East Africa: Food Security
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Chidgey
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of (1) the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) desert locusts, on food security in countries in east Africa, and in particular in (a) Sudan, and (b) South Sudan.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development (Baroness Sugg) (Con)
My Lords, we are deeply concerned about the food security situation in east Africa. In Sudan, we expect the number of people without access to sufficient food to increase this year by 35% to 9.6 million. In South Sudan, already 6.5 million people suffer acute food insecurity. The UK is working across east Africa to provide life-saving assistance, cash transfers where markets are still functioning, and tools and seeds to build a longer-term ability to respond to shocks.
Lord Chidgey (LD) [V]
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that Answer and I welcome the Government’s efforts over the desert locust storms and Covid-19 in east Africa and the Sudans. What UK aid programmes have been cut as a result of moving funding for these urgent projects? The FAO reports that some 19 million people were food insecure in the region last year, so situation is worse than it was 12 months previously. In South Sudan, close to 60% of the population are severely food insecure. Locust swarms present a double crisis for those battling the Covid pandemic, preventing the delivery of locust-control equipment and restricting access to response teams with essential advice and expertise. Will the UK Government commit to maintaining the central purpose of our 0.7% GNI aid programme as ODA compliant to support east Africans with meagre health infrastructure and to ensure access to affordable Covid vaccines, once available?
Baroness Sugg
My Lords, as the noble Lord said, we are committed to 0.7% of our GNI. That commitment continues, and will continue, to work to end poverty. The noble Lord refers to a process that departments are going through at the moment, given the likely reduction in GNI this year. I am afraid I do not have further information about that process but it will be available in due course.
Covid-19: International Response
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(4 years ago)
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Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, in the short time available I will confine my remarks to Africa; in particular to how African Governments, and international institutions with bases in Africa, are responding to Covid-19.
As the RESULTS organisation points out, Covid-19 is not only exacerbating poverty and health inequalities all over the world but is making it very difficult for agencies such as DfID to operate. C-19 will also have long-term economic consequences, ravaging the poorest countries and shrinking the availability of official development assistance. How are the Government facing up to this particular challenge?
The World Health Organization has warned that, without action from African Governments, there could be 10 million infections on the continent within six months. The Covid pandemic could smoulder on in Africa for years, killing as many as 190,000 people in the next 12 months. Governments need to test, trace, isolate and treat. What targeted assistance is the UK providing in this regard?
Most counties have imposed lockdowns, which have slowed down the rate of infection. South Africa has eased its restrictions, allowing around 1 million people to return to work. Rwanda, Mauritius and the DRC have all lifted some restrictions. African countries are doing a lot, according to the director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa. Because of measures taken by Governments and communities, transmission rates are lower than seen elsewhere.
Responses, however, have varied greatly. Experience of previous pandemics such as Ebola has spurred action, with schools, borders and airports closed even before many cases were registered. Yet Africa has tested only 685 people per million, a far lower rate than in many other parts of the world. Dr John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said that African states are not testing enough. He is quoted as saying: “This is a very treacherous and dangerous virus. We cannot be complacent.” Are the Government co-ordinating any global action to address this particular risk?
East Africa: Locusts
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(4 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Sugg
My Lords, we have locust swarms on a yearly basis, but this is a larger swarm than has been seen in decades. With the swarm increasing twentyfold over each breeding season and with planting activities for crops taking place, there is a need to undertake effective control measures right now. I certainly agree with the noble Lord that we need to address the global challenges we face, and I point him towards the UK hosting COP 26, which will be a great opportunity for the UK to show our world-leading efforts to get to net zero by 2050 and to address the impacts of climate change.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, the UN FAO states that Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are dealing with desert locust swarms of unprecedented size and destructive potential. They threaten to engulf the whole east African region, with South Sudan and Uganda also at risk. Will the Government investigate the potential linkage of the massive growth of desert locust swarms to unusual climate change conditions? Will they also vigorously support the UN programmes of both pest control and livelihood protection, with the added help of advanced drone technology where needed?
Baroness Sugg
My Lords, we will absolutely support the response to this. One of the main ways in which we are dealing with it is by helping with surveillance—making sure that through DfID support we look at the regional climate so that we can predict these things better. We act particularly through control methods. I mentioned the UN FAO through CERF, which helps with the spraying of pesticides; the UK is the highest donor. I agree completely with the noble Lord that we have to ensure that our humanitarian programmes in the region are sufficiently flexible. We have in place significant programmes there with partners such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF, which are ready to flex and respond to the outbreak.
Defence, Diplomacy and Development Policy
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(4 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, I too add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, on securing this debate and on the admirable way he opened it, given the little enough time we have to debate these important subjects.
It is well understood that conflict and authoritarianism create an environment in which development and humanitarian conditions rapidly deteriorate, frustrating aid objectives and security interests at home and abroad. We should recognise that conflict, insecurity and authoritarianism are the leading causes of human suffering, human rights abuses and humanitarian crises. They allow organised crime to flourish, nurture violent movements and their terror tactics, thus undermining UK and international security. They impact on the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality, and undermine the rules-based order on which our security depends. They impede the efforts of international co-operation to tackle global issues such as climate change, migration and cybersecurity.
Uniquely, this integrated review faces a whole new range of issues brought about by our imminent departure from the European Union, and therefore the decisions taken in the review will not be effective just for five or 10 years, but potentially for generations to come—generations who will judge us harshly if we get it wrong. In this new Government, there has been much talk about a global Britain, a nation ready and able to take its place among the leaders in and of the world once again. Well, excuse me, I have never for one minute doubted the place the United Kingdom occupies in the community of nations, and I doubt that the average Brit has either. Our contribution as a nation to the advancement of democracy, culture, the humanities, the sciences and the rule of law is a matter of record, and the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, has spelled out our engagement at the top table very clearly.
What we need now are policies and institutions that adjust, redefine and manage our collective needs and aspirations in the 21st century. There are several policy documents, including the national security strategy, which increasingly emphasise the linkages between various aspects of policy, for example between peace and poverty reduction in the developing world, or between security, overseas aid and climate change. As the House of Lords Library points out, governmental structures reflect these linkages. They all have objectives to enhance the UK’s global influence using a range of tools. The new Government have yet to announce any changes to departmental responsibilities, but speculation abounds over whether DfID will be subsumed into the FCO. There is a very strong argument that delivery of the Prime Minister’s “compassionate global Britain” requires an independent Department for International Development led by its own Secretary of State.
The Department for International Development is the premier aid agency in the world and is recognised as such by many. No other comes close to it in terms of impact. The world’s foremost experts sit in 22 Whitehall, and their record speaks for itself: millions saved from disease; millions put through education; and millions of women empowered to lead their communities, as well as to control their own bodies and thus perhaps address the problems of overpopulation. It is right to suggest that the Foreign Office has been subject to decades of funding cuts, but the answer to a lack of resource is not as simplistic as putting DfID under the control of the Foreign Secretary or by merging DfID with the Foreign Office. You need defence, diplomacy and development working hand in hand to ensure that a global Britain is one that exudes the virtues of the UK and promotes our core values.
The FCO, DfID and the MoD have very distinct and different missions. That is not to say that the issues these departments work on do not complement one another. As the US General Jim Mattis famously told the American Congress:
“If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.”
In order to effectively address catastrophic crises, international peace and security must be prioritised as a top-level objective of national foreign, security and defence policies, towards which all other aspects and tools of foreign policy, including trade, development diplomacy, need to contribute.
The ability to shape international peace and security is not held by government alone. Academics, businesses and think tanks have expertise that is relevant to the review. Non-governmental organisations have expertise in fragile contexts, drawn from humanitarian development and peacebuilding work in places where the government footprint may be small. Saferworld, RESULTS UK, Global Witness and Bond are some of the NGOs, to name but a few, which know this well. And the communities affected by conflict, including women and young people, often have the most sustainable solutions for addressing conflict. Their views are vital to informing the UK’s understanding. Our national security cannot be sustainably achieved if the security needs of unstable communities are not understood and addressed.
Given the Prime Minister’s intention to make this the
“deepest review of Britain’s security, defence and foreign policy since the end of the Cold War,”
the UK should include consultation where these groups and the UK public can participate. Only then can we have a long-term sustainable foreign policy that puts people and the planet at the heart of it. I implore the Minister to give us some clue about that in her response and to map out exactly what the Government plan to do in terms of allowing a full and proper consultation on these vital issues.
The way we act and the way we plan will provide a road map for how we will engage on the world stage over the next 50 years. We need a bolstered, fully funded Foreign Office working hand in hand with an independent Department for International Development, led by its own Secretary of State, supported by a strong and robust defence programme. That is how we can deliver a global Britain, and we need to get it right because our children and our grandchildren demand it.
Africa: Population Growth
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(5 years ago)
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Baroness Sugg
The noble Lord is right to highlight that over 60% of people on the African continent are under 25 and, as I said previously, we expect to see a great deal of population growth in the region. We are working hard to ensure that there is better access to healthcare. On education, in particular, between 2010 and 2015 we supported 11.4 million children and young people to gain a decent education, more than 5 million of whom were girls. We have a specific project—the Girls’ Education Challenge—which currently supports marginalised girls to benefit from a quality education and to acquire know-how for work and life. This will give them a second chance to learn, and we are specifically targeting it on highly marginalised girls.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, according to the new UN hunger report, the rise in global hunger for the third year in a row is due to the impact of climate shocks, conflicts and economic breakdown. The worst forms of malnutrition are highest in Africa and when I last visited Malawi the irreversible stunting among young children was close to 40%. Will the Government heed the UN’s warning that ending malnutrition requires immediate action to help vulnerable communities? Will they implement the recommendations of the UN’s 2018 Global Nutrition Report, building on the success of bringing stunting down from 36% per year on average in 2000 to just 22% last year?
Baroness Sugg
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord that we must do what we can to prevent child stunting. We are investing significant amounts in global healthcare, focusing on delivering the sustainable development goals.
Zimbabwe: Asylum Seekers
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(5 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Williams of Trafford
The noble Lord is absolutely right that the Government have expressed serious concerns and we continue to call for the Government of Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law and human rights and promote free and fair elections under that protection of the constitution and international human rights law. I reiterate that when we return somebody to their country of origin, we seek to do so only when we and the courts have considered it safe.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has reported that not only did the police and military target members of the MDC, the opposition party, and civil society organisations, their offices were broken into and their membership files downloaded. Subsequently, beatings were carried out and arrests made late at night. What assessment have the Government made of this escalation in premeditated human rights abuses, particularly—as the noble Lord mentioned—in regard to factoring in opposition party membership when assessing asylum seekers’ claims in this country?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The noble Lord has hit on something that the Government acknowledge—there are risks to certain people who oppose the ruling ZANU-PF Government. That does not extend to all people, but when determining an asylum claim, all things are taken into consideration and no one will be returned if it is not safe to return them.
South Sudan
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(5 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Curry, on securing this debate on the crisis in South Sudan. I also congratulate the noble Earl on his contribution and the breadth of knowledge with which he has informed this debate—that goes for the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, as well.
I had the opportunity to visit the southern part of Sudan shortly before independence was declared in Juba in July 2011. The parliamentary delegation of which I was a part visited Juba and Khartoum, meeting the soon-to-be President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, and his staff, and members of President Bashir’s Cabinet in Khartoum.
Noble Lords will recall that, at that time, just prior to the referendum on South Sudan’s independence, there was a massive relocation of population from north to south. Sudanese families were uprooted from the urban environment around Khartoum and transported to the mostly rural areas in the south. Flotillas of Nile barges were deployed to ship these new refugees down to Juba, with around 1,000 people on each barge. It was a moving experience to hear so many people singing together, announcing their impending arrival before each barge came into view, unaware of what awaited them.
Juba then was, and by all accounts still is, a bankrupt and broken city. It had no formal commercial trading base. There are no banks—just a simple cash economy. Our delegation’s organiser had to carry around a cash float sufficient to meet all our travel and accommodation costs in a Tesco plastic bag—I do not know how many thousands of dollars she carried; I did not like to ask—until we found a secure cupboard which relieved the responsibility, courtesy of the UK mission.
The urbanised refugee families from the north were confronted with the prospect of becoming tenant smallholder farmers. They were provided with hand implements, allocated a patch of land and invited to get on with it. The plight of children orphaned by the upheaval was dreadful.
Our delegation was taken to a temporary childcare centre, funded and run by volunteers. They cared for the children they found abandoned in the Juba city markets. With there not being enough money to provide accommodation, the children had to be returned to the market each night and take their chances sleeping under the stalls. By the time the girls were 11, they were coerced into prostitution in the market brothels. Before the boys reached 11, they had generally disappeared.
As if this was not enough for an impoverished, destitute population to cope with, in a country with barely any infrastructure, no civil administration and no formal governance, in 2013—as noble Lords have mentioned—it was plunged into civil war. It was a vicious civil war initiated by leaders with no concern for the fate of the people whom they professed to lead.
Just this week, yet another peace agreement was signed. South Sudan’s UN ambassador, Akuei Bona Malwal, said that the declaration included other warring parties and that they had all pledged to work together to bring peace to the country. I must thank his excellency the ambassador for South Sudan, who sent me a copy of the agreement via the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, which is encouraging. Unfortunately, during the photocopying process, I believe that they have managed to miss out one of the pages which is probably the most important. There we are: it is in my hand; we have the agreement.
Security Council members have welcomed this sign of progress after more than four years of a bloody conflict that has seen thousands killed and more than 4 million displaced from their homes or made refugees. The fighting has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, with more than 7 million South Sudanese requiring humanitarian assistance this year.
The radio station Voice of America, in Washington, reported that Security Council member, Equatorial Guinea’s UN ambassador, Job Obiang Esono Mbengono, had said that the peace declaration was a step on the right path but they were cautious when it came to optimism, since it was not the first time that the parties had reached agreements and not respected them.
The Ethiopian envoy Tekeda Alemu said that the coming days will be critical and that what matters now is for the parties to honour their commitment and implement the ceasefire, but what are the prospects of it lasting? We have already heard this afternoon that the ceasefire has been broken. One far-sighted commentator said that this civil war will last until both sides come to the conclusion that neither side can win.
In the meantime, the people of South Sudan continue to suffer. In the meantime, 7.5 million people need humanitarian assistance, 6 million people—half the population—are severely food-insecure, 1.8 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, making Bidi in Uganda the world’s largest refugee camp, and there are at least 4.2 million IDPs. There are outbreaks of cholera, kala-azar and measles, and during six months of 2016 there were 2 million cases of malaria alone. Three-quarters of school-aged girls are not in school, an adolescent girl is three times more likely to die in childbirth than to complete primary school, and one in five girls among displaced communities has experienced rape or sexual assault since the conflict started.
Despite the signing of the cessation of hostilities agreement, conflict has intensified in parts of Unity and Central Equatoria states. Government forces are seeking to dislodge opposition forces ahead of the rainy season. On 31 May, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2418, renewing the sanctions regime until 15 July, by which time the fighting should have stopped and the parties should have come to a viable agreement. If they have not, the Security Council will consider applying targeted sanctions to six identifiable individuals. Nevertheless, will the Government’s approach to conflict resolution focus not solely on the high-level peace process but look at the root causes? Will the Government strongly and publicly support humanitarian responses to refugees in Sudan and neighbouring countries? Will they acknowledge that more should be done to ensure that South Sudan leaders holding British citizenship are held accountable in an investigation into arms deals between a UK company and South Sudan? Will they support Uganda in providing a safe haven for Sudanese refugees, given that only 21% of the UNHCR’s call for some $674 million in 2017 has been funded?
Sub-Saharan Africa: Public Services and Governance
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(6 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Bates
When the opportunity came, after the former President Mugabe left office, one of the first there was Rory Stewart when he was a joint Foreign Office and DfID Minister. I know that the new Africa Minister, Harriett Baldwin, will be looking to make a visit early on. It is precisely the type of country that has been locked into instability for too long, and yet has immense potential in terms of education and its natural resources, which can be liberated.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
Is the Minister aware that there appears to be a growing consensus among international donors that development is stalling in sub-Saharan Africa because of a failure of governance and weak institutions? Does the Minister agree that ODA should prioritise institutional reform over good governance, providing the capacity to deliver change, following the fundamental principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness set out as long ago as 2005?
Brexit: United Kingdom-Africa Trade and Development
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(7 years ago)
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Lord Bates
I do not think that we see investment in Africa by any country as a problem. We see a significant gap in finance and investment, which Africa needs. The gap to meet the global goals is some $2.5 trillion per year whereas aid flows amount to only some $150 billion. The gap has to be filled by private investors. We welcome them from wherever they come. As the right reverend Prelate will know, we are certainly playing our part in Zimbabwe to encourage investment and to identify investment opportunities in both directions.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, in January this year, Dr Rob Davies, the South Africa Minister of Trade and Industry, reminded the Government that the United Kingdom is the major destination among EU nations for South African investment. It invests more here than in any other EU country. The UK also accounts for 20% of South Africa’s wine exports and 30% of its fruit exports under the current EU economic partnership agreements. What specific actions are the Government taking to allay South African concerns and to maintain the strength of what is a key strategic market post Brexit, when the UK will be excluded from some of those treaties?
Lord Bates
That conversation happened when Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for International Trade, was in South Africa talking about how we could enhance trade co-operation between our two countries. It is important that we do that. We also need to see Africa as a tremendous opportunity—I know that the noble Lord shares my view on this. Africa will be a market of some $30 trillion by 2050 and will have a middle class the size of Europe. It is in our enlightened self-interest to build those strong links and maintain free trade.
South Sudan: Famine
Lord Chidgey Excerpts(7 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Bates
The noble Lord is absolutely right and I appreciate his remarks. On the specific points that he mentions, we have supported and encouraged the work of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development—IGAD—which has led a lot of this work, and have worked through the UN Security Council on that. We have worked with international partners. We are part of the troika with Norway and the United States, which is key in intervening in this area. My noble friend Lady Anelay is looking at the work we are doing across the border, because, although some 3 million people are internally displaced, increasingly, as refugees flow across the border in search of support, that is destabilising other countries in the region. My noble friend Lady Anelay was in Uganda visiting one of the refugee camps. We have committed another £50 million of support in that regard. A huge amount has been done, but the UK cannot do this alone; the international community must step up to the plate. We need to see more action there.
Lord Chidgey (LD)
My Lords, Radio Tamazuj in Juba reported on Tuesday that up to 5.5 million people are expected to be in food crisis in South Sudan by July. That is more than half the population. Pete Walsh, Save the Children’s country director in South Sudan, says:
“While the threat of a famine … has been looming for months, the worst-case scenario has … become a devastating reality”.
While the Government lead the response to Save the Children’s campaign in many other ways, can the Minister tell the House that we consider that the lives of a million children facing death by starvation must be a priority? Will we invest particularly in nutrition centres and in improving farming methods to make sure that food with nutritious value saves them from severe malnutrition?
Lord Bates
The noble Lord, who knows a great deal about the African continent and has focused on this area, rightly puts his finger on the importance of nutrition. We had a very useful debate on that subject yesterday evening, in which we looked at the importance of that area. It is an area on which we are focusing our efforts and where we want to see further action. However, one of the great problems that we know of is that when there is a conflict situation, invariably it is in rural areas. People then leave those areas and go to urban areas, leaving the agricultural land untended and uncultivated. We are now coming to the peak growing season for food crops. Therefore, that movement of people has a double effect, which we must respond to.