Post-2015 Development Goals

Baroness Featherstone Excerpts

Thursday 4th July 2013 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Havard.

I once again thank the International Development Committee for its report, to which the Government replied on 14 March. I congratulate the Committee on securing a debate on this important topic, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Sir Malcolm Bruce) on an excellent pre-emptor to the high-level panel discussions. We have heard many excellent contributions from Members this afternoon, and I will try to get through as many points as I can, but my time is somewhat limited.

Since the International Development Committee’s report and the Government’s response, we have seen the high-level panel’s report on post-2015 development. I hope that all those who have seen the report will join me in saying that the Prime Minister and the panel have set the bar high for the next two years of discussion. They have laid out a truly ambitious vision for eradicating extreme poverty within a generation, tackling the difficult but necessary issues head on.

I want to take a moment to talk about the high-level panel’s report, because I believe, and the Government believe, that the vision it sets out for what the new agenda might look like marks a step change. I hope that the International Development Committee is pleased that many of its recommendations are reflected in the report.

The five transformative shifts that drive the new development framework are key. First and foremost is the commitment to leave no one behind, which goes to the heart of the issue that many Members raised, and to keep faith with the original promise of the millennium development goals and finish the job by eradicating extreme poverty in a generation.

A number of Members raised issues of equity and equality, and there is a commitment to ensuring that every single goal is achieved for everyone, in every social and income group, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, where someone lives, what religion they practise, or whether they are in extreme poverty. That is a radical departure from the previous MDGs, and is the shift that will make the most significant difference, because countries will not score unless they have done hard work for the hardest to reach, the most marginalised, the most difficult and the poorest extremes.

Secondly, the panel called for sustainable development to be at the core of the new framework. Several Members have raised the issue of integrating the millennium development goals with the sustainable development goals. Although the streams are separate—the open working group is working on the sustainable development goals—that second transformative shift will put sustainable development clearly at the core of the new framework.

That recognises the fundamental link between the environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainable development. For example, we can deliver food security for all only if there is an efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. It is absolutely clear that we need to bring together the review of the millennium development goals and the Rio+20 follow-up to deliver a single development framework, as the Committee recommended in its report.

Thirdly, we need to transform economies to provide jobs and inclusive growth, which was mentioned by several hon. Members. Clearly, we need to lift people out of poverty through economic development and growth, to unleash the dynamism that gives everyone economic opportunities, and to harness investment and the private sector as the drivers of development. As has been said, we need inclusive and pro-poor growth, and it is important that those things are interwoven. The hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) raised some concerns about the involvement of organisations and companies, such as CDC or ones in the private sector. It is vital that all who work in or profit from such organisations, share those profits and ensure that everyone benefits from such growth.

Fourthly, although this has been less mentioned in the debate, we need to build peace and to build effective, open and accountable institutions for all. As the Prime Minister has said,

“Freedom from fear, conflict and violence is the most fundamental human right”.

Human rights have been mentioned in the debate. Without accountable Governments, safety, freedom of speech, free political choice, the rule of law and all the elements of good governance and peace, how can we eradicate poverty?

[Fiona Bruce]

Will the Minister give way?

[Lynne Featherstone]

I am really short of time, but I will briefly give way.

[Fiona Bruce]

We often forget that freedom of belief—freedom of thought and belief, to hold a religion or not to hold any religion—goes alongside freedom of speech. That is not always remembered, but it should be.

[Lynne Featherstone]

Well, it is remembered by the Government. We hold that dear, and we work closely not just with people in terms of respecting their religions in their countries, but with our own faith groups and faith NGOs throughout the world. We cannot really do development, if we do not work in partnership with the faiths of the countries in which we work. That is the only way forward.

The issues of women, and of women in conflict, have been raised. In relation to providing peace and stability, DFID—the UK Government—have put women and girls right at the heart of all our development work. With respect to lifting families out of poverty, if a woman is empowered with education, has children later, has some power over her own life and has economic empowerment, her children and the community will be better off. As the international champion in the fight against violence against women and girls, our fight is obviously against violence against women—how can we have development when half the population basically cannot go outside their own door?—but there are also campaigns on female genital mutilation, which is a symbol of women’s oppression.

Finally, the panel has called for a new global partnership and has set out the principles of that new partnership and the spirit of co-operation needed between Governments, civil society, businesses, international agencies and people living in poverty themselves to make the post-2015 vision a reality. We have all learned that there is no one answer and that no one body or person can deliver across all the areas that are needed in this world, which we will achieve only through genuine and sincere partnership.

One big jump made by the high-level panel report is its use of illustrative examples of how the transformative shifts could be made into goals themselves. I am obviously biased: I am very keen on the stand-alone gender goal, which I think is imperative. However, there could be goals on poverty, hunger, education, equality, jobs, economic growth, good governance, peace and stability. Hon. Members have spoken compellingly about the importance of all those issues, and I hope they are happy with the concrete, measurable and compelling goals and targets that have been suggested.

The report was a remarkable piece of work. I did not expect it to be as good and succinct as it is. This is the beginning of the process, and the next two years will demand a huge amount of work if we are to bring that seminal piece of work to a concrete conclusion that we can all deliver. As has been said, the early MDGs were phenomenal drivers for good, but they did not always achieve what they set out to do. Like other Members, I have visited schools, including one in Zambia that has 100% attendance, but a 96% failure rate. We have learned from the first MDGs, so I am very hopeful that we will do better with the post-2015 ones.

I want to highlight three of the Committee’s recommendations that are particularly important. The first is on the rights of women, which I have already touched on. The more times that that can be raised by more bodies, the more capital it will gain until we reach universal agreement that part of, if not all, the answer is the empowerment of women. The second recommendation is that the post-2015 development agenda reflects the needs of the poorest, about which I could not agree more. As has been said, we need to listen to the voices of the poorest, and that is what the high-level panel did. For the first time, from surveys such as the My World survey, and mobiles, the internet and old-fashioned clipboards and pencils, schoolgirls in Rwanda and urban workers in Brazil have all been heard. The third recommendation highlighted the importance of keeping up the hard work, and I absolutely concur with it.

[Mr James Gray in the Chair]

I want to touch on some of the points raised in the debate. I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon that we should take the MDGs as a starting point for the post-2015 goals. He highlighted the important lesson that halving poverty sometimes has the perverse incentive whereby we do not try to reach the very poorest. It is because that is important that the high-level panel has called for disaggregated data for all groups to ensure that the most vulnerable people are not left behind.

My right hon. Friend raised the issue of fragile states. He rightly identified the real issue that countries emerging from, or still in, conflict can be left behind in relation to development. The high-level panel report recognised that conflict plays a critical role in relation to security. It has addressed that through the stand-alone illustrative goal of ensuring stable and peaceful societies, for which targets in the framework include those on violent deaths, access to justice and the behaviour of security forces. The Government will work hard to ensure that that important recommendation is reflected in the final framework.

Several hon. Members raised the issue of young people and mentioned the burgeoning number of young people in some countries. The panel has called for a jobs target with a specific indicator for youth employment.

Secondary and tertiary education has also been raised. We have found from the evidence that the most benefit for economic development comes through primary and lower secondary education, but as countries develop, people need to stay in secondary and tertiary education and, even more importantly, to have jobs at the end, so that those who have been through tertiary education are not left with nothing and with nowhere to go, except to leave those countries that so greatly need them.

Everyone has praised the 0.7% level, about which there is cross-party consensus. My hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson) spoke about his experience in Ethiopia. I have felt the same when I have been there. Each time I go, I see that it has opened itself to the world a little more. I also admire its control over its own development, because it has its own best interests at heart. As I have said, growth should be inclusive and pro-poor.

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) when he spoke about strengthening health systems. In the nine months that I have been in post, I have found that if Government public health systems are not there and everyone—whether an NGO, a non-state actor or whoever—does their separate bit, however well-intentioned, it is very piecemeal. It is only with the stability of a national health system, as it were, that services can be combined, as I have seen in the very poor state of Marsabit, where the Government of Kenya have done so in relation to nutrition programmes, vaccination programmes, transition of HIV, and so on.

I am running out of time, but I want to thank my hon. Friend for his kind words about DFID’s work on titles in Rwanda. Land ownership and land titling is hugely important.

Lastly, let me reassure the House that the Government’s commitment to this vital agenda will go on. The agenda, which will shape the UK’s work on development in the coming decades, will continue over the next two years of discussions and negotiations. Thank you, Mr Gray, for the opportunity to speak on this important topic. I thank all Members who have spoken.

[Mr James Gray (in the Chair)]

Order. Before we move on to the next debate on Pakistan, it is perfectly in order for the right hon. Member for Gordon to wind up this debate.