Africa: Population Growth
Debate between Lord St John of Bletso and Baroness Sugg(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Baroness Sugg
I thank the noble Lord for his welcome. He is right to highlight that. Further, Niger has the highest fertility rate in the world. To harness the benefits of demographic transition, we need to invest majorly in quality education, as well as family planning and helping women to space their families properly. We think that sustainable progress on these issues must be African owned and led, and we are supporting our partners to plan for the population growth and to empower and invest in the region’s young and growing populations through greater access to voluntary family planning, wider sexual and reproductive health and rights, education, gender equality and economic development to help stimulate job creation.
Lord St John of Bletso (CB)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that 60% of the population of Africa are under the age of 25, and 65% live in rural areas? What are Her Majesty’s Government doing to promote greater access to education, housing, healthcare and job opportunities in these rural areas?
Baroness Sugg
The noble Lord is right to highlight that over 60% of people on the African continent are under 25 and, as I said previously, we expect to see a great deal of population growth in the region. We are working hard to ensure that there is better access to healthcare. On education, in particular, between 2010 and 2015 we supported 11.4 million children and young people to gain a decent education, more than 5 million of whom were girls. We have a specific project—the Girls’ Education Challenge—which currently supports marginalised girls to benefit from a quality education and to acquire know-how for work and life. This will give them a second chance to learn, and we are specifically targeting it on highly marginalised girls.
Southern Africa: Trading Relationships
Debate between Lord St John of Bletso and Baroness Sugg
Lord St John of Bletso
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to promote trading relationships with Southern African countries.
Baroness Sugg (Con)
My Lords, the Department for International Trade has a dedicated trade team working across southern Africa to provide support to British firms looking to do business in the region, building on total trade with the UK of £12 billion in 2015. The department works with partners across the region to strengthen our trading relationships. Indeed, my noble friend Lord Price, the Minister of State for Trade Policy, is travelling to South Africa and Namibia this week for discussions with Ministers.
Lord St John of Bletso (CB)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her reply, and I warmly welcome her to her Front-Bench position as a Minister. With her long interest in international affairs, she is certainly well qualified for the role. Given the creation last year of the African free trade zone, with 26 countries representing in excess of 620 million people, can the Minister elaborate on the steps being taken to consolidate and develop the Commonwealth network in southern Africa? To what degree are Her Majesty’s Government synchronising trade with aid?