Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for leading this debate, and the people who signed the petition, of which there were 285 from Norwich North. As many Members have said, this is an important and timely debate because, although a ceasefire is now in place, there continues to be a devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Although I welcome the ceasefire and the release of the hostages, there is a long way to go to ensure that the peace is sustainable and the unimaginable human suffering ends. As we have heard, Israeli authorities continue to restrict humanitarian supplies going into Gaza, leading to a devastating shortage of food, medicine and lifesaving supplies. UN agencies have warned that the level of food assistance is still below what is needed, and they have called for more to be let in. That comes, of course, after years of conflict and a human toll that is unimaginable for many of us.

Many Members have touched on this, but I want to focus my remarks on the impact on women and girls. That is particularly timely, given that tomorrow is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and this year marks 25 years since the agreement of the landmark UN resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. Yet 25 years on, we are failing women and girls not only in Gaza, but in Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many other places. We should also recognise the devastating impact of the 7 October attacks on women, with many horrific reports. There must be accountability and no impunity for violence against women and girls, wherever it is found.

In Gaza, the crisis has had a devastating impact on all civilians, as we have heard, but women and girls have been disproportionately and uniquely affected in many ways. They make up 67% of the estimated 60,000 Palestinians killed. Health services have basically collapsed, meaning that women struggle to access sexual and reproductive health services.

As we have heard, that has a catastrophic impact on pregnant women. The UN estimates that 55,000 pregnant women have nowhere to seek medical help. Approximately 130 babies are born every day in conditions of acute risk, and one in five are born prematurely or suffering from complications. Let us imagine what should be one of the happiest times of someone’s life, but all they can do is hope and pray for the future of their baby, with no guarantee of good healthcare or essential medicines.

There are stories of mothers giving birth without anaesthesia or essential drugs, and reports of rising maternal and newborn deaths—and as the weather changes, that will get even worse. We know that the blockade has also produced human-made famine conditions in parts of Gaza, with catastrophic consequences for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children. We know from evidence around the world that women and girls eat last and least in conflict. In conflict, violence and sexual violence surge, yet support services and legal services collapse. The chance of justice fades to barely even a glimmer.

Despite the dire situation, we must not see women and girls as only victims; they are also first responders and leaders. As ActionAid has rightly highlighted, Palestinian women and women’s rights organisations continue to lead humanitarian responses and community support, providing vital services, yet their work is far too often under-resourced and under-recognised.

That leads me on to what the UK and other Governments can and must do. First, diplomacy must remain a top priority to ensure the unfettered access for humanitarian aid and to uphold our obligations under international law. As a former member of the International Development Committee, I agree with its report from earlier this year—as referenced by my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran—that said we must lead on international humanitarian law. There is a gap for a nation state to lead on that, and the UK has a chance to fill it.

Secondly, we must prioritise long-term funding for humanitarian aid and ensure that a significant proportion of the aid we are delivering goes to women’s rights organisations. I ask the Minister to respond specifically to that point in his response: how are we tracking where our aid is going and whether it is reaching those grassroots women’s organisations on the frontline?

As the current chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the United Nations, I want to emphasise the important work of UNFPA—the United Nations Population Fund—which does vital work providing healthcare and safe spaces for women and girls. It is suffering from reductions in foreign aid from many countries, particularly the US, which is turning away from it. I hope that as we make difficult decisions about where our aid goes, we will continue to speak up and support its vital work.

We have also heard from many Members about the importance of UNRWA, which is no traditional aid agency. It effectively provides many functions akin to local government in the country, and it is vital to getting aid to people on the ground. I welcome the fact that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has paused its work on the ground, because the way that it was delivering aid went against all humanitarian principles. I hope that that pause remains in place and that it ceases to operate.

Thirdly, in line with UN resolution 1325, women must be meaningfully involved in peacebuilding processes and post-war recovery. The evidence is clear that peace processes last longer when women are involved, as we have seen in other contexts such as Liberia. Ensuring that women are at the table and have a voice is therefore not only the right thing to do, but in all our interests.

Lastly, it is welcome that the UK has a national action plan on women, peace and security—which was, in fact, drawn up under the last Government. I believe that Palestine is not currently a focus country for that, so I ask the Government to consider adding it and to work to ensure that Palestinian women and girls receive the same protections as women in other conflict contexts.

There are many other areas that I could have spoken about in this debate, and many Members have touched on them, but the impact on women and girls is one that we must not ignore, and that, sadly, is too often not spoken about. I know that upholding the rights of women and girls is something that the Foreign Secretary is strongly committed to—indeed, she published a piece today expressing the UK’s commitment to tackling violence against women and girls in particular—so I look forward to the Minister setting out how we will work to stand with women and girls in Gaza and beyond. This ceasefire is an important step forward, but it must lead to real change, to a two-state solution and to a just and lasting peace for Palestinians, Israelis and the whole region.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for opening the debate. I want to thank every hon. Member who has spoken with such clarity and conviction.

I was asked a number of questions over two and a half hours. If hon. Members will permit me, I intend to make a brief statement about the humanitarian situation before taking any interventions. I know that the voices in this Chamber echo the deep concern felt across the country—concern so strong that nearly 200,000 people signed the petition that brought us here today, including many of my own constituents in Lincoln. I know that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh) says, this is not at all a fringe concern—it is on the minds of constituents represented by all of us, right across the country.

The ceasefire was achieved with great difficulty and in the face of great danger. It must hold. We must confront the humanitarian catastrophe that continues in Gaza. We must see the bodies of the hostages returned to their grieving families and move quickly from phase 1 to phase 2—reconstruction and recovery—to rebuild shattered lives. As we take peace plans forward, we must not lose focus on the catastrophic humanitarian situation. More than 69,000 people have lost their lives since October 2023. Tens of thousands have been wounded, most of them women and children, and over 90% of the population remains displaced. Our immediate priority must be aid—rapid, sustained and unrestricted. The international system can deliver at scale, but that is not happening on the ground.

As we speak, vital equipment and field hospitals are waiting just miles away, blocked by red tape. Winter, as many contributions have made clear, is closing in, and displaced families need shelter and basic services restored. The Israeli authorities must open all crossings without delay, and aid agencies and NGOs must be able to operate freely across the whole of Gaza. Restrictions on UNRWA and other UN agencies must be lifted. The system and the supplies exist. I was pleased to hear other colleagues who have seen them in el-Arish—as I have. The will in the UK exists. If the ceasefire and the 20-point plan are to succeed, the political block on aid must end.

I understand the frustration my colleagues expressed tonight. Let me reassure the House that the Government are doing all they can to support the ceasefire and get aid into Gaza. We have allocated £78 million for humanitarian and recovery support this year, including £20 million for water, sanitation and hygiene services. Over the past two years, we have restored funding to UNRWA and provided nearly £250 million in development assistance. I was challenged on whether that has made any difference to individuals in Gaza—it is 439,000 people who have received essential health care, 647,000 who have received food and over 300,000 who have gained access to clean water and sanitation.

Many hon. Members rightly challenged me and the Government to consider the individuals at the heart of this, rather than the numbers. I was in Yemen last week and saw a malnourished child in front of me at one of the healthcare clinics that we are supporting. The sight of a severely malnourished 11-month-old baby is a truly arresting one. It is a reminder to me, as I know it is to everyone in this House, that there are thousands of such children in Gaza.

We must do everything we can to ensure that the ceasefire holds and that the aid gets in. We have deployed UK advisers to the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre to help to co-ordinate reconstruction and humanitarian efforts. In total, we are providing £116 million this year for humanitarian aid, economic development and strengthening PA governance and reform.

[Alice Macdonald]

I thank the Minister for giving way and for the speech he is making. It was announced today that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is ceasing operations. It was said that the GHF has shared lessons with the CMCC. Does the Minister think that it is important that we learn what not to do in delivering aid? We have seen that the best way to do that is through recognised organisations such as the UN. Will the Minister comment on the GHF statement today?

[Mr Falconer]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important contribution. I have been absolutely clear throughout that the GHF was no way to deliver aid. The cost to the people of Gaza was absolutely clear from the grim images of its operation that we saw day in and day out. It has always been the case that a system exists in order to provide aid across Gaza. It is not a perfect system, and where there are abuses of that system, they need to be investigated—I am very glad to hear from our partners that the looting of aid has considerably reduced following the ceasefire—but the system exists. The aid exists. It is the United Nations system. It is mentioned specifically in the 20-point plan. That is how aid must be distributed across Gaza.

Conflict in Sudan

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

Freedom of religious belief is absolutely vital in the region, and I have raised these questions in the region over the past few weeks. Obviously, in the wider context that we are discussing, almost everyone is facing very serious risks to their human rights, but I will give the hon. Gentleman a further update in due course on what we have done in Sudan specifically.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

As I have said before, this is a war on women, but women are also fighting hard as human rights defenders in the diaspora and in Sudan, whether they are running emergency response rooms or advocating for change. Can the Minister say more about how we are ensuring that our aid is going to grassroots, women’s rights-based organisations? In the discussions at the UN, in line with the Women, Peace and Security agenda, will we ensure that women’s voices are heard?

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend is a doughty champion on these issues, and I know that she has been committed to them both in the House and before her election. We are focused on ensuring that our aid reaches women and on the issues that are faced by them in particular, including— as I said earlier—sexual and gender-based violence. That includes the work through both UN Women, which I described, and mutual aid groups, and a number of other measures. I will ask the Minister for Africa to set that out in more detail for my hon. Friend.

Sudan: Protection of Civilians

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

As I have said, we keep all these matters under close assessment. We are leading international diplomatic efforts. Indeed, that is why we have called an urgent meeting of the Security Council today as the penholder. We continue to work with all parties to try to bring an end to this conflict. I will happily come back to the hon. Member on the specific assessment that he asked about.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is undeniable that what is happening in Sudan is a war on women, with the use of rape and brutal sexual violence. November marks the 25th anniversary of UN resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, through which member states committed to protect women from conflict-related violence. Can the Minister tell us how we are doing that, and how we will use this moment in November to ensure that we stand with women and girls in Sudan and beyond?

[Stephen Doughty]

I completely associate myself with my hon. Friend’s comments and expectations. I assure her that this issue remains at the heart not only of our work on holding individuals responsible and on bringing this conflict to an end, but also of the specific support we are providing through our programming for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Some of the reports we have been receiving in recent days are horrific. These incidents must end.

Humanitarian Situation in Sudan

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Harpreet Uppal]

I will come on to that issue later, but I am sure the Minister has heard what the hon. Gentleman has said.

Previously, I have also raised in the House and with Ministers the terrible reality that rape and sexual violence are being used as weapons of war. Women and girls bear the brunt of the crisis: over 6.7 million of them are at risk of gender-based violence. Between December 2023 and December 2024, the UN found a 29% increase in the number of people seeking sexual and gender-based violence services. Reports of intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, and the specific targeting of ethnic minority groups, are both widespread and on the rise.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

I fully agree that this is a war being waged on the bodies of women and girls, but women are also women fighting back. I have met many brave women from women’s rights organisations, including my friend Emi Mahmoud, a UNHCR ambassador. Does my hon. Friend agree that when we are investing in our aid, we must ensure that a large percentage of it goes to women’s rights organisations that can lead the charge and find the solutions?

[Harpreet Uppal]

I agree with my hon. Friend and I will say more on those points later, but I thank her for everything that she is doing on this issue.

UNICEF’s report in March also highlighted a crisis of child rape and sexual violence. The #Women4Sudan campaign has tirelessly documented case studies of sexual violence in Sudan. The stories include that of a 14-year-old girl who suffered internal injuries after being brutally gang-raped; she was then let down by medical practitioners, who shamed the family. The young girl later died at home. In many cases, such stories never reach the outside world. The ongoing telecommunications blackout has made it extraordinarily difficult for survivors, families and organisations to communicate with journalists, humanitarian agencies and international bodies.

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[Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) for securing this debate. The crisis in Sudan is something that we should all be seeing on our TV screens and social media feeds, and we should be debating it here in Parliament every day, yet tragically it barely features, so my hon. Friend’s success in securing this debate is all the more commendable. As we have heard so powerfully, in just over two years 28,000 people have been killed, 12 million people, half of them children, have been forced to flee their homes, and there are 15 million children in need of humanitarian assistance. The human impact of this conflict is truly shocking.

We know that the situation is particularly dire in North Darfur. Al Fashir has been described as a “city under siege”. At Zamzam refugee camp, starving people have been attacked, and aid agencies tell me that an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 have fled from the camp to Tawila, where they now live out in the open in extreme heat, with barely any food or water, and with diseases such as cholera taking hold. With the fighting now escalating in the Kordofan region, it looks set to be the next area of acute humanitarian crisis. As we have heard from other Members, that is not an accident; it is the result of a strategy by warring parties, at best, to allow civilians to be collateral damage in a vicious fight and, at worst, to deliberately and directly target them.

Let me turn to what needs to be done. As I think about what needs to happen in Sudan, in many ways it feels like a test of how we act in response to humanitarian crises more broadly in these new times. Our humanitarian aid budget is reduced, but our deep expertise and leverage in humanitarian action remain. The first thing to say is that funding is important, as it is in any humanitarian crisis. The £120 million that the UK committed to Sudan at the London conference in April—part of the £810 million aid package—will support 650,000 people with basic lifesaving aid this year, which we should be proud of.

What we do with the funding matters. We are increasingly good at focusing on interventions that are proven to work, such as the use of ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat severe and acute malnutrition. Who we fund also matters. Sudan is an example of why we have to get funding to the local responders in any humanitarian crisis, but in this case particularly to the emergency response rooms where there are extraordinary networks of volunteers embedded in communities, running community kitchens, feeding hundreds of families, operating mobile clinics, restoring basic infrastructure, and doing the work that international and humanitarian aid agencies are unable to do in the context.

Beyond funding, there are three further ways in which our actions can have an important impact in the crisis in Sudan and beyond. The first is by pushing for expanded humanitarian access. Large parts of Sudan are completely out of reach of the UN and international aid agencies, which is completely unacceptable given the scale of the humanitarian needs, so we must keep up the pressure on the warring parties and their external backers in Russia, the UAE and elsewhere to allow aid to flow in.

Sudan also shows why we may need new tools, whether it is in Yemen, Myanmar or, of course, Gaza. The denial of access to humanitarian aid has become a routine part of warring parties’ playbooks. We urgently need to find ways to create more expectation and more pressure. I think, for example, of the recommendation of my former employer, the International Rescue Committee, which has suggested that we should set up a new international mechanism to monitor and protect humanitarian aid access. That is just one idea.

The second point is about how we use our diplomatic assets and tools to push for a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict. As one of the emergency response room spokespeople recently said:

“We cannot continue to respond to the crisis while the guns keep firing. The people of Sudan need a ceasefire—now—to save lives and to rebuild our communities.”

We have the opportunity of being the penholder on Sudan in the UN Security Council. We are rightly working with the African Union, the EU-convened group and others to make progress. We are looking outside of the established groups. I suspect it will be increasingly necessary to find informal coalitions of interested countries to work together for peace. It is complex and sensitive diplomacy, but it could not be more urgent.

The third point is about how we drive more accountability in these contexts for breaches of international humanitarian law. Last month five aid workers were killed in an appalling attack on a UN convoy near El Fasher. I am glad that we called for accountability at the time, but we see a sustained pattern of attacks on aid workers in Sudan and elsewhere. In the case of Sudan, the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor has now found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity may well have been and continue to be committed in Darfur. We have to be clear that that is absolutely unacceptable.

I see the crisis in Sudan as a test of our compassion, but also of our capability in responding to humanitarian crises in the world today.

[Alice Macdonald]

My hon. Friend will know that we said “never again” in Rwanda, in Srebrenica and after the Holocaust, but we are clearly not living up to that promise. Does she agree that we need a comprehensive atrocity prevention and response strategy? That has been lacking in the UK Government for a number of years now.

[Laura Kyrke-Smith]

I agree with my hon. Friend that that is what is at stake here—I am sure the Minister will say more. I think that we are looking at that atrocity prevention strategy and we need to update it.

I will conclude by saying that for me Sudan is a test of whether we can successfully push to get aid into the most awful humanitarian crises in the world. It is a test of whether our diplomacy can play a stabilising role and help to be a force for peaceful solutions. It is also a test, as my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) said, of whether those who violate international humanitarian law will be held accountable for their actions. That matters for the victims of the conflict in Sudan, but it also determines what warring parties think they can or cannot get away with in future conflicts. I know the Minister is aware of a lot of this and feels the pressure. I look forward to hearing her thoughts.

Middle East

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

Notwithstanding the huge humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place in Gaza, I am proud of the work of UK-Med, the funding we have been able to give it and the extra money that I have announced today, and that medical aid is getting through to relieve some suffering. However, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. We will continue to do more, and I reassure him that I am working with my Jordanian counterparts, in particular, to see what more we can do to alleviate that suffering.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

Aid should be a lifeline in humanitarian crises, yet it has become a death trap for Gazans. People are starving, yet one of the only ways they can get food is to risk their lives by going to an aid distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Does the Secretary of State agree that we are seeing the militarisation of aid, and we cannot let that set a precedent? May I press him further on his conversations with the Israeli Government and the US Government on bringing the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to an end?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the issue of aid workers. The widespread loss of life among aid workers is a travesty. It is unprecedented. I remind colleagues of chapter 2 of “The Conduct of Hostilities”, the handbook for legal practitioners in international humanitarian law, which says that distinctions lie at the heart of international humanitarian law and requires parties to armed conflict to distinguish at all times between civilians—including, of course, aid workers —and combatants. It is a travesty what we have seen take place over the last two and a half years.

USAID Funding Pause

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

I fully agree with the hon. Gentleman about the impact that the cuts will have on women and girls. Does he agree that, as well as continuing to support women and girls through aid from this country, we must stand up for women’s and girls’ rights internationally? We have seen them rolled back in the past. That is why it is so important that we continue to do what we can to stand up for women, for example in Afghanistan, where their rights are being eroded every single day.

[Brian Mathew]

I completely agree with the hon. Member. An ActionAid project in Zambia safeguarding women from sexual exploitation was forced to close almost overnight.

Oxfam says that, thanks to the cuts to USAID, 95 million people could lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to 3 million preventable deaths a year, and 23 million children could lose access to education. When services collapse and diseases can spread unchecked, people lose hope, and they do not stay put. Migration pressures rise, conflicts hit new boiling points and markets react. As covid taught us all too well, deadly viruses such as Marburg and Ebola could leap from remote villages to our high streets in a matter of weeks, especially when the staff to deal with them have been given stop orders and removed from frontline duty.

We are already seeing other powers whose interests do not align with ours begin to fill the gaps left by USAID. China and Russia are expanding their influence in regions where western credibility is weakening. Just last week, some of us on the IDC heard from an official in the Burma/Myanmar freedom movement that USAID’s withdrawal has happened at the same time as China has made quick inroads to prop up the military and curry influence in its efforts to get hold of rare earth minerals from that troubled country.

The United Kingdom has long prided itself on being a force for good in the world. Our work and leadership with British aid has not only saved lives but championed the best of our British values: fairness, the rule of law, health, education and opportunity across the globe. That is soft power in its most tangible form, and it is worth its weight in gold—and, more importantly, in lives and livelihoods. Sadly, we have made our own aid cuts recently, from the 0.7% GNI commitment down to 0.5% and then 0.3%. The reality is that with so much being spent on hotels for asylum seekers, instead of allowing them to work and pay their way while their status is determined, as little as 1% of UK GNI is now being spent on genuine aid.

We know what to do. We know that investing in WASH makes sense. We know that investing in girls’ education reduces child marriage, improves economic outcomes and reduces inequality. We know that investing in pandemic preparedness, vaccine infrastructure and vaccine research protects not just vulnerable people around the world, but our NHS and public health here at home. International development is therefore smart policy. It reduces the risks that we would otherwise spend billions more to contain. What should we do? We must reaffirm our commitment to restoring the 0.7% target and publicly commit not to just the rhetoric of aid, but to actually doing it—and doing it well.

The withdrawal of USAID has created a moment of reckoning; the world is watching and the vulnerable are waiting. I will end by paraphrasing President John F. Kennedy in his special message to Congress on foreign aid on 22 March 1961. We are aware of our obligations to the sick, the poor and the hungry, wherever they may live. It will both befit and benefit us to take this step boldly, on which will depend substantially the kind of world in which we and our children shall live. It is time for us to stand up and be counted.

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[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank the hon. Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew) for securing this debate, which is a timely one, given that we are approaching 20 years since the Gleneagles summit held in Scotland in 2005. Twenty years ago, Nelson Mandela spoke in Trafalgar Square calling on us to make poverty history. World leaders gathered in Gleneagles in 2005, and they rose to the challenge, cancelling debt for some of the world’s poorest countries and boosting aid.

In 2025, aid and development are firmly in the spotlight, but for very different reasons and in a very different context. While this debate is focused on the impact of USAID funding cuts, there is no doubt that those cuts will have a seismic impact on the landscape globally, and on our own approach to development. The US is the world’s largest aid donor, providing around 20% of all aid from the 32 members of the OECD. In February, we announced the very difficult decision that UK aid would be cut to boost defence spending.

While I welcome the uplift in defence spending, for people such as me and the hon. Member for Melksham and Devizes who have worked in development for many years, it was a painful decision. However, it is important to emphasise the difference between the decisions made in the United States and those made in the UK. While I will not comment too much on the rationales for different Governments’ decisions, the UK Government have been clear that this was not an ideological decision but one driven by financial pressures. I believe, and I am sure that the Minister will assure us, that there is a commitment to continuing to develop aid.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

On the question of whether the Government’s decision was driven by financial motivations, does the hon. Member agree that whether it is 0.7% or 0.3%, the key is that UK GDP must rise, as her own Chancellor has said? If our economy shrinks, the 0.7% figure becomes almost irrelevant because it is 0.7% of a much smaller budget. All that matters overseas is the amount of cash they get, not the percentage of our domestic product, so we must drive the economy first before we try to deliver the mechanism that I am sure most of us are in favour of.

[Alice Macdonald]

The hon. Member is right; this is an internationally agreed percentage of gross national income, but too many countries have not met that target. As has been mentioned, some countries are stepping back, so it is important to be clear that we will keep our commitment to getting back to 0.7% as soon as the fiscal circumstances allow. However, in this new reality, we must ensure that our aid delivers maximum impact where it is spent, that we take actions to mitigate the effect of these cuts and that we keep the commitment to return to 0.7% in the long term.

In that spirit, I will focus on five key areas where the Government should act. First, they must cut in-donor refugee costs. As many Members know, we spend a significant portion of our current aid budget in the UK on those costs, which were approximately £4 billion in 2023. That trend started under the previous Conservative Government—who also left us with huge backlogs in the asylum system—and I know that this Government are determined to tackle it. We have seen some progress in bringing down those costs, and provisional estimates suggest that they were £2.8 billion in 2024, but we need to continue that trajectory with a clear timeline and a commitment across Departments to get them down.

Secondly, we must maximise the impact of our aid. It is important that we align with the “leave no one behind” principle in the 2015 sustainable development goals. I would not want to be in the shoes of the Minister for International Development in the other place, because there are difficult decisions to be made, as members of the International Development Committee recently heard. It is important that Members of Parliament, including Back Benchers, clearly see the criteria and the vision against which those decisions are being made.

The “leave no one behind” principle must, as I alluded to earlier, include a focus on women and girls. It is clear that the USAID cuts will have a big impact in that area. In 2023, the US was the largest single donor in areas including population, reproductive health and family planning. Under the Conservative Government’s last round of cuts to the aid budget, we saw that women and girls were disproportionately affected, so it is important that does not happen again. I recently asked the Minister for Europe in the main Chamber whether women and girls would remain “at the heart” of our policy, and he assured me that they would.

At the International Development Committee, the Minister for International Development in the other place assured us that although there would be less money for women and girls in education, it would be mainstreamed across all the priorities. Can the Minister elaborate on how we will ensure that they are prioritised and, importantly, how we will continue to support women’s rights organisations? As UN Women has shown recently, there has been a detrimental impact, with many such organisations at risk of having to close their doors altogether. When we invest in women and girls, we get better outcomes, not only for those countries but for ourselves.

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

The UN has warned us that more than half of frontline, women-led organisations could shut down within six months due to global aid cuts. That is not just a funding crisis; it is a humanitarian catastrophe. Does the hon. Member agree that restoring funding to those groups must be a priority if we are to prevent the complete collapse of women’s services in conflict zones?

[Alice Macdonald]

I fully agree. We have had programmes, such as the Equality Fund, where we have been clear on the importance of women’s rights-led organisations. I have met many women’s rights defenders of all ages who are doing amazing work. We must continue to back them and listen to them, because they know what is best in the context in which they work.

I am sure other Members will speak to the importance of investing in multilateral efforts, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund, which I also want to back. Those funds have a proven return on investment for the UK taxpayer. The World Bank’s International Development Association fund and the African Development Fund also have important roles to play in alleviating poverty, and we have been big backers of those in the past.

As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the United Nations, I would also like to underline the value of the United Nations. There is, of course, space for reform, and I am sure we are all aware of some of the flaws in the system, but it is a unique vehicle for coming together as a world to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face and to increase the value of our aid.

We must also look beyond aid to leverage other forms of financing, many of which we could leverage without cost to the taxpayer. As the Independent Commission for Aid Impact pointed out, foreign direct investment, remittances and other forms dwarf the overall aid budget, so I hope the UK will continue to lead on innovative financing. That includes how we can recycle International Monetary Fund special drawing rights. In 2020, we received an allocation of £19 billion from the IMF as part of the response to covid. We could re-channel that to provide zero-interest finance to low-income countries or through multilateral development banks. We could also put idle foreign reserves into action. A small portion of the UK’s largely idle exchange equalisation account could be used to support low-income countries.

The last Labour Government led on debt relief. I was proud of what we did at Gleneagles to lead those efforts. We must do so again, given that debt payments for low-income countries are at their highest for 30 years, with 32 African countries spending more on servicing their external debt than on healthcare. Given that 90% of low-income countries’ debt is governed by English law, the UK could do a lot to bring private creditors to the table to get the best possible deals. I hope the Minister can set out what we are doing in that regard, especially as we approach the conference on financing for development in Seville in just a few weeks’ time.

Finally, more broadly, we need a reset on aid and development. Indeed, the Foreign Secretary has been clear that we want to move to an approach founded on partnership, not paternalism, which puts the countries that have traditionally been recipients of aid in the driving seat. We have seen cases in the past. Indonesia, for example, used to be a recipient of Gavi funding but is now giving money itself. We need to look at success stories and say why they matter not only for tackling poverty but for increasing prosperity and tackling inequality, including in our own country. I see our development work as insurance; it is a downpayment for the long term to tackle some of the upstream drivers of migration.

I hope that we will continue to lead internationally, as we are domestically, on using science, innovation and technology to its best effect. Innovators, such as the John Innes Centre in the constituency next to mine, are doing amazing work to tackle hunger and climate change, and we must back those efforts to look at how we can support developing countries abroad.

We all know that tough decisions are having to be made in the extraordinary times in which we live, but I know that this Government are internationalists. I believe that our party will continue to lead and use all the levers at our disposal to tackle poverty and inequality wherever they are found.

[Wera Hobhouse (in the Chair)]

I remind Members to stick to the time limit as much as they can.

--- Later in debate ---

[Catherine West]

I will certainly pass that idea back to the Minister with responsibility for development, because we always end up having good ideas in Westminster Hall debates.

The US is a key partner, but this is a matter for them. It is their budget. We have a strong relationship with the US that is founded on shared interests and common approaches. Together with our G7 and G20 allies, we carry strong global influence, and we must never stand back from that. That is why we are committed to working with the US and other countries on our shared priorities. We are in regular touch with US counterparts to share advice as they shape their development plans. As in any diplomatic relationship, we will not always align with the US, and we may want to focus on other things. That is normal. We will engage in a pragmatic way to understand concerns and find a way forward.

Many Members have mentioned the multilateral system. No single country can solve the global development challenges alone, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North for pointing that out as well as the importance of working with international financial institutions, which she learned through her experience before coming to this place. This is where we have to be much more innovative. We cannot just sit around the table and nod through reports; we have to put some life back into those systems so that we can enable the finance and the technical aid, which the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale also mentioned. Through technical assistance and international financial organisations, we are not powerless —we can use them. There is an opportunity to rebuild trust, rebalance power and design a more effective, inclusive, co-operative and future-proof architecture.

The Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Esher and Walton, mentioned the 1970s. We must not forget, at a moment like this, what the development sector has done. So many more people lived in abject poverty before, and there is now a growing middle class, and much of that is down to really bright people, employed by NGOs in those countries, who are leading movements and improving the economy. Under 10% of people are now living at the poorest level, which used to be on $1 a day. The development Minister will know the statistic, but it has reduced to 9%. This debate, as well as lots of other evidence, is going into the spending review so that decisions can be made. We know that a preponderance of those people live in sub-Saharan Africa, and that is being taken into account.

[Alice Macdonald]

The other concentration of people living in extreme poverty is in conflict-affected states. As much as this is about providing humanitarian aid once disaster happens, we also have to invest in prevention in the first place. Would the Minister reflect on the importance of conflict prevention in our aid efforts?

[Catherine West]

Indeed. This is about not just aid, but the women, peace and security programme, which I spoke at in Manila a couple of months back, and the important work that we do in Colombia, Mindanao in the Philippines and other places to ensure that women have a voice. I am very aware that many Members in this Chamber understand the importance of empowering women to solve the difficulties relating to how communities live abroad in very poor or conflict-affected areas. The Government will continue their commitment to supporting women and girls by being a champion for them across the world—by showing up and making our voice heard. Quite a few international partners have mentioned to me at conferences that I am the first UK Minister they have seen for years. This is partly about our diplomatic presence, including at ministerial level, so that we can be confident champions of women and girls in our multilateral work, and improve the quality of mainstreaming in our growth, climate, health and humanitarian programmes.

Gavi and the Global Fund

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) for securing this debate.

Let us be honest: most of the public do not know what Gavi or the Global Fund are, but they do know the lifesaving power of vaccinations because they, like all of us, will have benefited from them when they were children, as will their children. But we know that for too many children around the world, those lifesaving vaccinations are not available. In these debates we must remember that people’s lives are at the heart of the issue. I worked for Save the Children for many years, and I saw at first hand the impact of immunisations and the progress that has been made. Some of that is at risk in the light of what is happening around the world, so this is a really important debate.

We have covered many of the areas that I want to talk about, but 1.5 million children continue to die from vaccine-preventable diseases. That is more than the population of Cyprus—an entire island of children dying every year. Vaccination and ending AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are not only the right thing to do but, as we have heard, in our national interest and the smart thing to do.

Vaccinations stop disease reaching our shores. They help to support healthy and prosperous nations, and they help to prevent future pandemics. They are also vital in the context of climate change, as many of the world’s deadliest diseases are susceptible to climate change, which increases the risk of them spreading. Tackling those diseases is best done—with best value for the British taxpayer—through Gavi and the Global Fund. We know we have to maximise our aid budget at this difficult time and invest it in the right things that will deliver the best value for the British taxpayer. Investing in Gavi and the Global Fund is therefore simply a no-brainer.

I asked the Minister earlier this week if investing in women and girls remained a priority for this Government, and I was reassured by his answer. I then raised that with the Minister for International Development at the International Development Committee, and we heard that the approach is more about mainstreaming gender equality—women and girls were not listed as one of our three top priorities. Although I accept that we can mainstream gender, I hope that the Minister will reply on how we will ensure that women and girls remain at the heart of programmes such as Gavi and the Global Fund.

Every week, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women between 15 and 24 become infected with HIV globally, and 3,100 of those infections are in sub-Saharan Africa. As we look at our aid budget, we know it has to be focused on tackling extreme poverty, and Africa is one of the areas that we need to focus on.

[Iqbal Mohamed]

The hon. Member talks about vaccine inequality in women and girls, but would she agree that the global Gavi programme helps to address the inequalities that people face? During the covid pandemic, it was clearly reported that richer and more affluent countries had priority for vaccines when compared with low and middle-income countries. Gavi is essential to help to perpetuate equality.

[Alice Macdonald]

I totally agree with the hon. Member. In fact, what we have seen with Gavi is that countries that were primarily recipients before have now becomes donors, such as Indonesia. Gavi is a clear pathway for countries to transition into different roles in the global economy as well.

Other Members have mentioned brilliant examples of science and innovation in their constituencies. I want to mention the John Innes Centre at the Norwich Research Park, which is not technically in my constituency, but is in Norwich. It is doing pioneering work, particularly around malaria. As we have heard, that work is helping to save lives internationally, as well as creating jobs at home and generating economic growth.

We need a new architecture for international development. We have to accept the world that we are in, but we also have to challenge ourselves as to why some of the public support for aid has been lost—although, some of the polling shows there is a lot of support for lifesaving interventions such as vaccines. Both Gavi and the Global Fund show us what that new architecture could look like: working together globally through multi- lateral institutions and pooling our resources to maximise our impact.

This is not the time to take our foot off the accelerator. We have made huge progress in this area, both in tackling disease and protecting our own health security. I am sure that the Minister will reaffirm our commitment to improving the health of some of the poorest communities in the world and to delivering a safer and more prosperous future for us all.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Oral Answers to Questions

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

The right hon. Member raises a very important point, and we of course continue to engage closely with our partners at the World Bank and other multilateral development institutions. Multilateral co-operation allows a global scale of investment and delivery that outstrips what countries can achieve alone. We are also looking at other ways, including through the important work of British International Investment and other bodies, so we are going to look across the board and multilaterally to increase our impact.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

The International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014 says the Government must have due regard to spending aid in a way that contributes to gender equality. Following on from the earlier question, will the Minister confirm that supporting women and girls is a ministerial priority and that we will continue funding vital programmes that support women and girls in many areas?

[Stephen Doughty]

It certainly is, and women and girls will remain at the heart of our programming. I can assure my hon. Friend that equality impact assessments are an essential part of how we make decisions on ODA allocations. Indeed, Minister Chapman will be appearing before the International Development Committee later today, and I think she will be setting out our approach to the equality impact assessment and other processes.

London Sudan Conference

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

The shadow Foreign Secretary also raised those questions. I am happy to write to the House with further details about aid delivery, both in relation to the £120 million in further funding and the concerning reports over recent days about restrictions in aid access, particularly in Darfur. Once the situation becomes clearer, I am happy to provide a full update to all parties on the practical questions about aid delivery.

The hon. Lady asks about the practical successes of the conference and what is next on the diplomatic front. The statement from the co-chairs, which include not just the UK, but the African Union, the EU and others, attempted to capture what was an important and frank set of discussions over the course of the day, and set out five principles. It went further than any other recent statement, calling for a ceasefire, rejecting external interference, opposing parallel governance and supporting a transition to civilian-led Governments. My Foreign Office officials have been talking to all parties with an interest in Sudan, including the two belligerents, to make it clear that the statement is the strong view of the international community and that we expect to see it put in place.

It is true, as the two most recent questions have set out, that we were not able to secure a contact group at the conference. I would not want the House to think that, as frank and behind closed doors as it was, the conference was therefore a failure. The fact that this is difficult is all the more reason why it was important for the UK to show leadership and to bring the African Union and others to the table to discuss these issues.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

What is happening in Sudan should shock us all. UNICEF has warned that children as young as one are being raped. More than 220 cases of child rape have been reported since 2024, so we need outrage and, more importantly, action. Can the Minister confirm how much of our aid, if any, is being spent on supporting survivors of sexual abuse and violence, and also how we are using our role as penholder on Sudan at the UN to push for action specifically on sexual violence?

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend has worked extensively on these issues, and I know her commitment to them. I will write to her with a full breakdown on which part of our aid programmes are working with survivors. As I set out in answer to an earlier question, the Minister for Africa has led efforts at the Security Council on ensuring that the whole international community is focused on the atrocities that she has just described. We are also leading efforts at the Human Rights Council to establish and renew the mandate for the UN fact-finding mission, which will be crucial to supporting future accountability efforts in Sudan.

Conflict in Gaza

Alice Macdonald Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

When we are talking about Israel, we should remember that we stand alongside the Israeli people at this time, and we think of the many hostages who are underground and in desperate conditions in Gaza. Israel is a democracy, which is why we see people taking to the streets and making their voices heard. We see a heated debate in Israel as the best way forward.

[Alice Macdonald (Norwich North) (Lab/Co-op)]

Yesterday, the International Development Committee returned from Geneva following our inquiry into international humanitarian law. The message was very clear: the IHL framework is robust, but we are failing on adherence and compliance. Under IHL, aid workers should be protected. I welcome what the Foreign Secretary has said so far, but the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, and most of the aid workers are locals. Can the Foreign Secretary expand on what we will do to protect aid workers, including through the ministerial group for the protection of humanitarian personnel? We met representatives of that group yesterday.