Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick
Main Page: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)Official Development Assistance: Bilateral Allocations
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
I very much welcome the question from the noble Lord. He will be aware that we had a Global Partnerships Conference just a few weeks ago addressing specifically that problem. I think it is understood now, if it was not before, that with all the aid spending that there has ever been, we would still be falling far short of our ambitions and the ambitions of our partner countries to achieve the sustainable development goals. We do have to work better together, and we do have to leverage, as the noble Lord said, and we do have to grow economies and enable partners to lead their own development, because that is not just the right thing to do in terms of making the money go further, but it is the right way to be a good partner for the long term too.
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her answers so far and confirm that I am pleased that the Government will introduce individual country allocations for ODA assistance. One of the main challenges for that assistance will be Ebola, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Will the Minister ensure that local actors, especially churches, faith leaders and faith actors who are best placed to respond, are adequately empowered through funding and decision-making as part of that response to help those who are deeply afflicted at the moment?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
I think that is a shrewd observation. I recently returned from DRC, and I understand completely the point my noble friend makes. There is very little trust among the community in that part of the world. Particularly, they do not trust military actors, and some of the usual mechanisms you might use to intervene in that kind of context are not advisable in this one. Faith leaders and other community leaders are central to being able to make any progress against this dreadful disease.