Official Development Assistance

Baroness D'Souza Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that. While this undoubtedly will be a difficult process and choices will need to be made, there is also an opportunity here to rethink how we approach international development and how we work more in partnership with other nations. We need to get away from some of the paternalism and the ways that may have been cutting edge in the 1990s; we need to have a fresh look now, and there is an opportunity to do that. She is also right to point to the successes and gains that have been made through the work that the United Kingdom has done over the years. We need to have a fresh conversation with the British public about why we do international development—what the point of it is and what the benefits are to the United Kingdom —and that is something that we have not put sufficient focus on in the recent past.

[Baroness D'Souza (CB)]

My Lords, I wonder whether I could press the Minister on what criteria are being employed to reduce development assistance. Which projects will be targeted? Can I also ask her whether existing commitments, especially to those smaller NGOs, will be honoured? Otherwise, so many of these smaller NGOs will simply cease working and may not be revived.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

That is an important point. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary were very clear with me that they wish to avoid cliff edges, which is why we will maintain the 0.5% that we currently have for the next financial year. We need to work closely with our partner countries and organisations and make sure that this is done in a responsible way that avoids some of the dramatic changes that have such a devastating impact, which we know can happen in these circumstances.