Integrated Review: Development Aid

Lord Desai Excerpts

Wednesday 28th April 2021 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Finlay of Llandaff) (CB)]

I call the next speaker, the noble Lord, Lord Desai. Lord Desai?

For a third time, I will try to call the noble Lord, Lord Desai. Perhaps the noble Lord needs to unmute? If he is not here, I will move on to the noble Lord, Lord Naseby.

[Lord Desai (Non-Afl) [V]]

I am trying to unmute. Someone has to unmute me, I am sorry.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Desai (Non-Afl) [V]]

I want to quickly say that, while I deplore the cut, I think we should not be giving money for our soft power or anything else. We should give money only for the betterment of the poorest people. The way to do that is a direct cash transfer to the poorest people. It is possible now with the machinery that many Governments have set up to pass money directly to them, and let them use it for their own development. We should not be setting the agenda for development in our interests. This money is for the poor; it should reach the poor and the poorest. If we cannot do that, we should really examine how we can improve the performance of our development policy and get the money to the poorest.