Global Malnutrition: FCDO Role

Alyn Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 8th December 2020 Westminster Hall

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies, and a great pleasure to warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (David Linden) for bringing forward this debate on a crucial issue at a crucial time. It is also a pleasure to follow so many constructive, sensible, warm-hearted and powerful contributions from across the House. There is a great deal of unity on this issue.

Malnutrition is a devastating condition in its own right, but it is also an aggravating factor in disease risk and a threat multiplier occurring with other conditions. By way of context, according to The Lancet, an additional 433 children each day are going to die as a result of the interaction between covid and malnutrition. This is a global pandemic that is affecting everybody, but it is affecting the poorest hardest. Public health has come to the fore like never before and global interconnectedness has never been clearer, so for the UK to be walking away from its commitment at this time is, to our mind, a matter of great regret. It is stark how, in the “2020 Global Nutrition Report in the context of Covid-19”, David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation special envoy on covid-19 has talked sharply of the real risk that

“as nations strive to control the virus, the gains they have made in reducing hunger and malnutrition will be lost.”

This is a timely debate and I am glad there is so much cross-party unity. As my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East alluded to, the UK has a good story to tell on this. The UK has not been idle. Our concern is on the future direction of the UK’s policy and the people who are in charge of setting and influencing it.

The SNP conference at the weekend committed the SNP, in an independent state, to the 0.7% GNI commitment on overseas aid. That will be the cornerstone of our development policy; we believe it is a mark of global decency. Even with the powers that we have under the devolved settlement, the Scottish Government have pledged £2 million to UNICEF efforts in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda.

DFID, as was, is based in East Kilbride. Scotland has a keen interest and support for international development and related issues. That is why we so much regret the decision by the UK Government to walk away from the 0.7% commitment. We appreciate there are budgetary pressures—there always are—but to blame the pandemic, which is affecting everybody worldwide and the poorest hardest, as a reason to walk away from that commitment is, to our mind, a matter of great regret. We hope that we will see a change of course. At least let us prioritise malnutrition within the existing spend. The UK remains, of course, a considerable overseas development player. We celebrate that but we are concerned about where it is going in future.

I will not rehearse points that have already been made, but will perhaps distil some of the very constructive suggestions we have heard. We believe that the UK must commit to a multi-annual financial pledge to malnutrition. The UK’s existing commitments expire in a matter of weeks. We hope and expect they will be continued, but we would like to see that multi-annual financial pledge. We would like to see commitment of a minimum of £120 million a year to malnutrition projects, and we would like to see malnutrition accelerated within existing spend in other areas.

We would also like the UK to back enthusiastically the postponed Tokyo 2021 Nutrition for Growth summit. We believe that global action is necessary and the UK can play a part within that. We would also like to see the UK implement calls made in The BMJ by 180 experts for integrated international guidelines on the human right to healthy, nutritious diets. Guidelines can help inform development policy, and the more coherent they are globally, the stronger that effort will be.

We are concerned about the future direction of travel of the UK Government, but it is not too late to change course. I look forward to the Minister’s comments. If we are prioritising spend to help the poorest and malnourished in our global society, she can rest assured of the SNP’s support.