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The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Alan Duncan)
I thank the hon. Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) for initiating this important debate. It is clear that global poverty is an issue about which hon. Members care deeply. Britain can be proud of that. I am proud that the coalition Government have not merely reaffirmed Britain’s commitment to meet the goal of 0.7% of gross national income spent on aid from 2013, but that they have reflected that in concrete terms through the recent spending review.
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to speak of Britain’s important relationship with Lesotho. Our relationship has a long and complex history. Back in 1868, Lesotho became a British protectorate under Queen Victoria and, in 1966, the Kingdom of Lesotho gained its independence from Britain. We now value Lesotho as a fellow member of the Commonwealth and, in 2008, Lesotho attained lower middle income status. Considering that long-standing relationship, I was pleased to learn of the personal links to the country maintained by the hon. Gentleman and his interest in the country’s development. I confess I never quite expected ever to hear in this Chamber the words “Wrexham twinned with Lesotho”—although I appreciate that there is a wider Welsh interest—and I am slightly envious that he was able to welcome Queen Masenate Seeiso to his constituency. That trumps me.
There are good reasons for all of us to be interested in Lesotho’s development. It is the fifth most unequal country in Africa and, as a result, poverty remains widespread and deep. Some 30% of people are living on less than $1 a day. Food insecurity and hunger mean that 41% of children under five years old are stunted, and Lesotho has the third highest HIV rate in the world, with almost one in four people living with the virus. The British Government are committed to using the wide range of tools at our disposal to champion justice, fairness and prosperity for the poor people of countries such as Lesotho. That includes not only our bilateral aid programmes but, often more significantly, our work through the EU and the World Bank, debt relief, trade facilitation, skills transfer and more.
In that context, let me comment first on DFID’s bilateral programme in Lesotho. The programme is relatively modest in scale at some £3 million per year, which is less than 2% of the overall aid that Lesotho receives. However, the programme has changed many lives. For example, our support in preventing and treating HIV and AIDS among workers in the garment industry—predominantly women—has reduced HIV prevalence in young female factory workers from 37% in 2007 to 29% in 2009. We have doubled the uptake of HIV testing by garment factory workers over the same period. An increase of £1 million in support to that programme over the year ahead will help to improve women’s lives, tackle a major cause of maternal death and support private sector growth by sustaining a healthy work force.
However, our bilateral support is much less than the substantial total funding—about £10 million each year—we provide to Lesotho through multilateral channels, including the EU, the World Bank, debt relief and international NGOs. We are stepping up our scrutiny of the performance of those partners around the world to ensure that UK aid is well spent.
It is also abundantly clear that the future of a land-locked country, such as Lesotho, cannot lie in aid alone. It will lie as well in Lesotho’s ability to trade with neighbours and Africa’s ability to trade with the rest of the world. The Prime Minister has made clear his commitment to supporting Africa’s ambition to establish a free trade area, thus freeing up trade between African states and with the world more widely. We are pursuing that aim through support to improve road and rail travel and to reduce the cost of trade across the region.
Mr Andrew Smith
We all support the goal of free trade in Africa and elsewhere, but does the Minister accept that, given the high proportion of Lesotho’s income that comes from custom dues, there will have to be a careful process of transition so that those revenues can be made up?
Mr Duncan
I accept that any establishment of a free trade area will have to look at such matters, and the right hon. Gentleman is right that existing patterns have to be taken fully into account when looking at a future goal.
Britain has a long history of skills transfer to African partner countries. For example, the British Council has provided Chevening scholarships to Lesotho for many years, and the British Government are committed to scaling up that programme over the years ahead.
I began my comments by reiterating the Government’s commitment to overseas development and poverty reduction. We should acknowledge the level of responsibility that we take on as a result of that commitment: the responsibility to ensure that we can demonstrate 100p of value for every £1 spent; the responsibility to ensure that UK aid is spent where it can make the most difference, tackling the problems on which the UK can have greatest impact; and relentless discipline, thrift and focus on value for money, which is essential in everything we do.
Ian Lucas
On value for money, I commend to the Minister the global schools partnership, which, from my personal perception, has tremendous value, particularly in creating strong, lifelong bonds between individuals in the UK and developing countries. I ask him to stick with that project, because it is a good one.
Mr Duncan
I hear clearly what the hon. Gentleman says. Global partnership can be one of the most effective ways of delivering aid at the lowest possible unit cost. It can be a highly efficient delivery mechanism and will remain an essential part of the menu of DFID’s activities around the world. The key to that is value for money and stretching every pound as far and as effectively as possible.
That is why in June this year my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State launched reviews of all bilateral, multilateral and humanitarian work undertaken by DFID. The aim has been to target our aid where the need is greatest and where the impact will be greatest. Ministers are currently considering the findings of our bilateral aid review and consulting with ministerial colleagues on how to take our recommendations forward. Our development relationship with Lesotho will reflect the choices that we have had to make in those reviews so that we can maximise the impact of our development spending. That will take account of the representations that have been made on behalf of Lesotho, and I have taken careful note of everything that has been said in today’s debate.
There are many pressing needs in Lesotho, and our aid over the years has played a role in helping to meet some of them, alongside a number of other donors. Our responsibility now is to ensure that Britain’s contribution to development is as effective as possible in future, through the choices we make—this is the crux of the debate—about our bilateral programme, about our support for the work of partners through multilateral channels and about the nature of our relationship as a whole.
One thing is certain: whatever the shape of our development support for Lesotho in future, it will reflect in some form the deep regard in which we hold Lesotho and its people, a regard that is clearly shared by many in this country, as has been articulated clearly this morning by the hon. Member for Wrexham.