Building Stability Overseas Strategy

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Excerpts

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord McConnell for tabling this excellent debate, for his powerful speech and for enabling all noble Lords in the Chamber to express their views, support the strategy and, of course, to question the Government on a number of issues, including the overlooked matter of data collection, which I found fascinating. I also extend a very warm welcome to the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, to the Dispatch Box. I look forward to many discussions with him over the Dispatch Box and outside the Chamber.

Violent conflict impedes and undermines development. As my noble friend said, it is no coincidence that no fragile and conflicted state has achieved a single MDG to date. The costs to the countries involved and to the international community are enormous. Lives are lost and livelihoods destroyed, infrastructure collapses and social and economic development is undermined. We have heard the statistics. There are 1.5 billion people living in countries affected by organised violence, either currently or recovering from political violence, fragility or high levels of homicide. People living in countries currently affected by violence are twice as likely to be undernourished, as the noble Baroness said, and 50% more likely to be impoverished. According to the World Bank, eight out of 10 of the most aid-dependent countries in 2008 were affected by conflict or fragility.

The costs of conflict are higher than the resources we invest in development. Conflicts divert valuable resources from development and countries in conflict, or in fear of conflict, spend more on their armies and defence mechanisms than on health, education or jobs creation. Stability is crucial to conflict prevention. Ninety per cent of civil wars in the 21st century occurred in countries that had already had a civil war in the previous 30 years. From this evening’s debate, it is clear that we all agree that investment in development now is crucial to prevent violent conflicts in future. The Building Stability Overseas Strategy, with its focus on early warning, rapid crisis prevention and response and investment in upstream prevention, is a welcome initiative. The aim of preventing instability and conflict by tackling the underlying drivers of instability is one we share. Indeed Labour, in government, set up the Stabilisation Unit. Co-ordination is key and we welcome efforts to bring coherence across the MoD, FCO and DfID and to integrate the work that they do.

I should like to highlight the importance of diplomatic engagement. The strategy discusses a number of ways in which to tackle instability and prevent conflict. Supporting local economies and growth, including through foreign direct investment, is of course crucial, and the Foreign Office is rightly placing great emphasis on this, but sometimes I feel that the balance has swung too far away from diplomacy. In addition, as the strategy says:

“The chances of success are greatest when the international community gets behind a political settlement that lays the foundations for tackling the causes of conflict in a country”.

In this, the United Nations has a key role to play and we must continue to engage with it as a vital actor.

I would also mention the importance of co-ordination and collaboration. As my noble friend Lady Kinnock noted in a past debate, the OECD previously reported that there is generally a lack of co-ordination, or even contact, between those working on stabilisation. I am pleased that in a recent statement on the strategy, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs highlighted the need to work with others. Indeed, we must ensure that we engage meaningfully with our partners. This includes, as so many noble Lords have said, NGOs, think tanks and private actors, who have considerable local knowledge and expertise in this area and on whose experience we draw. It also includes our regional and international partners, such as the EU. The EU is a vital player in this field, providing more than half the world’s development aid and I welcome the emphasis in the strategy on the need to engage with the EU and build on the work that it does. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, referred us to the example of Mali and I, too, pay tribute to the work of my noble friend Lady Ashton in this area.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly in my view, we must give greater importance to the plight of women in conflict situations and to the role that women play in peacemaking and peacebuilding. We have all heard the words of Major-General Patrick Cammaert, former commander of UN peacekeeping forces in the eastern Congo, who said that,

“it is now more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in modern wars”.

Women bear the brunt of modern conflict. UN Women estimates that 90% of current war casualties are civilians, the majority of whom are women and children. Rape and sexual violence are still used as a systematic weapon of war—for example, in Syria—and war crimes remain, for the most part, unprosecuted. Human Rights Watch reports that Syrian Government forces and militias are sexually abusing girls as young as 12. Post conflict, women still suffer the most. The situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is a case in point. I have spoken with courageous women Afghan MPs about this and it was recently highlighted in a report by the International Development Select Committee on Afghanistan, which stated that Afghan women’s status is among the worst in the world, with 87% of women experiencing some form of domestic abuse during their lifetime, and that women who participate in public life do so at significant risk to their safety. It urged DfID to do more to improve the lives of Afghan women. Women have fears of violent reprisal from the Taliban. I am sure that we would all send our best wishes to the extraordinary young Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who is now in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, having been brutally attacked by the Taliban for being a feisty, courageous young woman who was prepared to express her views.

While in Afghanistan some of the legal protections are there in the form of a constitution that guarantees equality and a law on the elimination of violence against women, the reality is one of gross discrimination, domestic violence and illegal, forced marriages for which the perpetrators are rarely prosecuted. Women regularly go to prison for having sex outside marriage, running away or other “moral crimes”. What more can the Government do to support these women who are fighting this awful fight? We must tackle the abhorrent levels of violence still experienced by women in conflict situations and the devastation that conflicts create. We must also ensure that women have a greater role to play in peacebuilding and recovery. They are often the peacebuilders and could do so much more. But women’s participation in conflict resolution processes remains far too low. Women should and must be part of the decision-making processes and they must be at the centre of our development work.

In 2000, the UN Security Council passed the landmark resolution 1325 on women and peace and security to call on the United Nations and member states to increase the participation of women in decision-making and peace processes, to ensure the protection of women and girls, and to institute gender perspectives and training in peacekeeping. The UK has developed a national action plan to implement it and I am pleased that the Government intend for it to be reviewed annually and for progress to be reported to Parliament. I should be grateful for an assurance from the Minister that we will continue to work towards the implementation of UNSCR 1325 across the world and ensure that women play a much greater role in peacebuilding strategies. We cannot afford the costs of violent conflict. It is crucial that we focus efforts now on building peace and stability for the future.