Official Development Assistance

Baroness Blower Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We know that the single most significant protective factor against that is education and being in school. We work with countries to try to enable that. Separately, I think that we are now the largest contributor to the UNFPA, which distributes contraceptive devices and products. Those do not always reach the people that the right reverend Prelate talks about, of course, so the work that we do on education is incredibly significant when it comes to preventing what none of us wants to see: very young girls starting their families sometimes years before they would have finished their education.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend very much for her warm words about education, which I am sure all of us in this Chamber would echo and welcome. Can she also please bear in mind the absolute centrality and importance of education when the replenishment conferences roll around next year for the Global Campaign for Education and Education Cannot Wait?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I think my noble friend means the Global Partnership for Education. They are both incredibly effective and we have to think how we best support our work on education. I think that the best thing we can do is work with other Governments, strengthening systems and enabling them to take the lead themselves. That is the most sustainable approach. Education Cannot Wait works in disaster situations, where a more standardised approach to education is just not feasible. That is very different and it is vital that that work continues.