International Women’s Day

Derek Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con) [V]]

The UK is a signatory to the 17 sustainable development goals, which I wish we discussed much more in the House. Succeeding in delivering them will lead to women and girls having the greatest opportunity to live full, safe and rewarding lives. That is not because the 17 goals are targeted specifically towards the life chances and rights of women and girls, but because we know that, sadly, women and girls are most likely to be adversely affected by poverty, prejudice, limited opportunities and poor quality water, to mention just a few of the injustices in the world.

The UK has reason to be proud of its role and record of raising those issues, which have an impact on world’s poorest people, as we meet our foreign aid commitments and responsibilities. However, to mark International Women’s Day, I call on the Government to review our progress on the sustainable development goals and especially the areas that most affect women.

The sustainable development goals cover 17 specific areas, but I want to mention just a few. When we adopted the goals in 2015, we said that we would commit to ruling out poverty, ending hunger, providing good health and wellbeing, ensuring access to education, delivering gender equality, providing clean water and sanitation, and giving greater access to decent work and economic growth. Those are just seven of the 17 goals and they all offer real hope, opportunity and improved life chances for women and girls around the world.

Given the Government’s continuing commitment to those worthy outcomes, I gently ask them to question themselves about the justification for the cut in our UK foreign aid. International aid has led the war on forced labour among migrant women and started to crack down on human trafficking. The UK has led the global action on that. Foreign aid has led to African women finding a market for their camels’ milk and been essential in the fight to end violence against women and girls in Lebanon. UK aid is critical in addressing the displacement of women due to conflict, climate change and, more recently, the covid pandemic.

As we mark International Women’s Day, will the Government consider what impact cutting international aid will have now and for years to come on the women and girls who need our help if they are to lead full and fulfilling lives?