Visit to Washington D.C. and
New York
38. In March, as the conflict in Iraq began, we
visited Washington D.C. and New York. The Committee met representatives
from the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, USAID, the US Administration,
NGOs, think-tanks and members of both Houses of Congress. Formal
evidence was not taken, but extensive discussions were held on:
Iraq and the role of the United Nations; trade, including agriculture;
the role and organisation of US development assistance, including
the Millennium Challenge Account; debt relief; poverty reduction
strategies; and the need for developed countries' policies on
trade and other issues to support development policies and efforts
to work towards the MDGs.
39. We place considerable value on building a consensus
for development among parliamentarians in both donor and recipient
countries. There are numerous channels through which we can share
information and raise concerns with parliamentarians in Europe.
But the US is a different case. There is a challenge to be met
in persuading the United States that aid works and should be focussed
on poverty reduction. The US visit enabled us to speak to our
counterparts in the USA and to meet the key players in US development
assistance and the multilateral financial organisations. Civil
society groups have a vital role to play in the formulation of
Poverty Reduction Strategies. But all too often parliamentarians
are overlooked in this process. We have sought to use our recent
visit to Africa to help promote the role of developing country
parliamentarians as partners who have a crucial role in holding
donors, as well as their own governments, to account for the aid
they both spend.
