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Financing for Development Conference
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment her Department has made of the outcome of the UN Financing for Development Conference in Mexico.[46659]
Hilary Benn: Donors and developing countries committed themselves to a new partnership in the "Monterrey Consensus". Developing countries recognised that they need to set in place the right policies to create an enabling environment for foreign direct investment and for the mobilisation of domestic resources through promoting good governance and pro-poor economic policies. In return donor countries agreed to provide better support for developing country efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
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by: giving more official development assistance; enhancing aid effectiveness; ensuring better market access for developing countries; providing support to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to negotiate in international trade fora; ensuring that the HIPC process provides heavily indebted poor countries with a genuine exit from unsustainable debt; and taking steps to strengthen the voice of developing countries in the international financial institutions.
At the Barcelona Council on 15 March, the European Union agreed a package of measures to support the Monterrey Consensus. This included a commitment to increase EU development assistance. The EU average oda/GNI ratio is currently 0.33 per cent., and the EU has committed itself to raise this average to 0.39 per cent. by 2006. The implication of this is that the EU will provide an additional $20 billion of oda between now and 2006, and an additional $7 billion a year from 2006. The Americans followed the EU lead on aid volume by announcing that they would provide an additional $10 billion between 2004 and 2006 and $5 billion a year thereafter. This represents a 50 per cent. increase in US aid. Financing for Development is the first UN Conference that has delivered a concrete increase in oda, and the additional $12 billion a year from the EU and the USA represents a historic reverse in the decline in global oda levels over the 12 years.
New Partnership for Africa's Development
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial commitments have been made to the New Economic
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Partnership for African Development by (a) the UK, (b) the EU and (c) other OECD donors in financial year 2001–02. [46882]
Hilary Benn: The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is not a financing mechanism or an institution that runs projects. Rather, it is an African-owned and led process which encourages African nations to share best practice, undertake peer review and learn from successful experience in building effective states and reducing poverty. It has not yet sought direct funding. Proposals are currently being developed by NEPAD with the assistance of different African institutions in the areas of economic and corporate governance, infrastructure, agriculture and market access, financial and banking standards, and peace and security.
Developing Countries
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much her Department intends to spend in developing countries in each of the next three years (a) as a percentage of her aid budget and (b) in real terms, in the form of (i) Government to Government aid and (ii) aid to charities and NGOs.[47333]
Hilary Benn: Revised programme allocations for 2002–03 and 2003–04 have recently been agreed—details will appear in DFID's Departmental Report for 2002. Allocations for 2004–05 have not been agreed pending the outcome of the current Spending Review. I cannot however provide the information requested, as most programme allocations are not made by type of spending.