Job Creation: Developing Countries

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Westminster Hall

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Mr Hollobone, I think I express the views of everybody in this debate in offering my thanks to you for stepping into the breach and chairing so ably. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on securing the debate and on his contribution. It was my pleasure to serve with him for a time on the Select Committee on International Development; his contributions then were always thoughtful, considered and expert. I have learned even more about the subject by listening to him just now.

Harold Wilson, who went to school in my constituency—in fact, he went to the boys’ school near the girls’ school I went to—said:

“Unemployment more than anything else made me politically conscious.”

In that regard, I want to make a few remarks to take forward the comments the hon. Gentleman concluded with.

The hon. Gentleman talked about economic development in its broadest sense and about the interconnected nature of what makes an economy work. It did my Merseyside heart good to hear him talk about the vital importance of ports to our infrastructure. That is not a glamorous thing to say—when we talk about infrastructure, people often think of big bits of railway—but ports are vital, in this country and others. However, I want to restrict my remarks to aspects of job creation that relate to the work DFID does and to the work I think it should do more of. In that regard, I have a few comments to make and some questions to put to the Minister.

I think we all start from the assumption that private sector growth is a good thing. It is especially good if it represents a structural shift in a country’s ability to feed its population and to take care of itself. In that regard, the hon. Gentleman’s comments about infrastructure capital expenditure are vital. However, although private sector growth is necessary, it is not sufficient in itself for development to occur. People in a poor country will have greater freedom only if other conditions are fulfilled.

Does growth help the poorest? For those in work that is vulnerable, there is a clear link between the insecurity and threats a country faces and the extent to which economic growth helps those closest to the bottom. It stands to reason that those who do not have much to live for would risk their lives by engaging in military combat. The more we can do to give people the possibility to develop themselves and their families, the safer the world will be.

Does growth reduce inequality? Not necessarily. However, we must surely seek to ensure it does, if we are to have a fairer and more just world. In that regard, it is important that we see no return to aid conditionality—to the old days of aid as a byword for helping so-called British companies do business in other countries. I am afraid there has been a slightly worrying return to language referring to the UK as an aid superpower, as if our international development work with other countries is purely about self-interest, rather than an enlightened self-interest that reflects the virtues of being on a more even playing field with others.

Does growth involve the diaspora? Okay, DFID has done some work with FTSE 100 companies, but what about businesses in this country owned by people from poor countries in Africa and elsewhere?

My final condition in terms of determining whether private sector growth is good enough to bring about true development relates to environmental sustainability. If infrastructure investment is done in the right way, it can be absolutely crucial—solar farms have been mentioned. The world can choose whether to grow in a way that is healthy; some of the mood music from parts of the Government has been less than positive about the green agenda. I would not dream of using the kind of words that have been used about it, but I am sure the Minister knows what I am referring to.

To conclude, I have some specific questions. On job creation, the Minister will realise there is a serious risk of deadweight loss if projects that work with the private sector create jobs that would have been created anyway. What research is DFID undertaking to ensure that any investment in or for the private sector is genuinely additional and does not simply move jobs geographically or recreate ones that would have been created anyway?

Secondly, what policies is DFID pursuing to help meet the decent work indicators in the millennium development goals? It is clear that we need to reduce the number of people who are working and in poverty and, specifically, that we need to help young people and women. Half the world’s labour force is in vulnerable employment, so the agenda could not be bigger. Leading on from that, in how many DFID projects with the private sector does the Department monitor the quality, quantity and precariousness of the work created?

The Dutch Government require private sector use of their development funds to adhere to OECD guidelines for multinationals, including on industrial rights and workers’ rights. I would be grateful if the Minister commented on whether we intend to adopt the same standards as the Netherlands.

I would be grateful if the Minister told us whether there is any move in DFID to reconsider the short-sighted decision taken earlier in this Parliament to de-fund the International Labour Organisation. In some of the work I have done on the situation of garment workers in Bangladesh, the contribution made by the ILO’s advice and work has been irreplaceable, but the Government have decided on behalf of the nation to de-fund that organisation. Of course, the Minister may respond by saying that DFID Bangladesh has worked with the ILO, but that is not the same as the contribution we used to make to it. Will the Government reverse that short-sighted decision?

To conclude, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman again on raising this issue, which is vital to poor people who work hard and earn little, wherever they may be, as well as to the broader security of the world.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lynne Featherstone]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent intervention. CDC has gone from strength to strength. Not that long ago there were some question marks over it, but it has moved well away from that. As he says, because it works in the most fragile, conflict-affected and poorest of countries, its success is all the more remarkable. It has created more than 68,000 new jobs.

[Alison McGovern]

On that point, would the Minister be so good as to respond to my question about deadweight loss and what research DFID is undertaking to ensure that none of those new jobs represents such loss?

[Lynne Featherstone]

I will respond to the hon. Lady in a moment on the issue of deadweight loss.

Moving on from CDC, in the long term, the key to mass job creation is improving the environment for domestic and other businesses to invest and grow. DFID is focused on these long-term determinants of job growth.

Garment Industry (Working Conditions)

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Westminster Hall

[Shabana Mahmood]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, which highlighted a number of important issues. I will come to building standards a little later.

As I was saying, I did not feel that even what I accepted was a good factory represented a safe environment in which I would happily rock up for work, do my shift and go home without thinking that I had taken my life in my hands. That is a stark reminder, if one were needed, that even with minimum standards in place—there has been a lot of good work on getting standards in place for the sector in Bangladesh post-Rana Plaza—there is a long way to go, first to meet those standards in the first place and then to get the kind of working conditions in that part of the world that workers in many other parts of the world, particularly in this country, enjoy.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I will, but I ask my hon. Friend to be brief.

[Alison McGovern]

I apologise to all Members; I will not be able to stay until the end of the debate. Briefly, does my hon. Friend agree that the standards issues she describes make it all the more important that we support and back up the work of the International Labour Organisation, which does this work around the world on all our behalves?

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The ILO plays a very important role and I am pleased that other organisations work closely with it, including DFID. I hope that that co-operation continues.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 9th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We are working with a fund for small and medium-sized enterprises that can do precisely that. We have also, with the London stock exchange, focused on the issue of capital markets improving finance more broadly in developing countries—particularly, most recently, in Tanzania.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

The garment industry in Bangladesh and elsewhere provides hundreds of thousands of jobs to people trying to work their way out of poverty, but it has too often involved unsafe conditions and poverty pay, and no one in Britain wants to buy clothes made in such conditions. Ahead of the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, does the Secretary of State now agree that her Government’s decision to withdraw funding from the International Labour Organisation, which protects vulnerable workers, was a short-sighted mistake?

[Justine Greening]

I hope I can reassure the hon. Lady that we are working with the ILO in Bangladesh, and as she knows we have also sent over experts to help with building practices and construction. As the hon. Lady points out, it is nearly a year since the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza building, and we have worked very hard since then with the Bangladesh Government and industry to make sure that we learn from that terrible disaster.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We take all those issues incredibly seriously. The UK deplores all incitement to violence, which we raise with both sides and with our partner organisations whenever allegations are made. We believe that President Abbas is committed to non-violence and peace, and DFID funding to the Palestinian Authority funds the salaries of an approved list of civil servants.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

On Monday, Catherine Samba-Panza was elected as interim President of the Central African Republic, and she has spoken encouragingly of reconciling the different groups in the country, but the threat of serious conflict remains. The new Government will need significant support, so will the Secretary of State say more about what help the UK is planning to help avert conflict and serious humanitarian disaster?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

Obviously, the situation remains fragile. We welcome the fact that there is now a leader who wants to take things forward. The UK pledged a total of £15 million—we are one of the largest donors to the Central African Republic—and we stand ready, should more requests be made, to listen to them and provide all possible help that we can give.

South Sudan

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Sir Edward, and to have secured this important debate on the humanitarian tragedy that is continuing to unfold in the world’s newest state, South Sudan. I am grateful to members of the associate all-party group for the Republic of Sudan and South Sudan, which I chair, who have supported this debate and are present.

In less than two years of statehood, South Sudan has experienced an unprecedented shock to its national income; its gross domestic product fell by nearly 250% in 2012, at the height of the dispute between South Sudan and Sudan over oil charges and compensation. There has been some progress since then on what have been generally dismal indicators on health, maternal mortality rates, mortality during childbirth and education. In that respect, the past four weeks have been a tragic and massive step backwards.

When members of the associate all-party group, including me, visited Juba and Lakes state in April 2012, we saw at first hand the challenges and the great opportunities before the new state of South Sudan. We heard of the problems in bringing together a cross-tribal, cross-community Government able to function efficiently in order to alleviate hunger and educate the country’s children. We heard of the need to adopt a genuinely pluralist constitution that provides for the accountability of the state to its citizens and of the Government to Parliament. We listened to the complex issues regarding the future of Abyei state and the need to resolve the continuing border problems with Khartoum.

We witnessed the positive effects that investment by the Department for International Development and its partners in the United States and France, through the UN, is having on the economic empowerment of women and the attempts to rebalance the economy in favour of agricultural production, which the rich foliage, particularly in the southern parts of the country, strongly promotes. We experienced for ourselves the problems of a country that has only 60 km of paved roads and, in many respects, a very weak—in many states, non-existent—infrastructure. We saw the intense difficulty that that causes to farmers in getting their goods to market and in distributing seeds and other agricultural products from the capital out to the other states. We also met farmers who had fled to Uganda during the earlier civil war and were making painstaking efforts to rebuild their businesses and their lives on land that had been returned to them after that civil war ended.

I will not forget the huge numbers of female fruit and vegetable growers north of Rumbek, in Lakes state, who greeted us when we visited their UN World Food Programme-supported plantation. They were all wearing T-shirts proclaiming: “Marriage can wait, women’s right to education first.” I asked one of them how many children she had, and she told me 12. She was determined to make a success of the agricultural co-operative, so that her children would have something that she had been denied: the right to an education. It is tragic that the avoidable humanitarian situation is putting at risk all that essential work in one of the poorest countries on earth. The avoidable political instability, the internal displacement and the tribal conflict that is being stoked up for political ends, or to settle old scores, mean that the extraordinary work of many such women, who are empowered in South Sudan’s economy for the first time, and of the UN and the United Kingdom in carefully supporting such programmes, runs the risk of being lost.

The conflict could not have come at a worse time. The planting of crops is due to take place next month. The rainy season in South Sudan is due to begin in April and May. In that period, 60% of the country will be inaccessible by road, and many parts will be accessible only by air. The country struggled to cope with spiralling food security problems in 2011 and 2012—nearly 4 million people were threatened by hunger in that period—and the risk is that the situation will get worse in the spring if agreement cannot be reached between the Government and their Opposition.

Nearly two years ago, the biggest humanitarian challenge in South Sudan was the returning refugees who had spent many years in Sudan and were returning to their former homeland in the south without jobs to go to or the means of ensuring a livelihood in the future. Additionally, the current conflict means that there are up to 400,000 displaced South Sudanese nationals, with some 50,000 having fled into neighbouring states. The UN estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 people a day are fleeing South Sudan into neighbouring Uganda. The violence is having a tragic and serious impact on the region.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Is my hon. Friend aware of this morning’s news reports that more than 200 people appear to have perished in a ferry accident while fleeing the fighting? Does that not show the absolute desperation of the terrible situation that the South Sudanese face?

[Mr Bain]

My hon. Friend is right to draw the House’s attention to the growing disaster. The UN’s best estimate is that 10,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict in the past month alone. As we know, the impact of conflict is always felt most profoundly by the most vulnerable. Women and children in South Sudan are bearing a particularly harsh burden in a conflict that is not of their making. The UN has also said that health facilities in many states of South Sudan are already beginning to creak at the margins. There are shortages of blood and transfusion supplies. There is one hospital at which 192 patients are awaiting surgery pending blood becoming available. That is the scale of the crisis that the violence is beginning to produce among the weakest in South Sudanese society.

Global Food Security

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Clark. It has been a pleasure to hear all the contributions from hon. Members. This debate has been postponed several times, which is no reflection on its importance. It was postponed once to accommodate the commemorations of the life of President Mandela. However, it is right that we now have the chance to discuss the report, which deals with the vital issue of food security. As others have said, the issue has impact both here at home and abroad. I am often struck by how many policy issues that we think affect people far away are, at heart, the self-same ones of public policy that we grapple with week in, week out in the House of Commons.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates that about 842 million people, or one in eight of the global population, suffer from chronic hunger. Although the global trend of hunger is, thankfully, downwards, all too frequently there is a lack of resilience in food supply, which can put millions of people at risk of tipping into hunger as a result of external influences, whether due to a spike in food prices, as the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) mentioned, to climate change or to conflict. It is worth noting that 1.3 million people in the Central African Republic, for example, are now at risk of hunger—that is a huge number; 40% of the country’s population—as a result of the ongoing internal conflict there.

As this debate has shown, food security is a desperately important issue. As we have heard, it is connected to infrastructure problems and to people’s income and position in society. I was pleased to hear the hon. Member for Stafford correctly judging Malthus as wrong. Malthus made a mistake; he forgot—or did not know or work out—that we would use technology to meet the challenge presented by the world’s finite resources as the population grows. That is what we have done down the years: it was true at the time of the industrial revolution, which changed where people lived and how food was produced, and is true today for Africa and other countries around the world. It is sometimes frustrating to hear people repeat as common-or-garden knowledge the idea that there is only so much space on the planet, so there can only be so many people, and that the problem is countries with growing populations. Those people make the self-same mistake as good old Reverend Malthus did all those years ago. We ought not to forget that our responsibility is to support the development of infrastructure and technology, rather than spreading doom and gloom about the inevitability of food insecurity.

The Committee’s report is welcome and wide-ranging. It demonstrates not only the urgency of tackling food security issues but the breadth of policy areas, both international and domestic—from transport policy to food waste, from social protection to co-operatives and climate change—that have an impact on ensuring that food resources are used sensibly and sustainably and are distributed globally in an equitable fashion. We heard something of the breadth of the report from the Chair of the Select Committee earlier.

The report rightly emphasises the impact of the two major recent food price spikes, in 2008 and 2011. The 2008 spike in particular caused a stagnation in the fight against global hunger and significantly set back efforts to meet the millennium development goals. The spikes demonstrate clearly the increasing volatility of food prices in an era of lower food stocks and a tighter balance between supply and demand. I encourage the Minister to speak with her colleagues in the Treasury if possible to investigate the impact that commodities trading has had on food prices. It is another symptom of the fight about financial services regulation—a fight that must continue—that the ever more complex products being bought and sold cause prices to become disconnected from fundamentals.

The Committee is also right to take a strong position on the impact of biofuels on food prices and supply, by concluding that the increasing use of agriculturally produced biofuels is driving up food prices and increasing their volatility. By using land that could be feeding the world’s poorest, the growth of those fuels makes the fight against global hunger far harder. Further, the report rightly notes that their use is potentially even more environmentally damaging than the use of fossil fuels—a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz). The report makes a strong case for a revision to the renewable transport fuel obligation’s equivalent target for biofuels in transport fuel volumes, to disincentivise the use of agriculturally produced biofuels. The Government’s response to that recommendation is disappointingly non-committal and appears to play down the impact of biofuels on food prices. When winding up, will the Minister commit the Government to revising the RTFO, or at least set out a timeline for doing so?

Further, the report urges Ministers to push for the EU to revise the renewable energy directive, or RED, to cap use of food-based biofuels and stop those fuels counting towards the RED target. There was a difference of opinion between the Commission and the recently ended Lithuanian presidency over whether the cap should be set at 5% or 7%. What discussions have Ministers had with EU counterparts recently on revising the RED and where do the Government stand on the level of the cap?

It is disappointing that the Government reject, out of hand, the Committee’s recommendations for statutory targets and sanctions for the reduction of food waste, which although declining still stands at over 20% at a household level in the UK. Is there a point at which the Government would consider waste to be unacceptably high and, as a result, reconsider their position? Food waste reduction is an important challenge that does not always receive the attention that it deserves. We could all shine a light on that issue.

It is encouraging that the report calls for greater support for farmer organisations and co-operatives in developing nations, to help strengthen small farmers’ bargaining positions with large corporations. In particular, it calls for support to assist women and marginalised farmers. Although Ministers have not rejected those proposals, their response, particularly on co-operatives, feels lukewarm at best and makes no proposal to expand support for such organisations. Worryingly, the response fails to mention the positive impact of co-operatives for women and marginalised farmers. Will the Minister give some practical examples of how DFID is supporting farmer co-operatives and set out how the Department intends to expand that work? Again, the way that co-operatives can help to support food production and equitable distribution of its rewards is a lesson that we have learnt in this country.

Both the hon. Member for Stafford and my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith mentioned the importance of Fairtrade, with Fairtrade fortnight coming up. My hon. Friend made a specific recommendation about payment in instalments. Will the Minister comment on that?

As the hon. Member for Stafford mentioned, the Committee’s modest recommendation that the Government undertake further research into how small-scale, judicious use of food stocks could act as a buffer to some of the worst impacts of food price volatility seems to have met somewhat of a brick wall in the Government’s response. The idea that we should go back to the common agricultural policy is a bit of a straw-man argument. There is potential value in smaller-scale food stocks for poorer nations. Perhaps Ministers should have a think about their approach to that issue.

The report rightly argues that social protection schemes have a vital role in protecting the food security of the poorest, but Ministers’ ambitions seem to be a bit limited. Fundamentally, two things stop people starving: money in their pockets and food in the shops that they can afford to buy. We have systems of social protection in place in this country, and countries as diverse as Liberia and Brazil and south American countries have been investigating building up such systems. Social protections inevitably mean that food price spikes are less catastrophic for the poorest. The report notes that DFID plans to support social protection schemes in only 14 of the 29 countries where it has bilateral programmes. The Government response to the report states:

“It is important that DFID does not move ahead of local political and practical reality in seeking to support social protection programmes.”

That does not feel like an ambitious commitment. Will the Minister set out whether she sees DFID as having an activist role as an advocate for and supporter of social protection schemes, whether they are governmental or community-based?

This report once again reminds us that development issues do not exist in a vacuum. Our domestic policies on a wide range of areas can feed into food insecurity issues overseas. It works the other way round, too: food price spikes, speculation and insecurity of supply impact on our constituents as well, as they struggle with the cost of living crisis. The Select Committee has made some very worthwhile suggestions on how the British Government could step up their efforts across the board to tackle food insecurity. Unfortunately, in certain cases, the Government’s response seems lukewarm. However, I hope that through today’s debate and the Committee’s good efforts in its report, we can bring a greater focus on the important issue of food security.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison McGovern]

I have a brief question on incomes. The Minister did not mention anything about systems of social protection. Would she like to do so?

[Lynne Featherstone]

I am coming to that. I have a whole list of points to get through. My right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce) asked why it was that only 14 countries are in the programmes when there are 29 DFID countries. I hope to get to that.

The Government believe that functioning markets are a better way to manage food stocks than Government interventions. The hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) made a number of points that went above and beyond the recommendations made in the report. One idea he mentioned was the World Food Programme holding universal stocks to improve availability. He also mentioned involving neighbouring countries and so on. As he said, those ideas go beyond the report’s recommendations. The evidence we have is that universal stocks are not the most effective use of money.

I will not return to the cap as an example, because it is clear that Members did not favour that view, but Malawi, for example, has recently had food shortages. They hold stocks, but when push came to shove and they looked at their grain stock reserve, it was not as high as they thought. Much of it had disappeared. There are a number of issues outside of simply whether stocks are held for emergencies. We do not have the evidence to say that that proposal is an effective use of money, but my experience is that a whole range of unintended consequences come from stockholding.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lynne Featherstone]

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will not, because I want to give a couple of minutes to the Select Committee Chair at the end and I have a huge number of points to get through.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon asked about the scaling up of safety nets, as did the hon. Member for Wirral South. DFID is more than doubling the number of countries where it supports social protection programmes. We had seven countries in 2009 and we will reach 15 in 2014. It may be that that support is the answer everywhere, but with the best will in the world we cannot scale it up on our own without the mother countries agreeing with us, and not just in policy terms. Even with 0.7% of GDP spent on aid, we do not have infinite funds to do everything in every country without research and without working with mother country Governments.

We will continue to support such programmes. We think that they are excellent and are demonstrating great benefits. We use evidence of that, where appropriate, in conversation with Governments that are new to the idea of social protection. I have been to some countries that do not want these protection programmes introduced. We disagree with that, but we are not a colonial institution that says, “You must have this.” We try to demonstrate the evidence of how successful and useful the programmes are and how they work in those countries.

[Alison McGovern]

Will the Minister give way?

[Lynne Featherstone]

No, because I will not get through any of these points if I do.

On the Government’s support for the Fairtrade Foundation, we absolutely recognise the important work that it does to promote smallholder access to global markets. We welcome the attention it has brought to finance for small-scale farmers. The UK provides core funding to the foundation and we look forward to working with them and discussing the Committee’s recommendations.

On meat, the key to a healthy diet is getting the balance right. That means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions. Red meat can form part of a healthy diet and is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals, such as zinc and B vitamins. It is also one of the main sources of vitamin B12.

However, not all meat is good. Some meats are high in fat, especially saturated fat. I think it was the right hon. Member for Gordon who mentioned UK farmers. Encouraging people in the UK to eat less and to eat more healthily would not impact on UK farmers. UK commodity prices follow those in the wider international market, so trade flows would adjust. That, at least, is the evidence we have. The fortunes of UK producers are more dependent on their competitiveness within the wider market.

I am glad that the work that DFID does on land and property rights has been recognised. We have signed a new agreement with Ethiopia to go the same way as we have with Rwanda. We are scaling up our land programmes in at least six other countries and we intend to continue our partnerships.

I make a grateful nod in the direction of the Chair of the Select Committee for his recognition of our work on beekeeping. The “World at One” bumped me on Christmas eve, when I was going to expand on our international work on beekeeping. The weather in Britain took precedence.

I am sorry that I have not spoken to all the points, but, to conclude, my Department is working with international partners to prepare for the next series of international development goals after the millennium development goals. The IDC report helps my Department to remain challenged, focused and a world leader in international development policy and practice. I thank the International Development Committee for its continued engagement with the work of DFID and its insightful and useful observations and recommendations, and I thank all Members here today.

HIV and AIDS

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Westminster Hall

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr Dobbin. I join other hon. Members in paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash)—not just for securing this debate, but for the excellent work that she has done as chair of the all-party HIV and AIDS group, one of the most active and effective groups in this place. She should be proud of that work, and her constituents should be proud of her.

I also pay tribute to all the other hon. Members who have spoken for their balanced and careful reflections. I know that the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) has had to head off to the International Development Committee, where he will no doubt do his good work in the effective way that I have witnessed at first hand. I will just note that he mentioned health systems, quite rightly. Those are a very important issue and I caveat whatever I say with my hope that the Minister will listen to her hon. Friend in that regard.

My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) and the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Foyle (Mark Durkan) also raised serious and important points. Each of them reflected on different aspects of the issue, whether it was the shift in focus from both low and middle-income countries or the range of drugs available now and the importance of taking the widest possible look at that. They all reflected a sense of progress, but also the driving sense that there is still much more to do. I am sure the Minister would agree.

Given the scale of the global crisis that HIV/AIDS represents, it is vital that we continually examine the effectiveness of the action being taken, at home and abroad, both to ensure that there is treatment for those who need it and to slow and halt the spread of the disease. However, as other hon. Members have mentioned, today’s debate feels especially timely, for two reasons. First, and I suspect that my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts had this in mind when she applied for the debate, last week we marked world AIDS day, when we remember the 35 million people who have died from HIV/AIDS since the start of the epidemic; when we stand with those who live with the disease; and when we re-pledge our determination to end this scourge.

Secondly, today is the day when the world is coming together to remember the life of Nelson Mandela, so this debate seems particularly appropriate. Nelson Mandela had a particularly interesting interpretation of the word “retirement”. During his retirement, he campaigned tirelessly to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS, which he saw destroying lives and communities in his own country. On world AIDS day in 2000, he described it in this way:

“Our country is facing a disaster of immeasurable proportions from HIV/AIDS. We are facing a silent and invisible enemy that is threatening the very fabric of our society.”

Mandela fought against the prevailing attitudes and the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, which resisted calls to fund antiretroviral drugs or to educate people on the need for safer sexual practices. He saw that HIV/AIDS was not only shortening lives and destroying families; the economic impact was also consigning many more people to poverty than would otherwise have been the case. The hollowing out of a generation placed a brake on economic development that could have reached across the country in the post-apartheid years.

South Africa continues to be haunted by AIDS, but thanks to Mandela and others who fought alongside him, things are slowly—albeit too slowly—starting to get better. Strikingly, earlier this year, Dr Olive Shisana, head of the South African Human Sciences Research Council, said that for the first time

“the glass is half full”.

There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of people in South Africa receiving antiretroviral treatment, up to 2 million in 2012, and for the first time there has been a decline in the prevalence of HIV among 15 to 24-year-olds. That story—that there is progress, but still a long way to go—is also the story of HIV/AIDS across the world. Bill Clinton adopted the Churchillian phrase

“we are at the end of the beginning”

to describe the current situation.

There is good news. In most regions, the number of people newly infected with HIV is falling. Globally, it was down 33% in the period from 2001 to 2012. The millennium development goal of halting and reversing the growth of HIV has been achieved and in just one year, between 2011 and 2012, the numbers accessing treatment grew by 1.6 million, as has been mentioned. It is right to pay tribute to the communities, NGOs and politicians who have fought so hard to achieve that historic turnaround.

However, those glimmers of hope must not blind us to the continued severity of the situation and the requirement to do far more. Every year, 2.3 million people are newly infected with HIV, and of those, more than 1.6 million are in sub-Saharan Africa. Seven million people still lack access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV. Marginalised groups continue to be particularly prone to infection and to have lower levels of access to treatment. That includes women and girls. The reversal of the growth in new infections could be fragile. In particular, many nations in south-east and south Asia are seeing increases in the numbers of new infections.

Britain has a strong history of leading the fight against HIV/AIDS. Under the last Labour Government, we became the second largest bilateral donor in the fight against the disease and introduced long-term funding to strengthen health systems and services. I am pleased that, broadly, that legacy has been continued under the current Government and I welcome the additional £5 million of funding each year for UNAIDS—the joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS—that the Minister announced in the run-up to world AIDS day. However, I would like to conclude by asking the hon. Lady a few questions that I hope she can address in her winding-up speech.

Millennium development goal 6 has been an important spur in pushing for progress on HIV/AIDS and in that respect has been perhaps one of the more successful goals. What replaces the MDGs post-2015 could be vital in solidifying progress. Will the Minister update us on the Government’s view as to what form the next goal on HIV/AIDS should take?

The countries in which progress towards reducing HIV infections is weakest, or in which there is a deterioration, include nations for which DFID decided in its bilateral aid review to end programmes. They include India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Russia. Without reopening those questions or getting into the rights and wrongs of those decisions, will the Minister set out what work is ongoing to help middle-income countries and others in which the bilateral programme is ending to tackle HIV/AIDS, such as expert support from Britain?

Importantly, we know that one of the most effective safeguards against all forms of disease, in terms of both prevention and cure, is universal healthcare, free at the point of use. That is particularly true in the case of HIV/AIDS: community health advice and support can be an excellent means of preventing new infections. Will the Minister set out for the record DFID’s position on providing bilateral support for health care systems in which user charges are levied and what specific work is being done to ensure that HIV treatments are available free of charge in the nations with which DFID has a bilateral relationship?

As a number of hon. Members have noted, the Government’s review of their position paper on HIV/AIDS is limited, missing a number of key issues, including access to medicines. Can the Minister assure us that such issues will be dealt with as part of the review and, given that the consultation on the review ended nearly five months ago, tell us when she expects the outcome of the consultation to be published?

On global health fund replenishment, the UK pledged £1 billion, but in fact replenishment required $15 billion and it reached only $12 billion in the talks last week. What discussions are DFID Ministers having with other Governments to ensure that the global health fund reaches its $15 billion target?

Having set out those questions for the Minister, I will conclude by thanking most sincerely all hon. Members who have taken part in this important debate, which has shown once again, if it were in any doubt, this House’s commitment to ending the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Last week, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations described the suffering of the Central African Republic’s population as “beyond imagination”. He said that the use of child soldiers and sexual violence was growing, and that the danger of a full-scale catastrophe was real. Has the Secretary of State met Ministers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence to plan conflict prevention, and will she look to use resources from the conflict pool’s early action facility to help head off a horrific civil war and the inevitable threat to human life?

[Justine Greening]

We share the hon. Lady’s concern about what is happening in the Central African Republic. We have worked with the Foreign Office to examine what further steps we can take, and, as I said earlier, we have increased by £10 million the level of humanitarian assistance that we can immediately provide to that region. We will continue to consider what more we can do over the coming weeks. I also discussed the matter in Washington yesterday with the United States Agency for International Development.

Tuberculosis

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dobbin. I was going to mention your experience, which I am well aware of. Perhaps you should have spoken in the debate, rather than being in the Chair.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin)on securing such an important debate. The unity that we have heard in the contributions is telling. We often spend our time disagreeing, but today we have not. That should be a message to everybody who cares about this incredibly important issue.

There have been seven excellent contributions to the debate, and I was struck by the amount of personal experience that we have heard. My hon. Friend talked about his experience as a college principal and the stigma of the disease in this country. The right hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) gave a brilliant contribution about his role in the all-party group. He was rightly frustrated about progress and the wildly different standards across the globe, although we are all equally vulnerable to this terrible disease.

My hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris) spoke from a mining perspective about his experience and that of his constituents. The hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) spoke personally and directly about her experience of the disease. My right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) brought his considerable health experience to the debate. The hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley) painted a serious and distressing picture of what the disease can mean in places in which people are weak and vulnerable, but also talked about what can be done practically. Finally, my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr Sharma) rightly spoke about the picture globally and in the UK, and about his experience in his constituency.

Tuberculosis has cast a long shadow over our country; I can recall my grandparents talking about life alongside people with TB. That shadow led to the bright sunlight of our NHS, which we are proud of. TB preys on the vulnerable, the poor and the weak. I will ask questions of the Minister, but it is worth remembering that, as the hon. Member for City of Chester pointed out, we are talking about putting in place systems to protect people.

TB is a horrible, debilitating disease. To add to the picture drawn by my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe, in our own country TB robbed us of John Keats at age 25 and George Orwell at age 46—think about what those two people might have contributed to our country had they not left us at a young age.

The tragedy of the 1 million deaths from TB each year is the fact that it is a curable disease. As other hon. Members have made clear, we face a growing problem of drug resistance, as well as basic issues about resources and infrastructure; those factors are holding back our ability to cut the persistently high mortality rate for the disease.

TB is not solely a problem in the poorest countries; as my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Southall pointed out, it is also a problem here in the UK. Although I am responding to this debate as a shadow International Development Minister, tackling TB demonstrates why we must never see development as some kind of offshore policy issue. Real action to tackle TB diagnosis, treatment, drug resistance and co-morbidities across the developing world will benefit the NHS and public health at home, as well as right across the globe.

I was pleased to serve on the International Development Committee in 2012, when we considered the contribution of the Department for International Development to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At the time, the Committee expressed real concerns about delays to DFID funding for that crucial organisation, which is estimated to have saved as many as 8.7 million lives. I am pleased that Ministers took the Committee’s concerns seriously and that next week the UK will be part of the global health fund replenishment. If we are to eliminate TB globally, the fund requires sustained, guaranteed funding. Will the Minister set out how Britain will make sure that there is more long-term stability for such funding?

Although the global health fund is a vital player and the UK’s contribution to it is extremely welcome, it remains the case that DFID does not currently engage in bilateral funding of programmes related to TB. That is despite the fact that, as has already been mentioned, the UN high-level panel on the post-millennium development goals framework, co-chaired by the Prime Minister himself, found that spending on TB diagnosis, prevention and treatment returns £30 of benefits for every pound spent; that surely satisfies the Government’s demands for value for money. Will the Minister tell us more about how DFID keeps under review its potential for funding TB-specific programmes through bilateral programmes?

Clearly, Britain’s strategy for improving prevention, diagnosis and cure of TB in the poorest countries has to go beyond specific funds—here I develop the point made by the hon. Member for City of Chester—in that it needs to be part of a holistic set of policies to build up functioning, universal health services, the lack of which holds back the fight against tuberculosis. Weak health care systems are thought to be a key reason for the estimated 3 million missed diagnoses of TB and increasing mortality rates from the disease. As I mentioned, our own experience of the disease before the days of the NHS should tell us that, if nothing else does.

In the UK we are right to be proud of the NHS, and we should not be shy about promoting through our development work the benefits of universal health care that is free at the point of use. Curbing a disease such as TB, which is widespread and hits some of the world’s poorest people disproportionately, is simply not going to happen if, when we attempt to do so through health systems, user fees are levied. Put starkly, 27 nations are considered to have a high burden of TB drug resistance. In each of those countries, the average cost of treatment exceeds the annual GDP per capita. If the poorest people cannot afford treatment, they will not receive it.

Britain has a good story to tell in this regard: in 2009, faced with concerns about TB diagnosis at home, the then Government took the decision to remove prescription charges for anyone attending a TB clinic. That should be what we advocate and support in every developing nation we work with that has a high TB incidence. Will the Minister put on the record DFID’s position on providing bilateral support for health care systems where user fees are currently charged? What specific work is being done to ensure that TB treatments are available free of charge in the nations with which DFID has a bilateral relationship? It is important to set out that principle.

Once again, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe for securing such an important debate and bringing his experience to it. I also thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have contributed today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We have delivered life-saving support to 2.1 million people in DRC. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If we look at the millennium development goal on child mortality, we see that one of the reasons it has not had more success is the continued fatal effect of diarrhoea. He is right to highlight that. It is one of the things we particularly work on in DRC, and it is why sanitation is so key.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will know that 46% of people in DRC are under the age of 14, and reports say that youth unemployment is nearly 90%. Will she say a little more about the long-term plans for DRC? What conversations has she had with colleagues in the international community about getting those children to school and giving those young people a future?

[Justine Greening]

I very much welcome that question. The hon. Lady is absolutely right to say that one of the key challenges in DRC is to blend together what we are doing from a humanitarian perspective with the country’s longer-term development needs. That is why we are keen to see a long-lasting peace settlement there. I can assure her that alongside the work on the humanitarian effort we are looking at what we can do with partners on the development effort, including in education.