Overseas Development Assistance: Budgets and Awards

Baroness Warsi Excerpts

Thursday 22nd April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

I assure the noble Baroness that a lot of thought has gone into the reductions we have had to make.

[Baroness Warsi (Con) [V]]

[Inaudible.]—the specific application of funding for a Covid response by sitting this as part of the now much-reduced health allocation. Is it, in effect, a double hit against basic health and survival nutrition programmes? Can my noble friend explain why the Covid response does not sit outside this allocation, as an exceptional response to a particular and exceptional humanitarian issue?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure that my noble friend will recognise that all countries, not just the United Kingdom but globally, have readjusted their own spend in-country to respond to Covid. It is a pandemic like no other that has gripped the modern world. It is therefore right that, when we look at our health outcomes and indeed our health spending, the Covid challenge cannot be ignored and is part and parcel of the integrated perspective in tackling health issues around the world.