Overseas Development

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Wednesday 1st November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

If we had worked unilaterally, we would not have achieved the advances that we did yesterday. I should make clear what those advances were. By working together we managed to increase the coefficient for peacekeeping forces from 7% to 15%. The noble Lord asked about the difference between the position that pertained earlier in the year and now. The difference is that category five hurricanes have hit the Caribbean and caused extensive, catastrophic loss to some small island communities that lack the capacity to rebuild. We consider it important that the rules must be fit for purpose, and that they were lacking in that regard. That is the reason why the Secretary of State secured an important advance so that when an island falls back under the threshold for overseas development assistance as a result of a catastrophic loss, they can be readmitted to the list. That is a major advance. Small countries and small islands welcome it and I hope the noble Lord will too.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, as the Minister has already said, the government press release yesterday said that DAC has agreed to work to create a new mechanism to readmit countries previously eligible for ODA back on to the list of ODA-eligible countries if their income per capita falls low enough. I know that the Secretary of State is touting this as a great victory but does the Minister really believe that the income per capita of people in the British Virgin Islands, which is currently greater than in the UK, will drop to a level which will allow it to qualify for ODA any time soon? After all, the hurricanes destroyed shoddily built houses that poor people lived in, not the digitally insulated, prosperous world that those who live in the tax haven enjoy.

[Lord Bates]

It may not be the case in the BVI, but it certainly may well be in countries such as Anguilla which have only recently graduated from the list of least developed countries. We are talking about losses that would be equivalent to the entire GDP of the country, so it is important that we offer assistance to them. After all, the primary purpose of aid is to help people in need—people in poverty—and for the purpose of economic development. In my view, and in the view of the Secretary of State and the DAC earlier this week, all those criteria apply in this case.