Asylum Seekers: Employment

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble Lord is absolutely right that either their claims should be considered or not, and that should be done swiftly, which is what I was saying to the noble Lord, Lord Reid. The sooner that people’s applications are considered, the sooner these things can be determined.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, can the Minister update us on the serious situation of the Syrian refugees whom we agreed to accept?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I do not know the exact figure, but at the last count we had brought something like 26,000 children over here. Of course, the situation in Syria is dire, the caliphate is collapsing, and therefore those children might be even more in need now than ever before.

Sustainable Development Goals

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Wednesday 10th July 2019 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud. I shall have to read carefully what she said because it was so well constructed. I am feeling a little shaken by my noble friend Lord Rees, as I hope everyone else is, because he has so much experience.

It is no surprise that many people are homing in on climate change although it is listed as number 13. Previously it was seen as one of the supporting development goals, like environment, as an add on to the more urgent issues of poverty and ill health. However, times have changed, as has our understanding of the two priorities. With our Government, dragged along by campaigners and NGOs, now genuinely determined to lead the way internationally towards the 2050 target, we are all more aware than before of the need to save the planet. We are told that it is not too late to do it, but we need to do it now before the ice block sculpture melts outside Tate Modern. Environmentalists say with some reason that there is no planet B.

My noble friend Lord Rees referred to specific policies, which the Government will have heard, but our children and grandchildren need no convincing—they now demand it. At Christian Aid years ago we produced a successful poster with the globe in a bag which said, “Handle with Care—Please Follow Maker’s Instructions”. It was a sell-out. It was revolutionary in its way because it coincided with a general attack on capitalism. A series of reports at the time of the 1973 oil crisis, mentioned by my noble friend, had warned us of the limits of growth, and radicals called for urgent solutions.

MDGs were not by then invented but our supporters and beneficiaries of aid were at that time already well aware of the small but vital things that must be done: saving water, growing food, planting trees, improving sanitation and making solar panels and energy-saving stoves. We were confident that lives could be saved even if the planet was on a dangerous course. Politically only NGOs and a minority of environmentalists at that time really appreciated the urgency of reaching international solutions.

This month sees the 75th anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions. I strongly recommend Martin Wolf’s analysis in the FT this week showing how the original purposes of 1944—chiefly international co-operation—are being undermined by nationalism and attacks on the international economic order at the highest level. Today, with sea levels rising and more appalling emergencies and forest fires, we have begun to appreciate the particular threat to the poorest countries. Yet we are so turned in on ourselves in the UK at the present time that we are not taking enough notice of the outside world.

The UK also has to reach its own SDGs. I salute the efforts and personal commitment of DfID Ministers, the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, and others to undertake the UK’s own self-assessment in the VNR. The Minister was frank in admitting that we had not reached goals in areas such as literacy and the environment.

There is an undercurrent of opinion around Westminster—some years old but rekindled during the Tory leadership election—which suggests that our future lies in increased defence spending and the spreading of the aid budget into new forms of soft power and other foreign and defence priorities. The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, shared concerns about aid finance and effectiveness and Bond, on behalf of the development NGOs, says in relation to today’s debate that spending aid through government departments other than DfID has shifted UK ODA’s focus away from its primary purpose of poverty eradication. Will the Minister please deny that there is any such interdepartmental fungibility in the aid budget and that approaches from other departments are being firmly rejected? Will the Government also rule out any merging of the FCO and DfID, at least in the lifetime of this Parliament?

Poverty eradication is still the hallmark of the development agencies, including DfID. With China’s help the global figures have improved considerably, some have said, but Oxfam recently reminded us that while goal 1 is about ending poverty, SDG 10, on reducing inequality within and between nations, remains the key poverty target. It says that there are still 3.4 billion people worldwide subsisting on less than $5.50 a day. The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, reminded us not to forget refugees, who the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud, also touched on. The noble Lord, Lord Bird, reminds us that hand-holding is not enough when you are trying to eradicate poverty.

Goal 5 is gender equality, another critical goal, girls having much less access to education and women spending three times as long as men in domestic work. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, touched on this. However, the percentage of women in Parliaments has generally increased, as is evidenced in this room. The fair trade movement has shown that women entrepreneurs need more encouragement, and the noble Baroness, Lady Manzoor, gave us the example of Fatima. I know from my experience in India that women’s ability to invest in small businesses using loan schemes can be an example to others and an impressive route out of poverty.

I want to add to the comment of the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, about the debate going on in the Chamber. I visit Nepal regularly, where sanitation is a great concern, as the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, and I found when we joined the women’s demonstration in Kathmandu.

Finally, while I understand the appetite of incoming Prime Ministers to start afresh and make new appointments, I do not recommend moving this Secretary of State. Over many years, he has demonstrated as a practitioner his knowledge of development on the ground. As I know the Minister here will agree, it would be a great mistake to replace him.

World Food Programme

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Thursday 27th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

The noble Baroness highlights the Sahel. Humanitarian needs remain incredibly high there, with significant spikes due to underlying structural challenges, inadequate access to basic services and cyclical food insecurity. We are working closely with the WFP to ensure that it has the right organisational capacity and programming to meet the different needs of vulnerable people. We provided £248 million in humanitarian assistance to the Sahel and Cameroon from 2015 to 2019, which supported more than 2 million people.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

The noble Baroness knows that a similar crisis exists in South Sudan, a country that is only seven years old. Seven million people face malnutrition and starvation, with 4 million displaced in other countries. As always in such a situation, the real problem is access. Can the Minister specifically encourage the World Food Programme to make more effort to get to those areas other agencies cannot reach?

[Baroness Sugg]

The South Sudanese people are facing appalling suffering in our youngest nation. We are working closely with the WFP to ensure that it is able to improve access. It has made good progress in the effectiveness of its aid, adapting to the changing and challenging environment. We funded biometric registration last year, which has led to a reduction in operational costs. We are also looking at how we can better deliver food using the waterways rather than air transport to reach the people who need it.

Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2019

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Thursday 28th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I want to say a word about Africa, because, interesting as this debate on Hezbollah has been, the order also concerns west Africa. The Minister tiptoed very skilfully through the acronyms, so I thought I would take a minute to ask her a question. I used to know towns such as Timbuktu and Bamako in Mali quite well when I visited on behalf of Christian Aid.

I imagine that the motivation for proscribing these organisations is simple—relations of Daesh are living there and the world is a small place, especially as far as terrorism goes, and it crosses frontiers. The noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, referred to Brexit. I do not want to go that far but I am particularly interested in whether the order is shared with our fellow European members. As the Minister well knows, we are part of a joint mission. British troops are involved. Sometimes there are casualties and it is much nearer to home than we realise. I know that the joint mission will go ahead after Brexit, but I would be grateful to hear whether this is part of joint thinking, unlike with Hezbollah, where there have been differences.

[Lord Judd (Lab)]

My Lords, I want to put on record my deep appreciation to my noble friend Lord Rosser for the speech that he made at the beginning of this debate. It was penetrating and analytical, and it is absolutely essential to the cause to which we all subscribe that he gets a full and explicit reply from the Government. I have been a Defence Minister and a Foreign Office Minister, and I totally understand that when we operate in this kind of context there are things that have to be confidential. But that makes it doubly important to be as explicit and transparent as we can possibly be in the support of the case that we pursue. If there have been, in a short period of time, the changes that have been described in this debate, it is absolutely, inescapably obvious that we have to give a very good account for why this has happened.

One good thing about this debate is that it has aired the issues a little more widely. It would be totally naive to imagine that the issue of anti-Semitism is simply about Jewish people. I personally believe that the total unacceptability of anti-Semitism is because it is about people. But not to understand that it has sinister—I use that word quite deliberately—implications would be very naive. It is obviously about other political objectives as well. To refuse to face that fact will not help at all.

The one crucial point that I want to make is this. I know that I have made it before, but I will go on making it until my dying day. We are ultimately in a battle for hearts and minds. It is in the sphere of hearts and minds that we will build lasting security, not by administrative arrangements or containment operations. It is by winning people’s conviction, understanding and appreciation of why the values about which we like to talk in this House are so indispensable to the future of humanity. That is the issue: hearts and minds.

That is why, when we are introducing anti-terrorism legislation, it is terribly important that all the time right in the forefront of the minds of those charged with the responsibility of coming to a conclusion are the words and thoughts: what are our values? What will be the down cost of this? What will play into the hands of extremists, as they exploit genuine anxieties and doubts amongst young people but not only young people? That is the issue that must not be ignored. What is the counterproductivity of what is being proposed?

It is a very difficult balance and a very difficult decision, but I urge that we always keep that concern about counterproductivity very much in mind in our deliberations.

Yemen

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Thursday 20th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

In a sense it might be desirable, but that was the agreement made in Stockholm. That is what we have to follow with the six-week commitment. During that time we will see whether the other commitments to opening the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef and the prisoner exchanges happen. There are a number of steps along the way, but I certainly join the noble Baroness in paying tribute to British diplomats, of whom we can be proud, such as the UN special envoy Martin Griffiths and our own Sir Mark Lowcock, formerly a Permanent Secretary at DfID, for the work they have done.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, as the noble Lord will know, some of us tried to find out during the Statement yesterday what exactly is happening in the port of Hodeidah. It is such a significant port for getting humanitarian aid in. Does the Minister have any up-to-date information? Given the ceasefire, we would expect a higher proportion of the dockside facilities to be available.

[Lord Bates]

Yes, we would expect that to happen. The latest data we have is from November, with 60% of food and in particular fuel coming in through that port. We have been monitoring it very closely. The agreement in Stockholm requires a weekly update back to the UN Secretary-General to see what is happening with delivery on the ground. I am sure he will follow that closely.

Yemen: Famine

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Tuesday 6th November 2018 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Earl of Sandwich]

The Earl of Sandwich to ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help end the famine caused by the war in Yemen.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, Sir Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, recently warned the UN Security Council of the “clear and present” danger of famine in Yemen. Famine has not yet been declared. The UK is providing £170 million this year to feed millions and to treat malnutrition. Ports are open and there is food in the main markets. We are working with the Central Bank of Yemen to reverse the currency devaluation so that food is again affordable.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that. It is quite true that food is reaching maybe 8 million people, and that is in spite of the blockade, which is a year old today. But this war is not going anywhere. The port of Hodeida is still besieged; the peace process has completely stalled; half the country’s health facilities no longer function; there is cholera; and 2 million young mothers and children are malnourished. What more can our Government do to end this near-catastrophe?

[Lord Bates]

It is a catastrophe at the present time. What is happening there is a manmade disaster and, yet again, where there are manmade conflicts and wars, women and children are the first to suffer as a result. The situation is intolerable and we are working across a range of different headings. The only solution is for the parties to the conflict to come to the negotiating table. We thought that we were getting close to that in Geneva, through the work of Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy. However, one party did not turn up for that set of dialogues. The Foreign Secretary has indicated that discussions are under way with the UN Security Council to see what more can be done. In the meantime, we continue our efforts to work through international agencies to relieve some of the suffering. But ultimately, that suffering will be halted only when the conflict stops.

Official Development Assistance

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

We of course achieved the 0.7% commitment, which was reiterated by the Secretary of State. As a former aid worker herself, she is absolutely committed to this, but absolutely committed to ensuring that we also get value for money. There is so much need in our world that we cannot afford to waste one penny of the amount available. It is also true to say that the rules which govern what is scored as development assistance are set by the OECD committee, which works on a consensus basis. Consistently, many members raise issues about what they would like improved in terms of the definition. We raised vigorously last year the response to the hurricanes in the Caribbean, and we continue to do that. We will continue to work for reform, but we are absolutely committed to improving value for money, and to the 0.7%, which is a matter of law. It was mentioned in the manifesto; the Prime Minister signed up to it; and the Secretary of State signed up to it.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with the committee’s recommendation on the middle-income countries, and whether they should be eligible for ODA? Are the Government reconsidering those middle-income countries—in particular, India, which has a substantial minority of poor?

[Lord Bates]

It does indeed. Of the 750 million people in extreme poverty today in the world, 215 million —the greatest proportion—are found in India as a middle-income country. It is right that we work with countries across a range of issues to ensure that we tackle poverty. Of course, one of the DAC elements that we commit to and achieve—as well as being one of the few to achieve the 0.7% target—is the target to spend 0.15% to 0.2% in least developed countries. Again, that is a record of which we should all be proud.

UN: Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Tuesday 9th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord has raised this before. He is absolutely right that if the SDGs are to be met, they will not be met by Governments alone; they have to be met by civil society. That means business getting involved, as well as church groups, trade unions and charities. It is impossible to assess our progress towards the SDGs by looking simply at government entities in this country. Therefore, the trade unions will be a very important element in that. Individual departments will be reaching out to trade unions to ensure that their voices are heard. Proactively, however, there is also the opportunity through the website launched yesterday for trade unions and other parts of civil society to make sure that their contribution to meeting those goals is recognised in our voluntary national review.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, in view of all the bad news about climate change that we have been reading, are the Government making more effort and looking harder at sustainable development goal 13, which is about climate change? What action will they take?

[Lord Bates]

We have taken a number of pieces of action. Some of the action required of us is under the Climate Change Act, which was introduced in 2008 under the previous Labour Government. Of course, a major step forward was the Paris agreement. There will be a follow-up to that agreement. We have introduced international climate finance as a way of scaling up the amount of investment available for that very important area. The IPCC made those announcements in Seoul, South Korea, just a couple of days ago, which grabbed the headlines. They will be followed up at a special meeting in Katowice in Poland in December and we will play a full and leading part in that.

Overseas Development Aid

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Tuesday 9th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

An example is impact funds, many of which already exist within the City of London; many civil society groups and organisations such as the UN Global Compact scrutinise how that is accounted for in accounts. With the CDC it is a different process. We were quite specific when we discussed the raising of the threshold—the capitalisation of the CDC—as the legislation went through this House, that no investments could be made under that without a business case being prepared, which then has to be signed off and reviewed at the end of it to ensure that the outputs it was envisaged would be delivered were achieved, and if not, why not? These are therefore all important elements in the exploration of these issues. More can be done, but again, it needs to be done transparently.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I concur very much with what the noble Lord, Lord Collins, was saying, and I well remember the CDC Bill and the criticisms that we made then. One can raise a slightly different issue about the CDC. Does the Minister recall the comments of ICAI—the Independent Commission for Aid Impact— about the impact of aid? You can put in the rubric that poverty alleviation is a purpose, but what about the measurement of that purpose, and where is the evidence of impact? We still have to wait for this to come from the CDC.

[Lord Bates]

The impact comes in three levels that we specifically target. One is the amount of money which catalyses money to come in from the private sector: if we invest £1, does it bring in £10 of private investment? We look at it in terms of the taxation it generates for revenue in the country where the investment is taking place, and we look at the number of jobs that are created by that. In alignment with the SDG requirement on this for aid, this is for decent work, so I accept all that. That is how we do it. The point which the noble Earl was right to highlight was addressed substantially by the change in the new investment strategy, which the CDC was required to have alongside the new investment. That has a much greater focus on the most fragile and most affected states, because we do not want it—not that it has ever done this in its illustrious, 70-year history—to cherry pick the investments. We want it to go where no private sector capital is going so that it can make the greatest impact. That impact and that change in the investment strategy will see results in the years to come.

South Sudan

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Curry, who is a fellow member of our APPG on Sudan and South Sudan and has had a particular interest in this area for some years. My own background is that I worked with Save the Children in 1989-90—it has very kindly assisted me with this debate today. I also live in the Salisbury diocese, which is active on South Sudan’s behalf.

I have followed the fortunes of South Sudan since I first visited Bentiu and Malakal on behalf of Christian Aid back in the 1970s. Even then, after the 1974 Addis Ababa agreement, the south was a region afflicted by sporadic violence. It is hard to see how this resilient nation has endured these conditions for so long, despite successive peace agreements and the exciting referendum result that led to independence. As we have heard, since 2013, South Sudan has been gripped by emergencies and continued insecurity. Riek Machar once had close ties with this country and I would expect the FCO to have his mobile number even today. Endless talks in Addis Ababa, limited success for IGAD’s high-level revitalisation forum, continued activity by the SSCC—and a lot of other acronyms—have characterised the cessation of hostilities. On the positive side, I hear from Tearfund that the participation of women and young people has recently been more evident in the negotiations. The Sudan unit in the FCO has worked hard on the peace process, and I look forward to the Minister’s latest analysis.

I know from my own visits that, as the noble Baroness has just said, South Sudan is a dangerous place to work. According to Save the Children it is one of the deadliest places in the world, with tens of thousands of civilians killed and nearly 100 aid workers losing their lives since 2013. Aid workers were frequently targeted in the months during or following those events, and even the displaced under the protection of the UN were subject to violence and rape. A civil society statement to the African Union explicitly condemns the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and the use of child soldiers and calls for an independent investigation into allegations of the use of sexual violence. The UN’s own human rights report on South Sudan in February stated:

“Conflict-related sexual violence is endemic. Rape, mutilations of sexual organs and other forms of sexual violence, targeting girls, boys, women and men, are often committed in front of children, humiliating the victims, their families and their communities and destroying the social fabric. That leaves behind a traumatized people and sows the seeds of yet more violence”.


Did our Government support calls for action on these horrendous crimes such as a special court or a TRC? If not, we can only express our horror and consternation, as my noble friend described.

Over 4 million people, roughly one-third of the population, have been forced from their homes, making South Sudan the third-largest refugee-producing nation globally behind Syria and Afghanistan. According to Save the Children, famine has now been declared and famine levels of food insecurity persist in many parts of the country. Basic infrastructure is lacking or has been destroyed, with only 400 fully operational health facilities left nationwide. Many areas are now severely restricted, even the once peaceful Equatoria, where the more recent fighting has taken place.

As one of the largest operational NGOs in South Sudan, Save the Children is prioritising access to basic services and protection for South Sudanese children. I saw some of its work during our APPG visit just before independence. They have been involved in health and education at a high level, alongside government and the UN agencies. It is common knowledge that a lot of money from the World Bank designated for the health sector virtually disappeared a few years ago, and all donor Governments were wary of investing in the Salva Kiir administration even before the present conflict. Oil revenue has doubtless ensured the payment of soldiers before teachers and nurses, although no figures since 2016 are likely to be available.

For now, though, the humanitarian emergency has the highest priority. The aid agencies have particular concerns. I quote from an appeal from Save the Children:

“We call on all parties to allow full humanitarian access, to respect international law and end the war on children whose rights are continually violated in South Sudan. While conflict persists, we must see an end to the targeting of schools, hospitals, and humanitarian actors, as well as an increase in funding to agencies and INGO’s whose operations are being crippled by a lack of resources”.


I have more statistics to offer—some have already been mentioned and I will select only a few. Out of the 4 million displaced, 85% are women and children. One million live on the brink of famine. Last year 1.75 million children under five and breastfeeding mothers were acutely malnourished. There were more than 50 deliberate attacks on schools and hospitals in the two years up to last December. Nearly 2 million children are out of school, with almost 10% of schools destroyed, damaged or closed. For aid agencies there is one especially unusual and alarming statistic: South Sudan has the highest number of verified cases of denial of humanitarian access globally, with 44% of incidents internationally occurring there.

So of course my question for the Minister has to be: what are our Government doing to ensure that humanitarian access is improved, what are the constraints and how can the international community work together more effectively to remove them? I look forward to the Minister’s response.