International Development: Budget

Lord Bishop of Chester Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Chester]

My Lords, I join those thanking the noble Lord, Lord Empey, for introducing this debate. It is very timely and perhaps gives us an opportunity for some clearing of the air after the Prime Minister’s recent comments and the reactions, or overreactions, in some cases, to them.

Let me emphasise from these Benches our complete support for the Government’s overall allocation to the aid budget. I believe that history will give a very favourable judgment on this country’s decision to maintain its increasing level of commitment at such a challenging economic time. Our world seems ever increasingly to be characterised by growing divides between wealth and poverty, whether between individuals in a given country or between countries themselves. I sometimes think that there are not many issues on which the Lords spiritual are in total agreement, but this is definitely one of them. At least, I believe that to be the case, but my right reverend friend the Bishop of Derby has yet to speak.

Aid should be directed to alleviate poverty, but that poses the question: what is poverty in our world today? When thinking about poverty we should, of course, take its obvious meaning which tends to come first to us: it is a lack of money and material resources. But poverty is not just a lack of material resources; it can also be poor health, which can be psychological as well as spiritual. Poverty can be not living in a democracy in which individuals are valued. Much poverty in its broader sense is caused by wars or other social upheavals, just as the greatest single source of poverty in this country is arguably family breakdown. The best way to address poverty in our country might well be to have a co-ordinated, cross-departmental strategy to reduce family breakdown, in as much as the Government can influence such major social trends.

The same applies to development aid overseas. Above all, it needs a joined-up, cross-departmental strategy, and in as much as this is what the Prime Minister was advocating in his recent remarks, I have no problem with them. I also have no fundamental objection to our aid programmes being integrated somewhat with our broader national interests or security strategy. There has been a tendency in the past for the development programme to be almost on its own plane, apart from other aspects of government policy. But it is distinct, as has been rightly said by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. It always seems to me to be part of the overall programme of what we are trying to do as a country. Surely we are learning the hard way, as has been mentioned, that soft power in all its guises is often more lastingly effective than hard power. Indeed, there seem to be many conflicts which have no purely military solution, as indeed is the case, it appears, in Syria.

In relation to the Ministry of Defence, for example, I can see a strong case for offering assistance with mine clearance, or rehabilitating former soldiers into society after a conflict ends. We heard something about that in the previous debate about the Offender Rehabilitation Bill: there is a particular problem with ex-servicemen who find life difficult some years later. No doubt a whole range of activities, which might be regarded as aspects of peacekeeping and peacemaking, should involve the Ministry of Defence along with other departments. I see no reason why that should not be the case. That should involve not only other departments of government, but voluntary agencies—let us remember those too, including faith communities.

In Africa, in particular, there is a major problem of preventing aid money being swept up into a culture of corruption. Often the safest way to distribute money in those countries is through the faith communities. My most reverend friend the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot be here today, but this is a particular concern of his, as he has had a major interaction with Africa over the years, and indeed looking at his blog, as I do every night before I go to bed, there is an instance of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church in Sudan using money from the overseas development budget— £3 million or £4 million —to train thousands of teachers in a country where only about 1% of the young women complete secondary education. Again, that is a really important example of collaboration outside the immediate structures of government, but that should be built on collaboration within government.

I believe that this country has a proud record on overseas development. I simply want the Minister to reassure me that that will long remain the case.