Official Development Assistance: Bilateral Allocations

Lord Grayling Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I hear the noble Baroness’s suggestion and I disagree with it.

[Lord Grayling (Con)]

My Lords, on biodiversity aid—and I declare an interest as a trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation—both the United States and France are establishing new-type foundations, which are partnerships between public money and private donations, to increase the amounts of money going into biodiversity-support projects because of the pressures on aid generally. Will the United Kingdom Government consider engaging with those who are doing this in the US and France with a view to doing the same thing here?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We have been doing this for quite a long time. I do not know specifically the programmes that the noble Lord is talking about, or the funds that he is talking about, but his suggestion is very much in line with the approach that we are taking, whether that is on water and sanitation, humanitarian interventions, infrastructure support or governance improvements. This is the right approach. It is about leveraging support and enabling new participants who really want to work to have a social impact, and to be able to do so alongside Governments so that we really work together and get the absolute maximum benefit out of every penny that is invested for our partner countries.