UK Aid to Afghanistan

Debate between Lord Swire and Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park

Wednesday 11th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

My Lords, the department is and has been looking at other mechanisms, including blockchain, for delivering aid more effectively and minimising the risk of corruption, which is always there in the main trouble spots around the world—which include Afghanistan and, for different reasons, Ukraine. Notwithstanding its recommendations, the ICAI report was also very complimentary about the positive influence the UK has had in Afghanistan, in leveraging significant sums of finance from some of the multilateral development banks and ensuring that our own investments yield the kinds of results that taxpayers expect.

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords, I believe that the most recent conference on Afghanistan was in Tashkent in 2022, but the last international conference on Afghanistan was in Geneva in 2020. Will my noble friend tell us whether there are any plans to convene another international conference on Afghanistan and, if not, whether the British Government might consider taking the lead on this? Would that not provide an opportunity to look again at corruption, the money that has gone missing and the money, particularly from the Gulf, which tends to go to the Taliban rather than the people of Afghanistan, whose need is so obvious?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

My Lords, I do not have details of upcoming conferences, but I will certainly put that question to my colleague, my noble friend Lord Ahmad, in whose portfolio that sits. It is of course the case that we work with friends and partners internationally on a continuous, routine basis to try to figure out the best approach to the problems in Afghanistan we are discussing, not least recent decisions by the Taliban to ban women taking part and working in NGOs and to prevent women and girls going to secondary school and university. All these issues are incredibly complicated and it is our view that no one donor country, or any country alone, can solve these problems. It is through these international partnerships that we have the most impact.