Covid-19: International Response

Sarah Champion Excerpts

Wednesday 6th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now go across to the Chair of the Select Committee. I call Sarah Champion.

[Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab) [V]]

I welcome this statement, but, like the Secretary of State, I am terrified of the pandemic hitting the global south, not least because of the existing weaknesses in its healthcare. What is she doing to support UK NGO organisations to deliver their core work as well as covid-19 work, and is this the time for DFID to develop a global health strategy?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. DFID has, and has had, a very clear strategy, and we were working before the crisis hit on refreshing that and on thinking, over the next few years, how we want to direct the 0.7% that this country has committed to. That continues, perhaps in a more urgent and more focused way than it did before, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right that we must make sure that we think more broadly than just urgent healthcare on covid. The risk of the impacts of preventable deaths in other spheres is very great, unless our programming continues in those key spaces.