Poverty Eradication and sustainable development

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2015 General Committees

[Grant Shapps]

The big difference with the original millennium goals was that they referred to developing countries. The global goals apply to us all, as the hon. Lady’s question implies.

We are absolutely determined to learn lessons from the original millennium goals. A huge amount of work has gone into this. When I was in New York for the UNGA and the launch of the new global goals, I attended many sessions that dealt with the extent to which the millennium goals have been implemented. I spent a lot of time looking at the relative success of DFID in the countries that we work with, particularly in Africa, and at their achievements against those goals. A large body of work was involved in that and I am very happy to write to the hon. Lady with further details on the extent to which we judged the millennium goals had been met.

The hon. Lady is right to say that the new global goals affect us all. We have signed up just as much as any of the African countries I was talking about. All the goals apply to us. It is early days, as I mentioned in my speech. The UK will be developing a framework for the way in which the goals will be judged. The Office for National Statistics will play a key role in that process and is currently working on it.

The hon. Lady specifically mentioned the issue of inequality. The Government are passionate about dealing with inequality. We believe that the best way to deal with it is to make sure that, for example, in this country, unemployment levels are kept low. We have half the unemployment level of our nearest similar economy, France—exactly half its unemployment level. Inequality is best tackled by making sure that people have work.

Inequality is certainly one of the areas that will be judged by the new global goals. Members will have more detail shortly on how that will be put into statistics.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

I associate myself with the remarks welcoming the opportunity for debate. Can the Minister say what discussions or communications he has had with the devolved Administrations about the implementation of the goals—the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly have an outreach and international development presence; I believe Northern Ireland is considering a similar role—and about the domestic application of the goals?

[Grant Shapps]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. As he knows, I am always very keen to engage with the devolved Administrations. He and I have had many conversations, particularly about the excellent partnership between Malawi and Scotland, which has been so important to the UK’s development role in that country. I will certainly be taking those discussions forward with him and Members of the other devolved Administrations.

As I have mentioned, the goals were only put in place in September. Ensuring that we have a proper 15-year plan for their implementation, including the involvement of our devolved Administrations, is top of our agenda. Before anyone says, “Why isn’t this happening more quickly?” in the case of the millennium goals, I think the world was rather too slow in coming together. It took several years before people woke up to the fact that we were in danger of missing many of the goals and then things really got going. We are determined that that will not be the case here. The hon. Gentleman and others can expect to see a huge amount of activity by us as we frame how best to deliver the goals both domestically and internationally.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patrick Grady]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I declare something of an interest, because until the May election I was the vice-chair of the Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland. I also sat on the Scottish working group on the SDGs, which I might speak about briefly later.

I welcome the opportunity to debate the papers before us and the SDGs more broadly. I welcome the broad consensus behind finding the right way to implement the global goals and I echo a number of the points made by the Labour spokesperson, the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. The Scottish National party fully supports the SDG framework, as do the Scottish Government. The Scottish First Minister announced over the summer that the Scottish Government intended to adopt the goals in full for both international and domestic policy.

The opening statement of the report before us touched on the number of the goals. When we debated the SDGs in a Back-Bench debate on the Floor of the House a while back, I said—and I repeat now—that, first, the goals have been agreed, so the debate ought to move on. Secondly, the number of goals is probably for a reason; it probably reflects the kind of holistic approach necessary if we are to end world poverty and to do so in a way that genuinely leaves no one behind.

I associate myself in particular with the comments made about welcoming goal 5 on gender equality—we want to ensure that that is at the heart of the development agenda over the next 15 years—and with the emphasis in the goals on climate change. Again, I highlight the work of the Scottish Government, who passed the highly ambitious Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and established the innovative climate justice fund to support people in developing countries to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

I thank the Minister for his response to my question about the role of the devolved Administrations. Co-operation across these islands is important to take the agenda forward. I highlight the work of the Scottish Government and of the working group, with its innovative approach over 18 months or more. I note that DFID officials are represented on the group, which is an excellent example of cross-stakeholder co-operation: it also includes NGOs, business community representatives, academics and representatives from the domestic anti-poverty organisations. There is a lot to learn.

The Minister also mentioned the co-operation that exists between the Governments of Scotland and Malawi. This week we marked the 10th anniversary of that co-operation agreement, so I take this opportunity to put my congratulations on the record, in case I am not able to in the Chamber before the end of the week.

The motion that we are debating finishes with the idea that the Committee

“supports the Government’s approach to the post-2015 development agenda.”

We cannot oppose that motion, but, like the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, my party intends to keep scrutinising the Government’s approach. Achieving the 0.7% target is only the beginning of the process if we really are to leave no one behind, adopt a truly person-centred approach to development and achieve the goals. They are achievable; it is purely a matter of having the political will to build the world free of poverty that they envisage.