Lord Oates
Main Page: Lord Oates (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Lord Oates (LD)
My Lords, I join others in congratulating my noble friend Lady Featherstone on securing this debate and on her eloquent opening speech, and I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hyde, and the noble Lord, Lord Barber, on their powerful maiden speeches. I appreciated their focus on optimism. As both a Liberal Democrat and a Tottenham fan, I can fairly say that I embody the spirit of inexhaustible, sometimes ill-advised, optimism. I am devastated to hear the news that the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton, is retiring. He has been immensely kind to me during my time in the House. I have learned a huge amount from him, and we will all miss him hugely.
I declare my interests as chief executive of United Against Malnutrition & Hunger and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa. I will focus my remarks, as the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, did, on the role of UK development partnerships in Africa specifically. My first visit to Africa was at the age of 15, when I spent a month in Ethiopia during the 1984-85 famine. I later lived and worked for some years in southern Africa. Those experiences have shaped my life and my politics and taught me what can be achieved when the United Kingdom chooses to lead in partnership with others. That is why I was proud to work in the coalition Government, who met the UN target of spending 0.7% of GNI on development assistance. It was morally right to do so but also in Britain’s interest: it strengthened our reputation, our influence and our security. We built on the work of previous Governments to sustain and develop strong partnerships in Africa, which made great progress against extreme poverty and hunger and in furthering development.
Much of that progress is now reversing in the face of huge cuts to development support around the world. That matters because of the human costs—because of the millions of women who will be denied access to sexual and reproductive health services; because of the children who are already contracting HIV as mother-to-child transmission rises in the face of wholesale cuts of HIV services; because of the dream of the defeat of HIV which recedes with every cut; and because of the 2 million children who will die of malnutrition this year. It matters because of all this human tragedy, but it also matters because Africa’s trajectory will shape the UK and Europe more than any other region in the decades ahead.
Africa is not peripheral to British foreign policy; it is central to our security and our prosperity. As my noble friend Lady Featherstone told the House, by 2050 Africa’s population is projected to increase by over 1 billion to reach 2.5 billion, which will represent a quarter of the world. This could result in a demographic dividend driving prosperity in both Africa and Europe, but without investment in Africa’s people it risks delivering instability and conflict rather than opportunity.
That risk is intensified by Africa’s unsustainable debt burden, which is sucking resources out of the continent, crowding out spending on health, education and nutrition, weakening growth and eroding trust in states. The UK should be leading on debt restructuring, transparency and innovations such as debt swaps linked to health, education or nutrition outcomes. In the light of the severe cuts they have made to development partnership support, it is incumbent on the UK Government to provide leadership in this sphere rather than yet more excuses for inaction.
Development partnership assistance is also critical in conflict prevention and migration management. Conflict, food insecurity and economic collapse drive irregular migration. Chronic child malnutrition, worsened by climate shocks, damages learning and productivity, weakening economies and increasing instability. UK investment in agriculture and climate resilience and in combating malnutrition is a strategic imperative. We should sustain support for proven interventions such as UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund, pioneered with UK support—a perfect example of innovation and partnership in action. We need to support world-leading UK science that strengthens food systems and resilience instead of cutting funding that offers benefit to both us and our partners in Africa.
In a competitive world, partnerships anchored in health, debt sustainability and food security can help us rebuild the UK’s reputation and influence, so sadly squandered by the previous Government. But doing so depends on us restoring trust that we are a reliable partner. We need to understand that, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, said, development partnership support is not charity but an investment in our security, prosperity and influence. Retreating from this space will not save money but simply pass on far higher costs to future Governments and taxpayers.