Middle East and North Africa

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord King, could not stay for the whole debate and kindly sent me a note donating his seven minutes to me.

Last month, I spoke about the regional approach to the Arab-Israel divide and how Egypt was playing a helpful role. In this debate, I will concentrate on Egypt’s own development and on our UK opportunity and responsibility. Trust and inclusion build stability while mistrust and exclusion lead to spiralling instability. We are blessed in this country with a stable democracy and a safe society. We must be generous in supporting both the governance and peoples of partner countries as they seek to grow trust and stability.

We admire the courage of the Egyptian people and their leaders over recent years through some difficult times. First, I would like to offer condolences to the people of Egypt, the army and the President, for those people who died in last Friday’s horrific attack on the army camp by terrorists. We should know that there are many dreadfully injured Egyptian army and police officers being treated here in the UK, and many more in Germany, France and Switzerland.

The UK-Egypt partnership needs to get closer. Some 25% of all the people in the MENA region actually live in Egypt. Together, we can build benefits for the region and each other. It will require bold leadership to take the relationship to a new level and fulfil humanitarian, economic and stabilisation needs. Our Prime Minister should invite President al-Sisi to the UK as soon as possible. A group of experienced parliamentarians on our recent visits to Egypt were convinced that we in the United Kingdom have much to offer Egypt and that we can learn from Egypt’s experiences and expertise.

It is always easier to judge but wiser to understand more deeply. Rather than wringing our hands from the sidelines, we must take the opportunity to serve and help shape Egypt’s democratic cause and history. Our APPG on Egypt had a meeting yesterday with the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Tobias Ellwood. Our chairman and members of both Houses called for him urgently to extend an invitation to President al-Sisi to visit the UK in the light of the speed of the changes happening in the area and the rise of terrorism.

In a meeting last Tuesday, the Egyptian Secretary of State gave us assurances that the parliamentary elections are now imminent. He also said that the Government are planning to allow the Nubians, who have been dispossessed of their land for decades, to return to their tribal homes. We could discuss with President al-Sisi how we might continue to assist the Egyptians in following their four-stage road map to develop a first-class secular democracy with improved civil liberties and human rights. We could offer Britain’s experience and support in that endeavour.

The Egyptians have now completed the first two stages of the four-stage road map: first, a new constitution; secondly, an elected president; and now, thirdly, the election of a brand new Parliament with a judicial framework to monitor the election that will start in December and complete next March.

Finally, they plan to create better economic conditions for all of their people. For this they are arranging an investor conference to take place next February so that inward investment will create better lives for all the people of Egypt. We must help them to build the conditions for international business to invest and prepare UK businesses to be first investors. I am pleased that, to this end, the Minister Tobias Ellwood is to lead a trade delegation to Egypt next January. The UK can also continue to build security in the region by acting as a trusted intermediary between Egypt and Israel and facilitating the sharing of technical know-how, which is mutually beneficial to them and good for the UK.

Taking a wider view of the growing conflicts across MENA, the issues being fought over and the characteristics of the combatants are varied, but it seems that the root cause of all of them is similar. Whether it is the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank or the 90 million people in Egypt, whether it is the Syrians and the Kurds, those suffering in Iran and Iraq or those calling themselves Islamic State, it is all about not being allowed to have a say in their own affairs. Individuals and factions in dictatorships are finding no better course of action than to fight and Governments are finding no better credible solution than to clamp down with force on their people. This is where we should be encouraging, engaging, helping and serving. We should have a proactive foreign policy that builds trust and resilience before things get worse, helping to find a pathway from conflict and fragility to stability, investment, development and prosperity, along with helping Governments to listen, build trust and respond, and citizens to reap the benefits of incremental change.

We are paying the price for not proactively building resilience in the past. Foreign policy leadership should create the conditions for good governance, democratic voice and peaceful transition. This is what I suspect UK development and support aims do through the Building Stability Overseas strategy, which brings together the Foreign Office, the MoD and the DfID Growth and Resilience Department. They recognise that a day of conflict can cost more than a year of prevention, but it is not clear what the mechanism is. What is the “theory of change” by which our foreign policy will bring peace and stability to the region? We have learnt from engaging with Egypt that there is an opportunity that is not “empire” and is not “aid”; it is to help provide a platform and mechanisms for building democratic fabric and enabling development and trade with partner countries to support processes that rebuild trust in government and interventions that build the trustworthiness of that Government.

In my days as a retailer—I am pleased to note that we have introduced into our House today a great retailer, the noble Lord, Lord Rose of Monewden—we would put our values to work with Egypt and Israel to build understanding and trust through trading with both of them on the same products, benefiting our customers, benefiting the UK and benefiting both Egypt and Israel. Sometimes the best strategy in business is to transform a difficult economic challenge with an entirely new way of thinking. To this end, I have spoken previously about the Middle East Centre for Civic Involvement. Benefiting from the wisdom and experience of noble Lords from all sides of the House and politicians from the other place, it aims to provide a mechanism for democratic fabric, trust building, stabilisation, and for investment and prosperity.

Let us partner with the MENA region for stability, investment, development and democracy. Let us be part of the solution. Let us consider the cost of our military interventions in the region and the cost of further instability and realise that it would be far better, as a distinct feature of UK foreign policy, to put British values to work in a way that meets national, economic, geopolitical and other interests. I ask the Minister to put it to Her Majesty’s Government that we should invest in a bold initiative for peace, stability and prosperity in the region by partnering more closely—and first with Egypt.

Syria and the Middle East

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath (Lab)]

My Lords, Syria is in the title of this timely debate, but one could have chosen, as has been said, several other epicentres of enormous world-changing transition within the region. For example, I have just returned from Israel and the West Bank, where great efforts are going into the peace talks and, despite the scepticism, movement is happening. Even though the timeframe may need to be extended, a positive process will be agreed by the middle of this year.

Today I want to concentrate on Egypt, which is also going to be a different country by June this year, and thereby influence the region for the better. Three weeks ago, a cross-party group of Members of both Houses visited Cairo, including the noble Lords, Lord Hylton and Lord Marlesford. Here I declare a non-financial interest as governor of the British University in Egypt (the BUE). Its founder, Mohamed Farid Khamis, and his foundation sponsored our visit.

Our objectives were to support the Egyptian people in their aspirations to democracy and stability, to establish a relationship between parliamentarians and promote better relationships between our countries, to keep on their agenda religious freedom, civil liberties, women’s rights, and to encourage some of the positive steps already taken in these fields. This visit was the first of a planned series of visits that will build relationships once the new Administration has been elected.

We had face-to-face individual meetings with the President, the Prime Minister at that time, Field Marshal al-Sisi, the Foreign Minister, the Minister of the Interior, His Holiness the Coptic Pope and the Grand Imam, and we were accompanied by the British Ambassador, James Watt. Our discussions were deep and wide and we developed several themes that we might work on together. For example, on the separation of police and the military, we agreed in talks with Field Marshal al-Sisi from the military, and the Interior Minister for the police, that while Egypt has a strong and effective military, which traditionally has an elevated status, its job now should be to deal with external threats to control the frontier, and it must re-establish order in the Sinai and keep a firm hold on the water sources there.

Egypt is facing unprecedented pressure from within, and the military cannot be the police. In the longer term, this civil unrest requires a police force with a higher status, an entirely different entity from the military, which should become a wide collection of local forces in all towns, villages, cities and communities, with a subtle understanding of local issues and integrated into the community, yet still with strong central governance. In this context, we also discussed the hundreds of detainees. Egypt needs immediately to develop a process to try them in court for recognised crimes or to release them.

We talked about the need, in addition to the presidential and parliamentary elections, for a process of continued national dialogue that could mobilise all the energies within Egypt. Within its 90 million people, there are many groupings that have their own hopes and fears, grievances and aspirations. A Government who want to rule with the will of their people must have a robust, sensitive, patient, long-term system for listening to, hearing and responding to those voices. They are now considering a centre for civic involvement at the British University of Egypt where faculty, students and experts from the UK can facilitate dialogue. We emphasised the need for the involvement of Copts, Nubians, youth, women and so on.

We also met with the wise and experienced Amr Moussa, who has gone to great lengths to work with the Committee of 50, including these groups, which, with enormous patience and understanding, has created a new Egyptian constitution. He and all the people we met realise that they are taking on a huge task to restore Egypt to its former glory. The economy needs reviving. Law and order will encourage tourism. Inward investment should be made as easy as possible, and there is a need to increase—as is being done by the BUE—training for work and employment for youth. Healthcare will need to be restructured. Egyptians have great talent and entrepreneurialism and stand at the crux between Africa to the south and Europe to the north; they are part of the east and the west.

We have just heard Angela Merkel talk about the peace and prosperity brought about by post-war united Europe. Were Israel and Palestine and Jordan and Egypt to find their feet in the next few years and begin to work and trade together, they could serve as a light to the nations that surround them. That could be the beginning of a Middle East and north Africa that contribute greatly to the world’s economy, ecology, art, science, medicine and culture.

As a result of this visit, we will form an all-party parliamentary group on Egypt. We will arrange follow-up meetings post Egyptian parliamentary elections for us to go back to Egypt and for them to come to the UK. We hope that noble Lords will help us help them gain the stability they seek and that Her Majesty’s Government will support this work where Britain could help bring a wider stability to the whole region.

I have just noticed that I have spoken for only five minutes. Can I bank the extra five for a future debate when I am limited to three minutes?

British Council: Funding

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 19th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath]

My Lords, I declare a specific interest: I chair DIPEx, an Oxford-based charity. We are currently internationalising ourselves, and this is my theme.

Last month, in a debate on the voluntary sector, I proposed to Her Majesty’s Government that they may wish to create a hub in the United Kingdom that would encourage and support other established British charities and social enterprises to internationalise themselves. The Government have not yet responded. In that debate, I mentioned the British Council, which has for decades promoted our language, education, arts and culture. I said that this was good for Britain and good for the world. Perhaps I was addressing the Government too vaguely and this debate is a more appropriate forum for my suggestion.

What I suggest is a way of expanding and infusing new activities and eventually more funding into the British Council. Here is the suggestion: across the UK many excellent charities and voluntary organisations have already successfully internationalised themselves, but others are struggling to create organisations that spread worldwide with the right disciplines and standards, and many as yet have not realised the vast potential and advantages of becoming international. Imagine if we were to encourage British charities and social enterprises—large, medium-sized and small—to consider researching the issues that they address here in other countries and linking with groups in those other countries to form international organisations.

Were the British Council to decide that it might be a good thing to add the voluntary sector of the United Kingdom to its remit, it might start with a trial of, say, 10 charities, then 100 and then 1,000. There are 162,000 charities registered in the UK and thousands of social enterprises. If 2.5% of them—that is, 5,000 charities with an average income of around £250,000 a year—were to internationalise over time, we would have created in the UK an enlightened centre, spreading good works around the world, with a turnover of more than £1 billion.

To start, perhaps 100 charities could be encouraged to come forward over the first year to internationalise themselves. The British Council hub would then give them access to international legal structures and the ability to set global standards and resources for branding, marketing and website publishing. Even if it cost an average of £50,000 for each of those organisations, the total cost of helping 100 of them would be £5 million. The charities could raise some of this, sponsorship would be forthcoming and, in time, the whole thing would become self-funding. In addition, providing the service worldwide would become a source of funding for the British Council.

Let me cite DIPEx as an example. I am not asking for help here: we will internationalise ourselves with our own resources. This is what we decided to do. DIPEx is a charity that has worked closely with the University of Oxford. With the support of the Department of Health, it has raised £10 million and created www.healthtalkonline.org. We publish people’s personal experience of health conditions online so that other patients can learn from them. So far, over 10 years, we have covered 70 health conditions, including cancers, heart diseases and neurological conditions, and life issues such as bereavement, pregnancy, menopause and the like. This year, our website will receive 1 million hits a week and 3 million unique visitors.

Now, based on training and support from DIPEx UK, organisations in other countries are setting up parallel projects in universities and hospitals in Spain, Germany, Holland, Japan, South Korea, China, Israel and Palestine, Canada and Australia. Together, we will establish DIPEx International to co-ordinate the activities of the group, to collect and publish health experiences worldwide and, combinedly, to help with fundraising.

We have decided to use £50,000 of our DIPEx charitable reserves to do this. Oxford would then become the international centre for the highest quality worldwide health charity. As a result of our activity, Green Templeton College, where we are based in Oxford, plans to create a health experiences institute, a centre for research into patients’ experiences worldwide. DIPEx is just one example of a charity doing this. I am suggesting that a conversation may be arranged by the British Council with people involved in this sector to see whether this programme to help the charity and social enterprise field from Britain should be added to its mission, and to see if we could make connections and create new ways to spread aid and services to countries with which we wish to have relations.

Perhaps a conference could be held, to which we would invite 30 or 40 people from this field who would be interested in helping to take the idea forward. The participants might include five charities, five social enterprises, small, medium and large, the Social Enterprise coalition, the Social Investment Consultancy, Prism, the gift fund with which I am involved, Global Philanthropic, Global Tolerance, some experienced lawyers in the field, some big UK-based international businesses to help with advice on internationalisation and perhaps funding, and the Charity Commission.

I am sorry that I do not have the resources to research this more deeply. It is merely a suggestion, but perhaps noble Lords feel that it merits further research, discussion and action.

Middle East: Recent Developments

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Friday 13th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath]

My Lords, in such a region of turmoil, where horrible events have occurred and people are suppressed, maimed and killed in countries as widespread as Syria, Egypt and Iran, people often tend, as my noble friend Lord Haskel said, to ignore any positives but take sides and lay blame on one side or another. Perhaps it is useful to condemn but this should not be one-sided vilification. If one chooses to lay blame, it should be on Governments and organisations making wrong policies and decisions, not the peoples of any of these countries. Most Iranians, Egyptians, Syrians want to be free to live a normal family life. The dispute I know most about in the region is the Palestinian/Israeli arena. Survey after survey has shown that 70% of the populations on both sides would like to be in two separate states, living side by side with mutual recognition. It is the extremists with the loudest voices and insidious actions who prevent the majority getting on with living the way they would prefer—in peace.

As we have heard from the Minister today and from Tripoli, there are individuals and organisations working in the region to heal these rifts. When, in freedom, individuals are able to experience something greater than their habitual selves and escape insular dogma, they tend to live more fulfilling lives and choose to follow the path of service. From what I understand, in Jewish thought and Christian belief, as a Muslim tenet and also in Buddhism, it is said that moral responsibility lies entirely with the individual. I just want to mention some of the things that I have witnessed that responsible individuals are doing within the communities in the region. I mention them because I believe that if we, as individuals, and our own Government were to recognise, support and involve ourselves in this way, rather than just blame others, we could all help to heal the region.

For example, in education, last week we held the board of trustees meeting here in London for the British University of Egypt. Five years ago, Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall opened that university in Cairo and, in partnership with Loughborough University, BUE is thriving. In fact, in three years’ time, we plan to have 6,000 young students from the region studying and researching in Cairo to UK standard in nursing and dentistry, renewable energy and engineering, advanced materials and business and entrepreneurialism—in fact, seven faculties

In Jordan, where we were last month, in agriculture and commerce Moon Valley is arranging to build and operate an olive processing plant with the help, advice and partnership of a Palestinian construction company, CCC, and Olives Et Al, an innovative private company based in Dorset which supplies UK food stores with the most delicious olives and tapenades. The Jordanian plant will work with olive farmers in Jordan and West Bank Palestinians to improve their methodologies and standards to produce delicacies that can be sold locally and in stores in the UK, Europe and the Gulf.

In textiles and clothing, I have spoken before in this House about Moon Valley helping Palestinian farmers to sell their goods to Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury and the Co-op. Waitrose has now expressed an interest. With reference to the point made by my noble friends Lady Blackstone and Lord Watson, with the help of my noble friend Lady Ashton and the EU, we have now negotiated that all agricultural goods from the West Bank and Gaza enter the West Bank tariff-free. Just last week, after a year’s work, the same team has helped a knitwear manufacturer in Gaza produce and export 4,000 men’s pullovers and cardigans to UK online retailer, JD Williams—were again I must declare an interest—for sale in this country with “Made in Palestine” on the label. In fact, if Erskine May did not prevent it, I would have brought one here to show you and try to sell it. DfID, the office of the quartet, our British consul general in East Jerusalem, together with the authorities in Israel, have all played an important part in making that possible.

In the field of high-tech, this week, here in your Lordships’ House, a UK task force funded by the Pears Foundation and led by Alice Wood hosted some enlightened Israeli Arabs and Jews from the Nazareth region who have formed an organisation called Tsofen, which means code, with whom we are working to enable Arab citizens of Israel to use their entrepreneurialism in the high-tech field to break the code, to integrate their people better into Israeli society and business networks to create wealth for their community.

Last month, I mentioned in a debate about the voluntary sector how UK charities can spread their good work by internationalising themselves. I know through the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, that our Government are considering developing that is a forward strategy for the sector. Here is an example from the region: www.healthtalkonline.org, an Oxford-based charity which I chair, is now working with both An-Najah University in Nablus and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in the desert, together with eight other countries, to help patients with health conditions to understand better from other patients what are the options and how to make choices about their lives.

Those are examples in commerce, education, technology and health where, instead of vilifying others and laying blame, those involved will help individuals to see positive opportunities and work to inspire others to try to heal rifts. I realise that those projects alone will not resolve the issues, but neither will politics alone. Of course there is a place for politics.

There are those on all sides who thrive on conflict and the misery of others. They work ceaselessly to engender hate, vilification and division, and to blame the other. Their actions result in death and destruction. Here, perhaps, the rifts can be healed by politics. Here, we must be willing to talk to everyone. This is where non-governmental organisations, such as the Next Century Foundation, a UK organisation in which, again, I must declare an interest, can lead and Governments can follow. We currently have the odd irony where we engage willingly with the radical Muslim Brotherhood elements in the Syrian opposition, whereas in Gaza, Her Majesty’s Government are unwilling to talk to Hamas. If the Government’s experience in Northern Ireland proves anything, it is that talking to all sides matters. Talking to your enemies does not mean legitimising them.

In conclusion, by supporting and involving ourselves in the type of constructive projects I mentioned, and with the help of the Government, we enable them to touch thousands of people. Then, the destructive elements on all sides can be exposed and weakened. That should be done by those with open hearts and peaceful intention working together just as forcefully as those who peddle hate. In that way, we can enable the peoples of those countries to be in control of their lives.

Building Stability Overseas Strategy

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Thursday 6th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath]

My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, for this debate and for her ever-present energy and smile in the House. I recall debating here as early as 1999 the idea of detecting areas of potential conflict. Then we suggested devising a plan for more subtle, non-military interventions before, or even during, a conflict and certainly after a conflict. In fact, more than 10 years ago, we were talking in this House about building stability overseas. Now that this has become a BSO strategy, with an agreement to draw on external expertise and cross-governmental co-operation, the next step should be to find pragmatic, large-scale projects that are already under way. They should be monitored and, if they are successful, could be replicated across the world under the strategy being suggested.

In February this year, I reported on an example of such an intervention. It started three years ago in the Middle East—in the Palestinian West Bank and in Jordan. We called it Moon Valley. I must declare an interest as I have been involved, unpaid, in this project from its inception. It is a perfect example of a conflict zone which at this moment has the potential to erupt into a major war or settle into progressive stability. The Moon Valley project has opened the way to allow, in the future, thousands of Palestinian farmers access to the international market for food and agricultural products.

The project has had great support from external expertise; Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and the Co-operative Group in this country, Whole Foods in America and Carrefour in Europe have been supportive. It is a good example of cross-governmental co-operation. The Foreign Office has been helping, particularly the consul-general in east Jerusalem, as has the Department for International Development, both locally on the ground in the region and here in London.

Our perception is that the creation of stronger local enterprises, with firm backward linkages to the poor, creating jobs, opportunity and prosperity, are essential for the prevention part of this strategy. It is obvious that such a strengthening of well led, well managed, inclusive businesses is not going to happen automatically in these more conflict-prone regions, where investors will be more risk-averse. When such regions have benefited from the old-style aid handouts that were driven by political rather than economic reasons, this type of intervention creates a culture of aid and political dependency, which can be antithetical to social and economic development. That type of aid does not build strong, local, civil society institutions, such as business associations and unions. Instead it creates monopolistic regimes that specialise in bidding for and squandering aid.

Moon Valley, on the other hand, has created trade. It is transferring technology and skills. It is planning to build a much greater capacity involving thousands of small farmers while still improving quality and reliability. Since February, to help this happen, DfID has sponsored a programme whereby an experienced NGO—Technoserve—is working with Oxfam and DAI, completing research into the entire agribusiness sector in the West Bank and Gaza. It will show that helpful interventions such as these can build a vital industry on an even greater scale and benefit tens of thousands of Palestinians. This kind of mindful intervention can drive the development of high-quality, export-oriented businesses, which operate on sound business practices, foster inclusion and enable people to influence the development of their own community and have a say in the future of their own country.

It is exciting that since this initiative, interest in food from Palestine is being shown, not only by European retailers and supermarkets in America but, as my noble friend Lord McConnell suggested, by neighbours—that is, interested parties in the Gulf. All these countries and companies now have a growing need for a future supply of large quantities of high-quality food products; and there is a desire for them to be from Palestinian farmers, to help their cause. In some cases, parties are prepared to offer the possibility of providing up-front cash, in pre-orders, to allow us to scale up the venture to millions of pounds a year. The noble Lord, Lord Howell, is familiar with this project and has been very supportive in the past.

Now, with this new BSOS strategy, I call on the Government, through the Minister, to organise high-level missions to various countries. The delegation would comprise representatives of our Government, together with Palestinians who are developing the agriculture in the West Bank and some of the experts who have been involved from Technoserve and Moon Valley. The quartet can also provide helpful support, and the Israeli Government have said that they can provide secure and reliable passage for the products’ transportation. We would go together to several regions to put forward a plan and agree a strategy for Palestinian agriculture to become a reliable and viable source of high-quality food products on a worthwhile scale. In this way, this could become a model for other BSOS projects planned for the future in other countries, particularly the Middle East and north Africa.

Libya

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Friday 1st April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath]

My Lords, as a follow-on to that, I propose to the House something which may seem too wide and long term for this debate, but it is a proposal that would give hope to civilians in the region if we begin to take it seriously now.

Since our previous debate on the Middle East, in which I spoke briefly about the work of Moon Valley in the West Bank, I have been approached, because of what I said but also because of the positive response from the Minister, by the Tunisian ambassador, the Government of Jordan, the Egyptian ambassador through the British Egyptian Society and Morocco as well as by Gaza through the quartet. They are all now asking for similar involvement in their countries. That in itself is remarkable. I know that the Lord Speaker and many other noble Lords have been working towards broadening the awareness of the work of this House, so we should pause and take note of the significant and wide attention paid to our debates and the positive effects that they can have on world events.

I realise that today's debate was called mainly for views on the immediate military, security, political and humanitarian situation. However, it is now recognised that the danger of large-scale aggressive interventions, however well meant, arises when no exit has been pre-planned and when the work of helping the people to rebuild a peaceful and prosperous future for the nation is not taken as seriously as resolving the conflict itself.

I suggest today to Her Majesty's Government, but also collectively to noble Lords, many of whom have experience and skills in retail, farming, philanthropy and international business, that on a larger scale than the project in the West Bank, we could now start to structure and organise help for the people in many of these reformed countries in north Africa and the Middle East to get back into sustainable and profitable employment.

Moon Valley, to remind noble Lords, is a social enterprise that, with the help of DfID, Oxfam, the Portland Trust, which is Sir Ronald Cohen's foundation, and Technoserve, which is an excellent American NGO, and with the encouragement and support of Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, the Co-operative Group, Ottolenghi the restaurateur and others, are helping West Bank farmers to sell their goods to UK retailers and to Europe and North America.

The countries that contacted me are all, in their various ways and at different stages, committed to developing a system of government which is conducted with the consent of their people. They can produce some fabulous products—now I am on home ground and in my element. In north Africa and the Middle East, many of these countries provide herbs and exotic spices, succulent tomatoes and peppers, nutritious dates and nuts, olives and olive oil products using traditional methods from biblical times, long staple cottons and yarns and exquisite textiles and clothing.

In addition to the food and textile business, these countries possess another potential. There is scope to create non-oil energy from agricultural waste, including olive oil waste, to the benefit of the farmers. After the last, excellent debate of the noble Lord, Lord Howell, here, and then the subsequent discussion with people at the Saïd Business School in Oxford, they have asked to get their people into sustainable employment by helping them with market access; that is, connection to the retailers of food and clothing; training and skills in technology and agronomy, and the quality standards that come with them; and business mentoring in entrepreneurship and finance. In particular, however, they want to know how to develop responsible processes to ensure that their farmers and workers down the line—at least one-third of whom are women, who also want to be able to run their own countries—get the benefits of this trade.

This is what we are beginning to develop in the West Bank, and I think that it can eventually be extended to Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and, perhaps later, Sudan, Gaza and, whatever happens, eventually Libya. Today I am suggesting to the House and to Her Majesty's Government that we can help create for these countries a new organisation, a social enterprise that could provide specific, pragmatic help to the people in these countries that want to develop and grow. This social enterprise could eventually be run by Arab businesspeople, become self-financing, and allow all the people, particularly the farmers and traders who have a stake in the emergence of the Arab spring, to be involved.

We have therefore been in discussion with retailers in the EU and the USA—I was with Wholefoods USA here last week—and, in this country, with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, the Co-operative Group, the mail-order N Brown Group, of which I am a non-executive director, and ASOS, through my noble friend Lord Ali. I also chair the Sindicatum Climate Change Foundation, which is a charity that works on sustainable energy in the region. All of these, I am pretty sure, would support such an enterprise and would even, I think, be willing to put some skills and resources into it. I am also speaking to representatives of the Governments of those countries and businesspeople within them.

We can foresee the formation of “Moon Crescent”, a special enterprise committed to working like Moon Valley in the West Bank but on a wider scale, helping any country in the MENA region that has decided to govern with the consent of its people by providing market access, transferring business and marketing skills with technical high-quality standards and ensuring fair trade so that the workers in those industries are well treated.

Will the Minister ask Her Majesty’s Government in what way they might support such an initiative, possibly together with the Arab League, the African Union, the quartet and the World Bank? I suggest that we might invite those interested in supporting such initiatives, together with people trying to build new forms of government in the region, to meet with us and discuss on a pragmatic basis how this concept may be put into practice.

Middle East and North Africa

Lord Stone of Blackheath Excerpts

Friday 11th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stone of Blackheath]

My Lords, it is a privilege to be able to listen to the variety of wisdoms in this House. I do not speak very often, so in my 10 minutes, I intend to offer the House some positive solutions to the situation in the Middle East, the world food shortage, health inequalities, universal education and global climate change.

I should declare five interests in Egypt, the West Bank and Jerusalem. In doing so, I can show how British universities, businesses, social enterprises and health services are already making positive contributions in the region and should be aided to increase the scale and scope of what they are doing. That will make a real difference to development in the region. Now is the time for action backed with resources, not just wise words.

First, I am the founding governor of the British University in Egypt, which was opened in 2005 by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. It is part-managed by Loughborough University and is already making a significant contribution to the region. It turns out thousands of high-quality graduates each year in Cairo, many of them women, who are enlightened, connected, concerned and caring and beginning to take an active interest in developing and modernising their country and their region. Secondly, I am the unpaid chair of a health charity Healthtalkonline. The University of Oxford is working with Ben-Gurion University to make patient experience of illness available online for free in Arabic, Hebrew and English to all communities in the region. By sharing experience of their conditions across all divides, it helps them to live better lives and increases understanding and empathy. Thirdly, I chair, also unpaid, the Sindicatum Climate Change Foundation and will explain later what it is doing in the region. Fourthly, I own a small apartment in Jerusalem, because I have to be there 10 times a year, and, finally, I am an unpaid director of Moon Valley Enterprises Ltd, a social enterprise working in the West Bank. It is the main project I want to put before the House today.

We started Moon Valley two years ago, on a trip to Ramallah with my noble friend Lord Desai, at the request of Salem Fayed from the West Bank, Gordon Brown from the UK and Tony Blair from the quartet. They agreed that peace and stability in the region could be viable and sustainable only when people are offered an alternative to the current situation, can feel secure because they can apply for jobs and can choose a normal life. We agreed that Governments, including our own, need to take practical measures to those ends and to invest in peace as it if were a business. They need to think differently about aid and the culture of aid; they need to do things differently, taking practical steps to create sustainable jobs and make them accessible to the poorest and most disfranchised in the community.

We agreed to tie ourselves together—that is, the Palestinians, the UK and Europe, the USA, business, NGOs and the Government—to get the West Bank working. We planned to facilitate small-scale farmers, traders and marketeers to be able to compete on the world stage so that they can see that a different kind of future is available where wealth, aspiration and peace can flourish. A few of us were asked to help the Palestinian farmers to get their production and quality up to the standard required for world export, and to get access to the high-quality UK retailers and perhaps later to Europe and the USA.

How can that be possible out of the West Bank? The West Bank is 250 metres below sea level. Between October and March, when the temperature is 6 degrees in Jerusalem, it is 27 degrees at the West Bank. Therefore, one can grow and pick salads, herbs, tomatoes and peppers when hitherto one could get them from only southern Spain or California.

Two years on, we are delivering fresh herbs and sweet peppers to Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and the Co-operative Group. These British retailers are very supportive and patient. The quality of the Palestinian products and its service is improving. The Israelis allow us ease of access through the checkpoints. Jordan flies goods from Amman. We have been able to persuade the EU to drop its tariff, which until this year was 12.8 per cent on some of the goods that we were trying to import. If noble Lords want to know more about Moon Valley, Romeo films has generously made a seven-minute DVD in which Justin King, the CEO of Sainsbury’s, Sir Stuart Rose from Marks and Spencer, and Tony Blair speak on camera. I have arranged for the Library to make that DVD available for people to watch.

Let me explain what this project means to the farmers. Currently, if a small farmer with, say, three dunam of land—a dunam is about 1,000 square metres—grows poor- quality produce inefficiently for the local market, the best that he can get is about $8,000 to $10,000 for his year’s work. When I say “his”, I also mean “hers” because 40 per cent of the farmers are women. If Moon Valley helps the same farm to grow on three dunam high-quality goods for Sainsbury’s, we can pay them up to $20,000. What is more, during the rest of the year, they can make efficiently, and at a lower price, goods for the local market. We started with just herbs—rosemary, thyme, chives, sweet parsley and coriander. Now we produce sweet peppers and soon we will produce Medjool dates.

That is not all: British retailers are amazing at being able to use indigenous skills around the world in product development. We are planning to do prepared foods. A genius restaurateur in London, Yotam Ottolenghi who writes in the Guardian—some noble Lords might know of him—and his partners, one of whom is Palestinian and the other Israeli, want to help both the situation and us. They are going to lend their expertise to us to make high-margin, creative foods from the region. There will be the traditional dishes of the Bedouins, Druze and Palestinians. The dishes will include freekeh—a roasted green wheat; maftoul—a sort of couscous; za’atar—a wild thyme which can be used to flavour bread and rice; and molasses made from the juice of pomegranates, grapes and carob mixed with tahina to make a most delicious confection. Soap companies are now interested in Nabulsi olive oil soap, which any Arab woman will tell you makes your skin fragrant and soft. A huge tea company is looking at the mint and herb teas from Ramallah. Noble Lords can hear that I am back into my retail state.

What is even more exciting is that last week I went to Paris where I spoke to representatives from Carrefour, which has agreed to join us. Next month, I have a meeting here with Whole Foods USA, which has already indicated that it will be happy to take these goods as well. Therefore, we now need more capacity and need to expand the volume of production in order to serve this wider audience.

Initially, that can be done only with aid. We have recently met with Alistair Burt from the Foreign Office and Alan Duncan and Giles Lever from the Department for International Development. We are seeking funds of £10 million over three years to train groups of small farmers on the West Bank to supply more goods for this project. Our initial target is to engage 3,000 to 5,000 farmers, but eventually we see this spreading to tens of thousands of farmers in the West Bank. I know that DfID is now working with the FCO and the MoD to develop a new “building sustainability overseas” strategy, and we think that Moon Valley is it. We realise that we cannot expect the UK to do all of the funding, so we will be asking for some help from our friends in the Gulf.

We will work with Technoserve, a pragmatic NGO with a high reputation which gets these projects completed in many countries around the world. What is really important is that its specialism is to ensure that the money flows right down to individual small farmers so that they can improve their skills in agronomy and technology, business and finance, sustainability and energy efficiency. Those farmers are then able to grow their individual businesses while collectively they will play their part in the development of their own country, which can flourish. Technoserve is talking with Oxfam in the region, which is sort of leftish and is already on the ground working with the smallest Palestinian co-operatives, and Mazen Sinokrot, a big farmer who is sort of rightish, but who has capital, know-how and nous. Moon Valley will make sure that all sides get along with each other and work together.

While talking of sustainability and ecology, did noble Lords know that 10 per cent to 12 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, and that in this region, farmers just burn their agricultural waste? It could, by means of gasification, be turned into energy. We asked our experts at the Sindicatum Climate Change Foundation to go and see what might be done in the West Bank in terms of green energy. We have found that TMO Renewables, a UK company based in Guildford, is one of only six companies in the world that has a microbe technology which can eat solid municipal waste and turn it into ethanol as a source of affordable green energy. TMO was not really interested in the West Bank because it is making a lot of money in safer parts of the world. But we persuaded the company that if SCCF and Moon Valley were able to raise the funding to set up a $40 million plant outside Hebron and Bethlehem, TMO should give us and the Palestinians the intellectual property rights to clean up Amman, Cairo, Abu Dhabi and so on by creating, within the Palestinian territories, the first high-tech hub of this kind. The company has said yes, and next week I am going to Hebron and Ramallah to see if I can get all this to happen.

These are the types of pragmatic interventions that we in the UK can make in the region. Having proved that it can be done in the West Bank, we can do it again elsewhere in the region, perhaps with the people of southern Jordan who, as has been said, are as angry as the people of Tunisia and Egypt. This kind of thing could also be done in Gaza. This work can be done with these people and for these people. It is absolutely the responsibility of Governments around the world to support and build this sort of capacity. Aid is not aid if it keeps people in the same situation as they are currently in. It must not be a sticking plaster, but a large dose of antibiotics together with rehabilitation, respect, and perhaps even some reiki and some love. The region can modernise, develop and grow. The people there are capable and concerned, and they deserve our help.