International Development Outcomes for Women and Girls

Baroness Nargund Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Nargund (Lab)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Sugg, on securing this important debate and for ensuring that the well-being of vulnerable women and girls remains firmly on our agenda. In my role as a former vice-chair and trustee of the British Red Cross, I was closely involved in programmes supporting mothers and babies affected by conflict.

I begin with the story of Marie, shared in evidence to the International Development Committee on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marie, a mother of four and heavily pregnant, was displaced by conflict and separated from her husband. She was told she needed a caesarean section but could not afford the $70 fee at her local clinic. Unable even to feed her family, she walked for days to reach a hospital where the operation would be free, risking both childbirth and armed violence along the way. Marie’s story is not an isolated tragedy; it is what happens when maternal and reproductive healthcare is out of reach.

I recognise the difficult fiscal choices facing the Government. I welcome their commitment to return to spending 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance when fiscal conditions allow, and their ambition for 90% of bilateral aid programmes to advance gender equality by 2030. The Government deserve credit for holding to that under pressure, yet the need has never been greater. Between 2019 and 2022, women’s rights stagnated or declined in 40% of countries, affecting around 1 billion women and girls. In 2023, around 260,000 women died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth—almost all from preventable causes, with the overwhelming majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2024, 92% of verified victims of conflict-related sexual violence were women and girls.

For women like Marie, gender equality is not an abstract policy objective. She experiences it when the caesarean section is free and accessible, when a clinic holds supplies for haemorrhage and infection, and when a skilled midwife or a doctor is available when every minute matters. It is hard to listen to these stories. We all know that—we have heard it from our colleagues. I would therefore be grateful if my noble friend the Minister would consider publishing a disaggregated annual report on sexual and reproductive health outcomes within the UK official development assistance, so that reproductive health for women and girls in conflict zones is treated as the emergency it is.