Afghanistan

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Wednesday 28th July 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[The Earl of Sandwich]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to use the aid budget for Ministry of Defence purposes in Afghanistan.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, all UK aid spending is official development assistance as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This means that its main objective is to promote welfare and economic development. The Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence work closely together to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan, including through the Helmand provincial reconstruction team.

[The Earl of Sandwich]

My Lords, I understand that there is a need for security and stability in provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar, but is not the department responsible to the taxpayer for what it does, and has not the pendulum swung a little too far towards the Ministry of Defence in those provinces? In a country with such high infant and maternal mortality, surely the department’s priorities must be poverty reduction and the millennium development goals. That is why the aid budget was ring-fenced in the first place by all political parties. Why is it now being militarised?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, it is not. Afghanistan is the second-lowest country on the Human Development Index, and, as noble Lords know, everything that DfID does focuses on the elimination of poverty. That remains our core objective. Progress is being made, but this is a trilateral effort between the MoD, the FCO and DfID. I know that the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, has much expertise in this region, and I share with him the desire to see the elimination of poverty. However, we also need the country’s capacity to be built in order to do that.