Humanitarian Emergency Response Review

Emma Reynolds Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady makes a very good point. She identifies two of Britain’s brilliant NGOs, RedR and WaterAid, which both do such good work in some of the most challenging places anywhere in the world. She also identifies the importance of clean water and sanitation. Britain is doing this in terms of steady state development, with a commitment to get more clean water and sanitation to people in the poor world than the total population of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in terms of our work through the cluster system, giving strong support on water and sanitation, not least to Oxfam. That is an absolute priority in almost all humanitarian disasters.

[Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)]

The objectives set out in Lord Ashdown’s report will require what he calls “transformational change” across the Department to give greater prominence to the humanitarian agenda. In the Government’s response, will the Secretary of State set out in more detail how he intends to bring forward that transformational change, in particular with regard to staffing and programming of DFID projects?

[Mr Mitchell]

The answer is that I will and I have. I commend to the hon. Lady the 35-page report, which should now be on the internet, and I urge her to have a look at it and respond if she has any additional comments—as I urge all hon. Members to do.