3 Inquiries into areas seen as requiring
examination because of deficiencies
Sustainable Development in a Changing
Climate
15. The Committee published its Report on Sustainable
Development in a Changing Climate in June 2009. Our inquiry
followed up some of the issues raised in a report published in
2002 by a previous International Development Committee on Global
Climate Change and Sustainable Development.[10]
Our new inquiry examined the potential conflict between economic
development and climate change mitigation. It considered how the
UK Government could best promote development which was sustainable
and which promoted poverty reduction, and the steps it was taking
to encourage effective adaptation strategies in developing countries.
16. We recognised that climate change threatens
to destroy gains that have already been made in poverty reduction
in many developing countries. We concluded that rich countries,
including the UK, should provide new, substantial and predictable
funding to assist poor countries to tackle climate change as a
matter of urgency. We stressed that the international community
needed to reach a new agreement on emissions reductions and on
funding for developing countries to help them cope with climate
change. The UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December
provides the opportunity to make the necessary major commitments.
We intend to take further evidence on the UK Government's objectives
for the Copenhagen Conference outcomes as part of our work on
the new DFID White Paper early in the new Session.
17. We also assessed the potential impact that
lifestyle choices made by people in the developed world might
have on the economies of poor countries. For example, people in
the UK who are concerned about climate change might decide not
to take holidays involving long-haul flights or to avoid buying
produce flown in from Africa. Yet tourism is a key growth sector
in many poor countries; and the total emissions from fresh produce
grown in developing countries and flown to the UK might be lower
overall because it is not grown in heated greenhouses. These are
complex issues and there is no easy solution. We recommended that
consumers should be provided with more information about the environmental
and social impacts of the choices they make about travel and buying
imported fresh foods to enable them to make informed decisions.
Urbanisation and Poverty
18. We began our inquiry into Urbanisation and
Poverty in March 2009. We were motivated by the fact that 2008
marked the point at which, for the first time, more people worldwide
lived in urban centres than in rural settings and that this proportion
was projected to rise to 60% within two decades. 95% of the world's
urban growth is in the developing world, where cities gain an
average of 5 million new residents every month. Many of the new
arrivals in towns and cities become slum dwellers, living on the
physical, social and economic margins of the city in deprived
and crowded living conditions. We visited Nigeria in June 2009
to witness at first hand the challenges and opportunities posed
by urbanisation in Lagos, the country's largest city and one of
Africa's "megacities".
19. In our Report published in October, we observed
that DFID overwhelmingly focuses its efforts to address urban
poverty on Asian, rather than African, countries.[11]
We believed this balance needed to be redressed because Africa
is the world's fastest urbanising
region and has the highest proportion of slum dwellers. Without
a new and comprehensive approach to urban development in Africa,
a number of cities could face a humanitarian crisis in as little
as five years' time.
20. We found that there was a lack of focus on
urban issues within DFID's organisational structure and that its
urban expertise was not sufficiently broad or well-distributed
in its developing country offices. We called for a modest, but
highly targeted, increase of financial resources for urban poverty
which would enable DFID to support other bodies, including UN
Habitat, and international initiatives, to expand their work on
slum upgrading and urban development.
Food security
21. Our Report from last Session on the World
Food Programme and Global Food Security was debated in Westminster
Hall on 21 May 2009.[12]
We regarded it as important to continue to press the Government
on the issues raised in the Report because food price rises continue
to affect people in developing countries and food security remains
an international concern. The G8 has recently said that agriculture
and food security are "the core of the international agenda".[13]
22. Our Report had highlighted that DFID did
not have a nutrition strategy in place and expressed concern
about the negative impact this was likely to have on the effectiveness
of its work towards achieving the MDG 1 targets of eradicating
hunger and malnutrition. We followed this up in our examination
of the DFID Annual Report 2008. The Secretary of State acknowledged
in evidence to us last November that "nutrition had not been
a central focus of my work" when he first arrived in the
Department and he reiterated the Government's undertaking given
in its Response to our food security Report that DFID would develop
a new nutrition strategy by the end of 2008. This was not achieved.[14]
Almost a year further on, there is still no nutrition strategy
in place. Yet the number of malnourished people in the world reached
1 billion in 2009, up from 915 million in 2008.[15]
DFID did release an evidence paper in October 2009 and has pledged
to publish the new Strategy in the coming months.[16]
We regard this as a very important policy area and we urge our
successors in the new Parliament to keep a watching brief on it
(see below).
10 Third Report of Session 2001-02, Global Climate
Change and Sustainable Development, HC 519-I Back
11
Seventh Report of Session 2008-09, Urbanisation and Poverty,
HC 511-I Back
12
HC Deb 21 May 2009 , col 475 WH. Tenth Report of Session 2007-08,
The World Food Programme and Global Food Security, HC 493-I Back
13
The Economist, 21 November 2009 Back
14
Second Report of Session 2008-09, DFID Annual Report 2008,
HC 220-I, paras 36-37 Back
15
The Economist, 21 November 2009 Back
16
DFID, The Neglected Crisis of Under-nutrition: Evidence for
Action, October 2009 Back
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