CDC: Overseas Aid

(asked on 28th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in view of the reduction in actual Official Development Assistance, what plans they have to re-focus money given to the Commonwealth Development Corporation on poverty, including education and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.


Answered by
Baroness Sugg Portrait
Baroness Sugg
This question was answered on 6th August 2020

CDC invests in the poorest countries in Africa and South Asia to support the growth of companies that create employment, help transform economies, and improve people’s lives, through the goods and services they produce and the local taxes they generate. In 2019, the businesses into which CDC is invested employed 875,790 people; sourced from 1.84 million farmers; and paid $3.3 billion in local taxes.

As part of its ODA prioritisation process, the Government looked across its ODA programming including CDC. We are investing significantly less capital into CDC than originally planned at the start of the year. Funding will be focused on ensuring that CDC continues to take a targeted response that preserves, strengthens and helps rebuild economies across Africa and South Asia to mitigate the economic and health impacts of Covid-19. Funding originally earmarked for CDC will be re-purposed to ensure we can continue to focus on delivering for the bottom billion including by prioritising girls’ education, climate change, essential health, sexual and reproductive health rights, while also responding to Covid-19.

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