Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Duncan Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)]

5. What steps her Department takes to reduce the impact of natural disasters by increasing the resilience of communities.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan)]

Resilience means equipping communities better to withstand disasters and giving them the means to recover afterwards. DFID’s programmes include investments before disasters, such as in flood defences and setting up systems to give people early warning. We also help people bounce back after the event, for example by setting up insurance schemes and by providing income support.

[Oliver Colvile]

My right hon. Friend will know of the devastating impact that natural disasters have on developing countries and the role that Devonport-based ships play in sorting out disaster relief. What is his Department doing to build the capacity of state institutions in the developing world to deal with the impact of these natural disasters?

[Mr Duncan]

My hon. Friend is right. Navy ships such as those from his constituency have been crucially important in the past—for example, three years ago in Haiti. He is also right about the importance of a country’s capacity. We help in that regard through, for instance, pre-earthquake planning in Nepal and flood preparedness in Bangladesh.

[Mr Tom Clarke (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (Lab)]

As the Minister knows, DFID has a deservedly high reputation for helping in disasters, but is there not a case for making some programmes last longer than they have been in the past? We want to move not just from disaster to aid, but from disaster to development.

[Mr Duncan]

That is absolutely true. We need long-term preparation in advance, and a longer-term response following any disaster. Those were the conclusions of a review conducted at the beginning of the current Parliament, whose recommendations we are implementing as best we can.

[Sir Tony Cunningham (Workington) (Lab)]

Those who are hit hardest by disasters are almost always the most vulnerable members of society. What steps has the Department taken to ensure that inequality is considered in resilience planning?

[Mr Duncan]

People who live in poverty are indeed the ones who suffer most as a result of natural disasters, which pull them into a cycle of debt, illness and thence even deeper poverty. Investing in measures to help communities to cope with disasters protects lives and livelihoods, and safeguards investment in a country’s development.

[Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

6. What assessment she has made of likely population growth in north and west Africa by 2050; and if she will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

T7. The UK contributes £30 million a year to the Palestinian Authority’s general budget. Does the Secretary of State agree that the pooled and general nature of that budget means that it is impossible to track how all donor money is actually spent?

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan)]

UK funding to the Palestinian Authority is used specifically to pay civil servants’ salaries, and that is subject to audit. It is absolutely right, and essential for peace, that we continue to support the Palestinian Authority.

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

T5. In a Westminster Hall debate on 4 July, the Minister of State, who has just left the Front Bench, said that he would take on board my concerns about workers in debt bondage in Pakistan. Will he undertake to get the DFID office in Pakistan to write a plan of action over the summer and then to make a written statement when the House comes back in September?