HL Deb 14 September 2004 vol 664 cc180-1WA
The Earl of Sandwich

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether AIDS-affected African countries are given any priority in the funding of education and other development programmes to assist them in achieving millennium development goals. [HL3856]

Baroness Amos

Many of the African countries worst affected by AIDS are among the Department for International Development's (DfID's) 16 focus countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over 80 per cent of AIDS deaths occur in these countries.

Several DfID African bilateral country programmes have recently stepped up expenditure in support of programmes to help combat AIDS. In addition, DfID will make AIDS a priority for the extra £320 million that the UK will be devoting to Africa in 2006. On 20 July the Prime Minister launched the new UK Strategy on HIV and AIDS. The strategy provides the framework for how the UK Government will spend an additional £1.5 billion to combat AIDS globally. At least £150 million will be spent helping children whose parents have died from AIDS and other children made vulnerable by AIDS.

However, if the millennium development goals are to be met we need to do more than scale up HIV and AIDS specific programmes. The socio-economic impact of AIDS and the vulnerability of poor people in Africa to AIDS mean that we also need to target assistance at broader development programmes, including in the health and education sectors in the countries most at risk.

This is already happening. In 2002–03 the sixteen African target countries received 88 per cent of DfID funds for Africa. In most of DfID's focus countries in Africa we provide significant support for education programmes, (into which HIV/AIDS issues are integrated). In Malawi, DfID supports the education sector to increase children's access to equitable primary education of improved quality. This includes support for life skills education where all children from grade 4 learn about HIV/AIDS. On health, more broadly, DfID recognises that most African partner countries have extremely weak health systems. Since 1997, DfID has committed over £1.5 billion to strengthening health systems globally.