DRAFT INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT (TWELFTH REPLENISHMENT) ORDER 2023

Preet Kaur Gill Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2023 General Committees

[Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful to the Minister for outlining the IFAD order. I welcome the support that the replenishment indicates for tackling poverty, food insecurity and climate change, and for promoting agricultural development in the world’s poorest countries.

IFAD’s 45 years’ experience of supporting rural communities in developing countries equips it well to meet the current global crisis. IFAD was created to fund agricultural development projects, especially for food production, and to strengthen the systems to deliver food and economic security to millions of smallholders. Since it was founded in 1977, global extreme poverty has dropped from around 40% of the global population to 10%. It is international development, driven often by concerted multilateral efforts, that has helped to drive progress forward.

In 2023, the final frontier in the fight against extreme poverty depends on us reaching the most remote rural communities. An estimated 3 billion people live in rural areas in poor countries, most of whom depend on agriculture for their food and income. They are also among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, with 80% of women, children and men in extreme poverty living in rural areas. Where we have made so much progress in recent decades, reaching people over those last 10 miles will be integral to ending extreme poverty by 2030. That is exactly what IFAD specialises in and was set up to do.

We face a global food security crisis—800 million women, children and men are too hungry to live normal and productive lives. The people who grow our food do not have enough to feed themselves. The ripple effects of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine have shaken global food systems and supply chains. Food prices reached an all-time high last year. High fuel and fertiliser costs hampered food production, and price hikes forced many small-scale farmers to choose between spending their limited financial resources on purchasing food or planting crops.

Small-scale food producers in poor countries have been among the hardest hit by the food crisis, which has been compounded by the lingering effects of the pandemic, global inflation, accelerating climate change, and conflict. Our continued commitment to IFAD is therefore completely necessary if we are to achieve sustainable development goal 2 by 2030. I am happy to confirm that we will not seek to divide the Committee on this issue today.

We know the consequences when extreme poverty is allowed to fester: conflict, as in the Sahel; irregular migration and displacement; and the deep moral injury of lost lives, lost opportunities and lost human potential. It is firmly in the UK’s interests to continue to invest in IFAD’s work for that reason. Every billion of investment has increased the incomes of 8.6 million beneficiaries by 20%. IFAD’s work is at the frontline of some of the great challenges facing the world, creating enough sustainable jobs and food to meet the challenges of population growth; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and addressing a global hunger crisis that is, at this moment, killing someone in east Africa every 32 seconds. I therefore welcome that at least half of IFAD’s funding in the replenishment will go towards rural development projects in sub-Saharan Africa—a continent of 1.4 billion people just miles from Europe. Africa’s strategic importance to the UK should not be understated.

I put on record my support for the news this week that IFAD has welcomed Ukraine as its 178th member. The war has had far-reaching consequences for food security worldwide, given Ukraine’s role as a leading global exporter of cereals, but less often talked about is food insecurity and poverty in the country itself. According to a recent report, many rural populations in Ukraine are on the brink of poverty, with 44% living on incomes below the subsistence minimum and 7% experiencing malnutrition. In this week of all weeks, as we mark a year since Russia’s barbaric invasion, it is important that the UK contributes so that Ukraine will benefit from IFAD’s work in the years to come.

I must remark on the fact that our contribution to IFAD has been depleted in this replenishment. When other countries are stepping up and have supported IFAD with record contributions, the UK has dropped from being its top donor and influencer to 11th. I ask the Minister: why? After the raft of reforms that the Government said they succeeded in securing in the previous replenishment, why has the UK suddenly stepped back from the role it once played, in the middle of a global food security crisis?

IFAD is clearly a strong investment. The Government’s multilateral development review in 2016 found that it had a good impact, provided value for money and aligned strongly with the United Kingdom’s priorities. In the Centre for Global Development’s 2021 report on quality of ODA, which compared UN agencies and Governments across the world on the quality of their development work, IFAD came top out of all 49 countries and agencies assessed. It was rated among the top agencies on all metrics for its prioritisation of long-term challenges over short-term results, for its collaboration and capacity building in partner countries, and for its transparency, accountability and improvement. The UK, by comparison, dropped to 16th.

I am concerned about how long it has taken to introduce this statutory instrument. The 12th replenishment of the International Fund for Agricultural Development was agreed in February 2021. It has been two years since then. It took until June 2022 for us to announce any commitment, and it took a further seven months to bring forward this SI. Our last payment to IFAD was June 2021 and, at the earliest, our next will come 14 months into the 36-month funding cycle. Where on earth has the UK been? If every donor had taken the same course of action as us, the 20 million people IFAD helps would go hungry. Why have the Government taken so long to bring in this order? What assessment have they made of the impact of IFAD’s ability to plan and deliver projects, and of the UK’s influence on its board?

As they say, trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair. Does the Minister accept that the FCDO’s chaotic management of the ODA budget has done serious harm to the UK’s hard-won reputation as a trusted partner on the world stage?

On reform, what monitoring of progress against the reform secured in the last replenishment has taken place? What reassurance can the Minister provide that the money spent through the International Fund for Agricultural Development will remain focused on local producers and domestic markets that support food security and local economies around the world? Can she reassure us that that is not undermined by steering small-scale farmers towards disproportionately focusing on links to international commodity markets, where they face immense power imbalances? What efforts have been made to steer IFAD to do more—through not just Governments, but other partners and agencies—to ensure that its work reaches smallholders in fragile and conflict-affected states in an effective and cost-effective way? I again ask the Minister to publish the global food security action plan so that the House can scrutinise how our investment in IFAD and other initiatives and partners joins up with the rest of the UK’s work in this very important area.

The next Labour Government’s approach to international development would underline the importance of tackling global poverty. We would reclaim the UK’s past leadership on international development within the multilateral system and bring Britain back to the world stage as a trusted partner. It is both the right thing to do and in Britain’s interest to invest in climate action, eradicate poverty and improve global food security for the century to come.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development has played a big part in helping us to achieve that over many years, and has been a very effective vehicle for doing so. We do not oppose the order, but I reiterate my regret about the Government’s retreat from the multilateral system and the damage done to Britain’s reputation and influence on the world stage.