Covid-19: International Response
Lord German Excerpts(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord German (LD)
My Lords, I refer to my interests in the register. If we believe historians, this pandemic is not a blip but a regular feature of the human story. So, while we struggle to find immediate solutions, we cannot disregard the longer-term effects of this pandemic. Permanent changes to how we live will have to be made to make us less vulnerable in the future.
It might be right to criticise the Chinese response, but the challenge is for world leaders to step up to the plate to provide an equitable way of supporting each other across the globe. Interestingly, at the 4 May EU/UK-hosted world summit on responding to the pandemic, it was the Chinese representative who said:
“In fighting the virus, confidence and solidarity are much more valuable than gold.”
In the last 10 years, we have seen protectionism rise and talk of borders, tariffs and “us first” policies abound. There is the challenge. The Government have to make the case for co-operation globally and this pandemic is forcing countries to do just that. The WHO says that it will take a four to five-year timeframe to control this virus; a vaccine may control it, but it will take much longer to eliminate the disease.
Russia, India and the USA were missing from the table at the EU/UK summit. Political leadership is critical to success, so can the Minister tell us what steps the UK Government are taking to, in Theresa May’s words,
“ensure the effectiveness of a system of co-operation through shared institutions”?
Does the Minister agree that the WHO needs to be a financially strengthened and independent organisation, not frustrated by weakness? This country’s extensive overseas aid budget gives us strong diplomatic muscle, to build political bridges to make things work. We have to fight national self-isolation if we want a secure future, both for ourselves and the rest of the world.
Africa: Support
Lord German Excerpts(3 years, 11 months ago)
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Baroness Sugg
My Lords, in fact, the UK co-hosted that summit along with the EU and we are absolutely committed to the WHO Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator to make sure that new vaccines are accessible by everyone.
Lord German (LD)
My Lords, I refer to my interests as listed in the register. There are Commonwealth countries in Africa that have no DfID representation within them. What are the Government doing to ensure that on-the-ground organisation is arranged for the aid that the UK is providing? Would the Minister consider using the Governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have relationships in some of these countries, to assist?
Baroness Sugg
My Lords, as I said, the Commonwealth has an essential role to play in the global response to Covid-19. We obviously have a presence in the vast majority of countries that need our presence and, where we do not, we work closely with international agencies to make sure that they are delivering the help needed on the ground. However, I will certainly take the noble Lord’s suggestion of working with other Governments back to the department.
Overseas Development Assistance: Gender-based Violence
Lord German Excerpts(4 years ago)
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Baroness Sugg
I agree with the noble Lord that we must address both the primary and secondary impacts. I am particularly concerned about education. Ensuring that vulnerable girls can continue to learn and return to school after this crisis is vital. I also agree with the noble Lord that we must do what we can to support civil society and NGOs. He referred to the rapid response facility. We are also reprioritising our programmes within countries and working with civil society and women’s rights organisations to deliver those programmes.
Lord German (LD)
My Lords, I draw attention to my interests declared in the register. Are organisations currently doing other programmes for ODA able to pivot their activities towards gender-based violence? In so pivoting, will they prejudice themselves when applying to continue the work they are currently doing?
Baroness Sugg
The noble Lord is right to point out that we are working really closely with our partners on doing exactly that: pivoting to programmes relevant to Covid-19. Of course, other programmes will also continue, and we will work closely with partners to make sure that they can continue their vital work.
International Sustainability: Natural Resources and Biodiversity
Lord German Excerpts(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord German (LD)
My Lords, I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, for ensuring that we have this important debate today. I primarily want to address issues relating to biodiversity and DfID assistance in small countries, particularly Lesotho and the Gambia, but before I do so, I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington, about the state of agriculture in Africa in general. I particularly echo his view on low tilling and crop rotation, which are vital if you are trying to deal with countries in which agriculture is the base for the survival of their population. The two small countries I want to talk about—I declare my interests as shown in the register—are very much affected by agricultural and land degradation.
In the Gambia, experts estimate that half the land in the country is degraded owing to poor land management. Increased temperatures and drought have also occurred as the effects of climate change have an impact. In the 1950s and 1960s, some places in the Gambia would record 2,000 millilitres of rain. Now, if rainfall amounts to 800 millilitres, that is regarded as a good season. Deforestation has also contributed to reduced rainfall, allowing storms and flash floods to wash away the fertile soils, bringing gradual desertification as sands roll in and turn once rich farmland into uncultivated dunes.
Lesotho has also suffered from the effects of climate change. It is a mountainous country with—this is a challenge for noble Lords—the highest lowest point in the world. In the highlands, there is snowfall during the winter months. It suffers both drought and harsh rain storms. The substrata of the country are hard rock, and the vicious rainstorms sweep away the thin covering of cultivatable soil and create huge gullies in the lower parts of the country. Droughts have withered the country, parching the rivers and producing widespread crop failure.
One of the increasingly frequent severe droughts is happening now. This very day, a large portion of the population is receiving food aid. At least a quarter of the population need food aid just to survive. Unfortunately, this is now a frequent occurrence. In 2017, for example, I observed families with wheelbarrows walking many miles up mountains to UN feeding stations to collect sacks of maize just to keep their families alive—and they are doing that today. Poverty is rife and directly linked to the severe land degradation, poor crop husbandry methods and reliance on rain-fed farming.
Both countries are members of the Commonwealth, both have democratic structures and both are small in population. Lesotho has the third-highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world, and life expectancy, while rising now, is still way below that of most other sub-Saharan African countries.
As the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, suggested, there are solutions to the land degradation, which we can see in both countries. One of the simplest to explain is trees—not just any trees but the right sort of trees. The obvious problem is that wood is used for cooking and heating, and the issue is the need for cultural and economic change so that cutting down trees is seen as damaging family incomes. In Lesotho, the challenge is to plant and nurture fruit trees. The fruit provides nourishment while the tree roots hold back land degradation.
There are other micro ways in which families can grow the crops they need to survive. I should like to introduce noble Lords to Mrs Maleloko Fokotsale and her garden. It is not very photogenic. It looks like a jumble of rocks and dirt piled into a circle. However, this keyhole garden can feed a family of five for many months. It is about a metre high—roughly up to Mrs Fokotsale’s waist—and just wide enough so that she can reach over to the middle. In the centre is a compost hole in which waste and wastewater are placed, so that the nutrient-rich mix seeps through to the rest of the soil in the garden. It does not need much water, and any wastewater can be used.
There are many other solutions to these land degradation problems, but they require investment, skills, training and engagement. So where is DfID in all this? I am afraid it is virtually nowhere to be seen in either country, and for many in the support services it is a long-forgotten name from the past. Why is that? It is primarily because DfID’s needs-effectiveness index leads to support being provided for more populous countries. It has effectively hard-wired a systemic preference for larger countries. For example, the use of rates of poverty, rather than actual poverty numbers, skews the decision on where to spend towards those countries with larger populations. The largest focus for DfID assistance in Africa is in Nigeria and Ethiopia, closely followed by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, which are numbers 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8 in population size in Africa. This has two effects. First, it excludes small countries with high development needs and, secondly, it implies that it is more effective to work in larger than smaller countries. Can the Minister say whether reconsideration of these effects has been considered recently by DfID when setting future strategies and budgets?
My second concern is about joined-up government thinking in where to place direct spend and how to do it. In recent months, the FCO has developed a governance programme for the National Assembly of the Gambia and has reopened its high commission in Lesotho. Both are small Commonwealth countries and these new developments are very welcome, but they cannot be seen as valuable new trade agreements in a post-Brexit world. They are a statement that this country and these interventions are dealing with some of the long-term issues facing those countries, which are mainly associated with poverty. If we are going to structure Foreign and Commonwealth Office activity in those countries, surely it would be better to match and work alongside it on both long-term and short-term needs, which are very important. Does the Minister agree that there is a need to bring together intangible and tangible support to build on the new developments that the UK Government are currently making and to establish a truly cross-departmental approach in countries such as the Gambia and Lesotho? DfID spend in Lesotho this year is £165,000, and that all goes on education. So there is an example of low spend, yet the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is investing hugely in the country, and we now need to make sure that that long-term and short-term aid and development process is brought together.
My third concern is that, where there is no in-country presence, DfID frequently channels its money through large multinational agencies. However, I would be grateful if the Minister could tell me whether it has also considered using the Governments in Scotland and Wales to assist with efforts in countries where DfID does not have a presence. These Governments have their own access to skills and development sources, and they already provide small-scale funding to enable NGOs in Scotland and Wales to build projects in the developing world. Have the Government considered working with these other UK Governments? In so doing, they would be able to capture existing well-developed NGO supporters and developers. At the same time, the UK Government could be reassured that, as they are Governments themselves, the rigorous monitoring, governance and oversight capability, as exercised by DfID, would be in place in those Governments.
In conclusion, I should like to take a more hopeful message to Mrs Fokotsale, and I look to the Minister’s reply on the three issues that I have raised—small country assistance, bringing tangible and intangible support together, and using devolved Governments to help—to do just that. Armed with those answers, I hope that Mrs Fokotsale and thousands more like her can look forward to a better future.
Wales: Economy
Lord German Excerpts(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord German
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are taking regarding the challenges faced by the Welsh economy, and how they are ensuring that the Welsh and United Kingdom Governments work closely together in the interests of the Welsh people.
Baroness Northover
My Lords, because the Question for short debate of the noble Lord, Lord German, will now be taken as last business, the time limit becomes 90 minutes rather than 60 minutes. Speeches should therefore be limited to 10 minutes; the speech of the noble Lord, Lord German, remains as 10 minutes and the Minister’s as 12 minutes.
Lord German
My Lords, I begin my speech today by paying tribute to my noble friend the Minister and welcoming her to her new position as well as her first appearance at the Dispatch Box. I hope that nothing that I might say, or that other noble Lords might say, gives her any difficulty in responding to questions about Wales that we pose in this debate.
The economic health of Wales is the most important issue of all facing our country. Jobs, prosperity and the well-being of our people depend upon it, but there are some worrying underlying trends which are holding Wales back. I want to examine those issues today and to look at some potential solutions.
Despite 13 years of a Welsh Assembly, economic performance in the country still languishes at the bottom of the league. There is an overdependence on the public sector, and lower private sector development than is needed to pull Wales up by its bootstraps. In 1989, GVA per head in Wales was 84% of the UK average; in 2009—these are the latest figures available—it was 74%. GDP in Wales in 2010 was 80% of the European average, compared to 111% in the UK as a whole, and in west Wales and the valleys that fell to 68%. In the last quarter, public sector employment in Wales represented nearly 26% of the total workforce, higher than in any other part of Great Britain.
Wales went through its last industrial revolution in the mid and later 20th century, with the virtual ending of coal and heavy, smokestack industries. The replacement was with inward investment companies from around the globe, producing goods for the UK and European markets. That was a difficult transition, but it was a transition. Unfortunately, some of that has remained, but much has moved on to areas of cheaper labour cost. Once again, Wales needs to look for a different pattern of economic development, which is why the UK and Welsh Governments need to work together.
The levers that affect economic change are split between the Welsh Government and the UK Government. Working in different directions would at worst be pointless and could also result in overlapping or duplication of support and effort. By way of example of the split of those levers, we can take employment issues. The Work Programme remains with the UK Government but the Welsh Government provide apprenticeships. Financial support between SMEs is split between some of the banking provision and work that the UK Government do and the small, support grant aid that the Welsh Government provide. On exporting activities, the Welsh Government lead trade delegations, and so do the UK Government; sometimes they work hand in hand, but sometimes they do not. Essentially, the microeconomic and macroeconomic measures that Governments can take are split between two Governments.
We await the report of the Silk commission, which will undoubtedly propose changes to the ability of the Welsh Government to use financial levers. These are crucial, because the Welsh Government will benefit from financial incentives to boost the Welsh economy. I am therefore somewhat surprised that Labour seems to have rejected income tax powers. It is not about the variation of income tax—whether it is 1p up or 2p down, or whatever—but about raising the tax base overall in Wales, which will give the Welsh Government a better income. The more successful that the Welsh Government are in raising the tax base of Wales, the more money they will have to spend on public goods. And it is important that the Welsh Government should have financial incentives to do better; it goes alongside borrowing powers. You cannot use one without the other.
The other issue is the use of European funding. Wales will in all likelihood have a third round of the highest level of European support, subject to a budget which I understand some in the other place are striving to reduce. But there is a need to refocus the use of that European money and concentrate on private sector development—small company growth, new business formations, supply chain support, new financial support mechanisms, exporting, and redoubling the effort that we put into skills development and training. Convergence funding is very likely to continue, because GVA in west Wales and the valleys in 2010 was 68% of the European average, well below the current 75% qualification threshold for the highest level of funding. To measure that against the figure for the UK as a whole, it was 111% of the European average.
The recently published Heseltine report suggested bringing together many structural funds to try to create an armoury of financial weapons, with the ESF, ERDF, the marine and fisheries fund and the European agricultural fund for rural development, so that there could be an organised direction for European funding, particularly to aid the goals of small and medium-sized enterprise growth, skills and training. I would like to know the Minister’s attitude towards the proposed Atlantic strategy, which of course is now in its formation and which would serve the purpose of doing just that for Wales.
Where are the opportunities for the future? Manufacturing is a key Welsh advantage, and always has been in recent decades. In 2010, manufacturing made up 18% of the Welsh economy, compared to 12% of the UK as a whole. The automotive sector, pharmaceuticals and steel production are key areas for development but there is now a need to look at new and emerging sectors where there is an added value and an export advantage. For example, we need to encourage joint ventures between companies from outside Wales and companies with know-how within Wales. There is a need to bring the know-how and the finance together to create wider markets.
As regards research and development, Welsh higher education can and should do more to grab the available funding for innovation. We have really good examples of progress in this area. Some of our universities are to be congratulated on what they have done but we need to replicate that and expand it. Research and development expenditure in Wales represents only 2% of the UK spend in this area and the split in Wales is 46% investment from the private sector and 54% from the public sector. However, the figure is too small in terms of encouraging the innovation and development which companies in Wales need.
Small companies make up 99% of businesses in Wales and represent 43% of all company turnover. Many of them urgently seek credit to enable them to expand, so getting the cash to these companies must be a priority. However, noble Lords will know that small business formation in Wales has gone down each year since 2004. In 2004, some 11,525 VATable threshold companies were created, but only 7,500 were created in 2010. They decreased in number through each of the good years as well as the lean years. Therefore, renewed emphasis on supporting the small business birthrate is needed.
The M4 syndrome whereby people believe that they are doing different things and achieving different purposes must end. There must be a common purpose between the Welsh Government and the UK Government, so perhaps now is the time for a joint task force: not a review or a policy document but a group which can recommend action, support both Governments, suggest new approaches and enable better working together. This could draw on the best brains and build on best practice in all these areas. I believe that a new arena for co-operation is needed. Wales is in need of an injection of new thinking to drive its economy upwards and off the bottom rung. There is more need than ever to work together because not working together will damage the prospects of the very growth which is so needed in our country.