Building Stability Overseas Strategy

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, has become one of our eloquent and passionate defenders of overseas aid. I pay tribute to him and thank him for putting down this debate. The BSOS, the Government’s new cross-cutting stability strategy, is quite difficult to follow at first sight and, as such, it may be a great success. I showed it to a friend who said, “Well, that would be quite enough to confuse the enemy. How could anyone fight against that?”. Designed by three departments, it is inevitably—as I think the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, implied—a hotchpotch of policies largely for the benefit of those involved and not for ordinary mortals.

However, on closer inspection, the strategy became more familiar. I recognised ingredients from previous Administrations, such as the Global Opportunities Fund in new clothing, the early warning systems and the Conflict Pool, which I am glad to say now is amplified by DfID’s increased budget, of which I too am a supporter. I realised that these great concepts are of course no more than vehicles for projects to advance our intelligence, security, diplomacy and development. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, that they must be properly and regularly reviewed. We need to be reassured that this experiment in joined-up aid and security is working effectively. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, that the same could be said of Libya, of which we have never really had a proper account.

The crisis in Mali is a possible test case and here the EU, led by our noble friend Lady Ashton, has already taken a lead. Last week, the EU Council statement ranked the same four elements of policy in reverse order, with development placed first. How refreshing it is that the EU should see things that way. Perhaps it is because they are answerable only to their member states and do not have to report to whole electorates who are complaining about recession and budget cuts.

As a UK citizen you can be quite depressed at the challenges presented in Mali. Here is a top-drawer al-Qaeda security problem in the middle of nowhere, with very little strategic or diplomatic advantage for this country, coming on top of generations of poverty and neglect. But I am glad to see that we are taking Mali and the whole Sahel seriously because, while it is not on the scale of Syria or Sudan—God forbid—it already is an urgent problem for all of us.

I admire the Tuareg people and have spent time in centres like Gao and Timbuktu, and in small towns in Chad and Niger. I deplore that they are now in the grip of fanatics trading in narcotics who do not hesitate to use violence, intimidation and hand and foot amputation even against the young and vulnerable. Last week I attended a meeting on Mali with people very concerned about this and I was amazed at how much interest there is, which perhaps arises from NGOs drawn to the desert by the terrible Sahel famine 40 years ago. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Patten, about the way in which NGOs have become very competent in bringing aid to local communities.

It seems strange that when I first joined Christian Aid in 1974, a trans-Saharan food convoy of Land Rovers was setting off from Salisbury Cathedral. The idea that the poorest communities already knew how to organise and feed themselves, given the right conditions, was still foreign in those days. This year, the Anti-Slavery International award went to Ibrahim ag Idbaltanat, a determined human rights campaigner of slave descent, who has dedicated his life to ending slavery in Mali.

Alongside our support for security in west Africa, we need to identify more people like Ibrahim who can change people’s lives from within. We need to train health workers, agriculturalists, craftsmen, artists, intellectuals and experts who know how to respond to the demands of drought and climate change in the dry lands. These people are the means to a democratic Mali. They far outnumber the deranged Gaddafi elements and it will not require armies of intelligence officers to find them. I hope the Minister can confirm that since the BSOS was originally a response to the Arab spring, this is an offshoot of that Arab spring. I hope that we are using it to good effect in Mali to back up what the African Union and ECOWAS are already planning—not in terms of military force in our case but to gain the trust of the best elements of democratic government and civil society in Mali.

In a Written Statement on 17 July, the Foreign Secretary, whom the noble Lord, Lord Patten, already mentioned, said:

“We recognise that Government do not have all the answers”—

this is a refreshing statement—

“and therefore we are seeking deliberately wider views beyond Whitehall to provide challenge and to ensure we access, reflect on and assimilate latest thinking”.

He goes on to talk about the positive reaction,

“from NGOs and academics specialising in conflict”.—[Official Report, Commons, 17/7/12; col. 128WS.]

There is always a risk with tripartite programmes of this kind that they are not thematic—they turn in too many directions and ultimately are owned by no one. But I read from the Statement that the Government are leaning positively towards civil society in particular, which I welcome in the knowledge that in conflict-affected states civil society may be, if not the only, the most effective and accountable show in town.

Perhaps I may remind the Minister that Mali has a strong artistic and musical tradition, with a famous national ballet and many singers with an international reputation. January is the time of year when musicians used to travel up the Niger river after the rains to perform in towns in the north. Are this Government doing enough to encourage the arts in Mali, Egypt, South Sudan and other countries as a weapon against conflict and a means of uniting society?

I conclude with a summary from Saferworld, which states:

“Ultimately, identifying and addressing the root causes of conflict is about improving the lives of people in communities affected by conflict and fragility. Investing in upstream conflict prevention is also in the interests of securing a more peaceful international environment”.