and to ensure that peace can prevail”. Of course, development is ensuring that peace is not just the absence of war, but it is the ability of people to live full lives and to develop their potential.

I strongly believe that this is a time of so many challenges, including hunger and malnutrition—which is particularly sinister with its long-term effects, not least on future productivity—of climate change and of infant mortality still, although we must all take heart from the great progress to which the noble Lord, Lord Bates, referred. However, this is not a time to start raiding the aid budget. There may be very real arguments about how we do it better, get better value for money and prioritise better. Some of that has begun with the examination of programmes in India and South Africa, for example. These are big, important arguments but it certainly cannot be said that there are still not demands which far outstrip what we are even now able to make available.

The British people should take great pride that we are setting examples to the world in our commitment to overseas aid and development. At a time of low morale in Britain about so many things, this is something about which we can get excited—the positive battle for humanity, and the well-being of people and the children who are being born, or who should be born today but still die before they have a chance to enjoy life. It is very significant that we can say to the world, “Don’t do as we say but follow our example because this is a challenge that we are determined to meet”. I make no bones about it: I congratulate the Government unreservedly on having honoured the pledge of allocating 0.7% of GNP to aid. There will be arguments about priorities and techniques, but having kept that promise and that determination is something in which the British people should take pride. That is not to say that the example should not be followed in the battle for social justice and against poverty, deprivation and inadequacy in our health service in our own country, but at least in our relationships with the world we can hold our head high. It is an example of what we should be doing in our own society, if I may put it that way.

There will always be an overlap between overseas development and defence—that is clear. Certainly, humanitarian assistance, let alone long-term development, cannot take place if there is insecurity and instability. Therefore, in some situations it is necessary for defence forces and aid operations to work hand in glove. However, there are tensions—for example, in Afghanistan. The Army liberates an area and wants to put things in quickly which give the people a stake in the liberation of their territory before the Taliban moves back. Overseas development workers say, “Hang on a moment. It’s not just a quick fix. If we are to put a school or a hospital in, it has to be sustainable because if we have a quick fix the whole thing will collapse and we are likely to lose everything”. Therefore, there are real tensions between the disciplines of long-term, sustainable development and the immediate needs of the Armed Forces. The challenge is how we bring those two aims together in a useful and sensible way. I always think it is very exciting when the military can feel that on occasions it is contributing positively to human well-being by ensuring that supplies get through and that goods are delivered. That is something which many people in all three services of the military enjoy and value. However, these two aims are not the same tasks and how you marry them together will always pose a very difficult challenge, but one with which I think we should grapple.

In conclusion, we still need to give far more attention to the issues of conflict resolution and conflict prevention, although we are giving them much more attention than we used to. The resources to do that should come from the aid budget although the military has a contribution to make. I hope that in all the Government’s considerations those issues remain priorities.