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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Child Labour
8. Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she has taken to address the problem of child labour in the developing world. [119360]
Clare Short: Our Government played a key role in brokering the agreement on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1999. We have contributed $1 million per annum for the last two years to support ILO programmes to eliminate child labour and are working with the ILO on projects to eliminate child labour in India and Tanzania, and to restrict trafficking in children in South-East Asia.
Gap-year Students
9. Mr. St. Aubyn: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the role of her Department in appointing year-out students on development projects overseas. [119362]
Clare Short: The Department for International Development does not appoint year-out students on development projects overseas. Developing countries require access to know how to build local capacity. Our volunteer schemes such as Voluntary Service Overseas and British Executive Services Overseas provide volunteers with skills in areas needed by developing countries.
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Debt Relief
10. Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent representations she has received from Christian Aid about third-world debt. [119363]
Clare Short: On 4 April, the Chancellor and I met a number of faith leaders and directors of voluntary organisations, including Christian Aid, at one of our regular seminars on debt and poverty reduction. I continue to receive many letters on debt, including from Christian Aid supporters.
23. Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the amount of debt relief granted to the world's poorest countries is increased. [119377]
Clare Short: We were instrumental in securing the revision of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which provides faster, wider and deeper debt relief for the poorest countries. The new framework will deliver $50 billion in debt relief. In addition, the Government have announced that they will provide 100 per cent. bilateral relief on all remaining export credit debt for qualifying HIPC countries. Some other countries, including the rest of the G7, have agreed additional debt relief beyond the HIPC framework.
At the Spring Meetings of the World bank and IMF last month, the international community agreed to set up a joint World bank/lMF Committee to oversee the implementation of the enhanced HIPC framework, and to provide regular progress reports to the two Executive Boards. I welcome this measure.
The financing for the revised Initiative has yet to be identified in full. The UK has made the largest commitment to date to the HIPC Trust Fund--over $350 million, including our share of the European Community contribution.
Ethiopia
11. Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what is the total amount of emergency assistance that her Department has committed to Ethiopia in response to the current famine. [119364]
Clare Short: We have responded quickly and appropriately to emerging emergency needs in Ethiopia. Since June 1999 we have committed some £9.3 million in food and non-food relief. The food aid element is over 30,000 metric tonnes. In addition, we contribute about 17 per cent. of the cost of EC food aid; estimated to be some 432,000 metric tonnes this year. We are ready to commit more funds if new needs emerge.
16. Mr. Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement about the aid she is providing to Ethiopia. [119370]
Clare Short: We have responded quickly and appropriately to emerging emergency needs in Ethiopia. Since June 1999 we have committed £9.3 million in food and non-food relief. The food aid element is over 30,000 metric tonnes. In addition, we contribute about 17 per cent. of the cost of EC food aid: estimated to be some 432,000 metric tonnes this year.
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Because of the war with Eritrea we, like other donors, have reduced long-term development aid because we are not confident that the resources would be used to benefit the people of the country.
India
12. Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what her policy is on linking aid to India with good governance; and if she will make a statement. [119365]
Clare Short: Our "Country Strategy for India", published in 1999, stresses the crucial importance of good governance to India's development. One of the five strategic objectives for our programme in India is to promote accountable government delivering pro-poor reform and growth and effective services.
A key element of the Strategy is the focusing of our effort and funding on the governments of selected Indian states which have high concentrations of poor people. The criteria for choice of states include:
- a commitment by the government to reduce poverty, including a willingness to make radical shifts in fiscal priorities, tackle difficult social issues, overhaul the delivery of public services and decentralise more power and money to local government; and
- a desire to improve standards of governance.
Africa
13. Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement about development aid to east Africa. [119366]
Clare Short: British bilateral development assistance to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda totalled about £130 million in 1999-2000. Assistance to Tanzania and Uganda is set to increase substantially over the next three years in support of Government-led efforts to strengthen economic management and reduce poverty, which are being pursued further through the preparation of Poverty Reductions Strategy Papers (PRSP). In Kenya, the Government are seeking to negotiate a new economic reform programme with the IMF, in preparation for which it is preparing an interim PRSP. We are ready, if Kenya reaches agreement on a credible poverty reduction programme with the international financial institutions, substantially to increase development assistance.
15. Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement about aid to the Horn of Africa. [119368]
Clare Short: Planned expenditure in countries in the Horn of Africa is shown at Annex 1, Table 5 of the DFID Departmental Report 2000.
Overseas Development (Expenditure)
14. Mr. Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made towards meeting the Government's target for expenditure on overseas development as a proportion of gross domestic product. [119367]
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Clare Short: DFID assistance to developing countries in the last financial year is estimated at £2.212 billion, an increase of 8.5 per cent. in real terms over the expenditure of £1.987 billion in 1998-99. This increase reflects the first year of the Comprehensive Spending Round settlement in 1998, as part of which an extra £1.6 billion was allocated for development spending. Under this, DFID's budget will increase by £365 million in the current financial year and by a further £307 million in 2001-02.
I should also inform the House that we have today submitted to the OECD our provisional figures for official development assistance for the 1999 calendar year. We estimate that net ODA for the calendar year will be £2.03 billion. This results from the different time-frame of our financial year and the Development Assistance Committee's use of the calendar year and is largely the consequence of the timing of the deposit of promissory notes in respect of IDA and the African. Development Fund, lower than predicted spending by the EC, and the timing of bringing to book expenditure on Kosovo. This will produce an anomalous calendar year ODA/GNP ratio of 0.23 per cent. We expect that ODA in 2000 will be 0.29 per cent. of GNP, rising in 2001 to 0.30 per cent. of GNP.
Zimbabwe
17. Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of British development aid to Zimbabwe. [119371]
Clare Short: The effectiveness of development assistance to Zimbabwe is kept under regular review. Projects are professionally appraised, monitored and evaluated to assess their impact on poverty. We also review the impact of the wider political and economic environment on progress. Our present assessment is that our portfolio so far has been broadly effective, but that new government-led projects would not be less effective until current governance and economic management issues are resolved. New projects are therefore channelled largely through civil society organisations.
18. Mr. Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her Department's aid to Zimbabwe. [119372]
20. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her Department's programme in Zimbabwe. [119374]
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the future of the aid programme to the Government of Zimbabwe. [119358]
Clare Short: We are continuing to monitor events in Zimbabwe very closely, and are keeping programme activities under review to ensure that they can still be effective. We are particularly concerned about the failure of the police to uphold court orders against farm invaders; to provide protection under the law; and to act impartially in policing demonstrations. I have therefore suspended DFID support to an Aid and Trade Provision project supplying Land Rovers to the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
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