§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Major.]
10.16 pm§ Mr. Tony Baldry (Banbury)As the House may know, I, together with the hon. Members for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) and for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood)—both of whom, Mr. Speaker, I know wish to catch your eye later—returned late on Sunday after a six-day fact-finding visit to Ethiopia, which included much travelling in drought-stricken areas, including Tigre and Wollo, extensive discussions with senior members of the Ethiopian Administration, the Ethiopian relief organisation, and with the United Nations and other non-governmental organisations such as the World Food Programme, field directors and relief workers of voluntary organisations such as Oxfam, the Save the Children Fund and the Red Cross.
In the limited time available to me, I do not intend to attempt to describe the consequences of the famine. It is not a famine of biblical proportions; it is worse—it is a holocaust of hunger. There is mile after mile of burnt, brown, barren land that has been without rain for four years. The rivers are dry and local supplies of food are long since exhausted. What should now be a season of harvest is a time of despair and desperation. It is difficult adequately to describe the dimensions of the disaster and I am glad that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Overseas Development is shortly going to Ethiopia to see for himself that holocaust of hunger.
As the world community has at last awakened to the reality of the drought, there is now some hope. Food is starting to reach those in need. The Ethiopian relief agency, the RRC, with the now total support of the Ethiopian Government is moving heaven and earth to get the most desperately needed supplies of food up to northern Ethiopia and the Ethiopian authorities are making every effort to feed everyone, wherever they might be.
The voluntary agencies, their field officers and relief workers are doing fantastic work. I am certain that every penny that has been donated to Oxfam, the Save the Children Fund, the Red Cross, CAFOD and other relief agencies is being put to the best possible use. The grain that Oxfam sent to Ethiopia, together with grain donated by British farmers in the "Send a Tonne" appeal was unloaded in record time and is now being distributed to those in need.
Oxfam field workers in Ethiopia are giving invaluable help and guidance. The Save the Children Fund is giving the chance of life to thousands of children and their mothers. At Korem alone, the Save the Children Fund is daily feeding about 18,000 small children and their mothers. The Ethiopian Minister of Health, who is responsible for co-ordinating Ethiopian relief operations, asked us to go to see him and personally requested us to pass on to the people of Britain the sincere and heartfelt thanks of the people of Ethiopia for all that the British people have done so far in sending funds and food.
There is no doubt that the recent actions by the British Government have served as a catalyst for action. The arrival of the RAF Hercules at Addis Ababa was a visible sign that Britain and the rest of the world were coming to help. The arrival of the RAF shamed Russia and the eastern bloc into responding. The RAF is doing fantastic 772 work ferrying food to areas which until recently were without any food whatsoever. Its professionalism is outstanding. I hope that the RAF will be able to stay in Ethiopia until all urgent needs are met.
I am conscious of the many other practical ways in which Britain is helping both with food and funds. I acknowledge the leadership that the Prime Minister has given in the Council of Ministers in galvanising the European Community into action. I appreciate the considerable efforts by the Minister for Overseas Development both here and in Europe to stimulate as much help as possible.
Food is now getting to people in need in Ethiopia, albeit in small quantities. There is now some hope, but there is also considerable apprehension that what needs to be a consistent 18-month campaign may become on 18-day wonder once it is no longer the focus of the world's attention. There is apprehension that, unless sufficient supplies of food are sustained, thousands upon thousands of men, women, mothers, fathers and children will die early next year. They will starve to death as grain supplies are once again exhausted.
The Save the Children Fund and other relief agencies estimate that people in the drought-stricken areas of Ethiopia require a further 520,000 tonnes of grain to save the millions of lives at risk until next year's harvest. That is about 60,000 tonnes a month, which is only half the rations recommended by the United Nations. At best it is only half a loaf a day per person.
As of last week, only 30 per cent. of that food had been pledged by the world community. Much more will have to be found if thousands are not to die. The figures that the Minister has been given—I suspect by the World Food Programme —of the anticipated arrivals of grain over the next few months are wrong and bear no relation to the information that we gained in Addis Ababa last weekend.
That grain can come only from the West. Those who, like myself, campaigned vigorously for Britain's memberhip of the European Community did so in the firm belief that Britain and a united Europe could give the world a lead. This year Europe enjoyed a record grain harvest. Our granaries are groaning with grain. Literally millions of tonnes lie in the intervention stores. The people of Britain will not forgive us if we hoard surplus grain here when, elsewhere, thousands are dying simply for the need of such grain.
The farmers have already been paid for the grain in intervention. The only budgetary consideration is the difference between the cost of storing the grain and the cost of shipping it to Ethiopia. The signs are that it costs more to store.
Jim O'Keefe, the President of the European Community, spoke in Brussels last week of thousands dying once all budgetary possibilities were exhausted. He said:
We may face a situation in March or April this year when, despite our best efforts, and having exhausted all the possibilities within the Community budget, hundreds of thousands of people are dying.All that appears to be in danger of being exhausted is the will and resolve of the politicians who control the European Community, and the bureaucrats who administer it, to cut the red tape in accordance with the overwhelming will of the people in the European 773 Community that our surplus grain should be pledged in whatever quantity necessary to save the starving. Britain should take a further lead.
Ten years ago, Ethiopia experienced drought and famine. The world said, "Never again." It has happened again. Ten years ago, at the world food conference in Rome, Kissinger said that within a decade no child in the world need go to bed hungry. A decade later we witness children dying and starving for want of food.
Ethiopia and other African countries are hungry for change. That change can come only if we and others provide sufficient development aid to assist agriculture in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa, so as to enable farmers to grow more food to tackle hunger. If we do not do this we shall find that thousands more die from starvation each and every year.
Any cut in Britain's overseas development budget will be a shortsighted and retrograde step. If anyone asks why we should help to take on the responsibility, the answer is simply that we are, at heart, a Christian people and a Christian nation.
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennett (Denton and Reddish)am grateful for the opportunity to reinforce the points made by the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry). I shall never forget the sights that I saw last Thursday and Friday in Ethiopia. They will live with me for the remainder of my life.
I plead with the Minister to accept that the Government must make it quite clear, as soon as possible, that the world will produce sufficient grain to meet the needs of Ethiopia. Only 30 per cent. of Ethiopia's requirements have been offered by donor countries. It is essential that the countries with a food surplus should quickly commit themselves to ensuring that the needs of Ethiopia are met.
It is important to ensure that supplies are delivered regularly during the next 12 months and that we do not find that nothing is delivered in one month, which means that the people of Ethiopia will go short for a month.
The tragedy of Ethiopia is that the famine hits the headlines only when the media can show skeletal children on the television screen. There was a drastic famine around Korem in 1965. Some have suggested that one in two people died. Most of us know that in 1973, 250,000 died in Ethiopia because of the famine.
As the hon. Member for Banbury informed us, everyone said that that could never happen again. Yet, 10 years later, it is happening again. I shall be haunted by the fact that in five or six years it could happen again. We must examine the situation in Korem. It is a vast dust-bowl area, yet it could be a productive agricultural region. At Alomata, we have been assured there is an adequate water supply just 17m below the surface which could turn the whole area into a fertile land.
That area is capable of ensuring that, at least in that one area of Ethiopia, no further famines must be endured. It should not be beyond our ability and imagination to ensure that we give sufficient aid to Ethiopia which enables simple pumping and simple drilling to turn it into a food-producing area.
I plead with the Minister to ensure that Ethiopia receives the short-term aid that it needs, that it is delivered in an even flow and, above all, that Britain makes certain that it never happens again. We should never again be 774 faced with the pictures of horror that will haunt us for years to come. We must ensure that we carry out the aid that I have outlined.
§ Mr. Archy Kirkwood (Roxburgh and Berwickshire)I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this important debate. I appreciate the Minister's announcement that he will view the scenes for himself. I asked him to do that early in the year, but he did not think it appropriate.
When the Minister visits Ethiopia, he will see what we are accustomed to seeing on our television screens night after night—the individual horrors. However, he will also see what our screens do not portray, which is the scale of difficulties confronting the people in the 14 affected provinces in Ethiopia and the wider areas of Saharan Africa. The Minister will appreciate that the scale of the disaster is grander and wider than can possibly be portrayed on television.
The position in Ethiopia has been bad for almost 10 years. Indeed, the area has been accustomed to food shortages during that time. I know that during the past two years the Government have taken action to help Tigre and other provinces. I have no doubt that the Minister will return from Ethiopia with the same conclusions as we did —that it is all too little, too late.
The estimates that are made by the Ethiopian Government and the relief agencies suggest that between 7 million and 10 million people are in the drought-affected areas, 43 per cent. of whom are children younger than 14 years of age. The calculation of the relief and rehabilitation commission, which is the Ethiopian Government authority dealing with the crisis, is that 520,000 tonnes of food will be required. That calculation is based on a United Nations figure which has been divided by 50 per cent. I hope that the Minister will bear that figure in mind when he has discussions with the authorities in Ethiopia. As the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) said, the Ethiopian authorities have received only 30 per cent. of the required essential grain commitment to date.
If the statement of the relief and rehabilitation commission that we heard on Saturday is true, there is a possibility that, far from Assab being clogged up, there will be nothing to shift within the next few days if the grain shipments do not arrive. An efficient delivery system is operating from the port and the internal distribution system is well primed with food. The food has been taken from the ports up country to the stores and distribution centres. Unfortunately, further supplies are not on the horizon in supply ships to the extent and in the quantities that are needed. The fear was expressed on Saturday that the grain will not be delivered regularly to enable the excellent efforts of the Royal Air Force to be implemented in moving the grain up country in a regular and orderly manner.
The relief agencies have estimated that about 600,000 tonnes of food supplies will be needed over the next 12, to 18 months. The bulk deliveries that will have to be made will cost a good deal less than the possible cut of £106 million in the budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that has been discussed. We do not have to meet the entire cost ourselves, because I think that we should act in concert with our allies in the European Community, America and Australia. However, I think that we should 775 take a lead in delivering the relief from the international community that will prevent the risk of almost 900,000 avoidable deaths. That number of deaths would be intolerable and I hope that the Minister will return from Ethiopia and do everything that he can to prevent avoidable deaths.
§ The Minister for Overseas Development (Mr. Timothy Raison)The House has listened carefully to the brief but moving and vivid speeches of my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) and the hon. Members for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) and for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood). I think that everyone will agree that it is right to have the debate. It will be a short debate, but in the quarter of an hour that has passed we have heard some valuable contributions. I shall do my best to answer the questions and respond to the issues that have been raised, but it is not possible to present the full picture within the time imposed by an Adjournment debate.
As the House knows, I hope to go to Ethiopia to see the situation for myself. During my visit I shall meet representatives of the Ethiopian Government and of those who are serving so admirably with the voluntary agencies, the members of our splendid Royal Air Force team and our ambassador and his staff, who are all serving us and the people of Ethiopia extremely well. Most importantly, I shall see for myself the sights that have moved us so deeply in the past few weeks and months.
The debate has been primarily about the need for food and it is that to which I shall address my remarks principally. Before doing so I shall make a few comments about the past, which has been discussed a good deal. It is argued that we have not done enough to help Ethiopia since 1974 and that what we have done both directly and through the multilateral agencies has served only to sustain an iniquitous system and wrong-headed policies. The lack of aid and the supply of it are blamed as contributing to the present disaster.
It is true that we have not felt able to run a full-scale development programme in Ethiopia, and I shall say why. In the troubled province of the Tigre we supported an agricultural development project but, by 1976, difficulties with politics and security—one of our people was shot — made it seem pointless to continue. Ethiopia's agricultural policies brought declining incentives to peasant producers, marketing controls that discouraged production and the allocation of scarce resources to state farms that produced little of the nation's food. There were also human rights problems. We have however continued with what bilateral assistance we could to help with training and the short-term benefits of disaster relief and food aid. Contrary to the impression sometimes given by the media, we have given Ethiopia more help to combat famine in the last few years than we have given to any other country. This has been given as disaster relief, food aid, and our share in food and emergency aid from the Community. The fact remains that the need is dire, and it must be met.
The question of the use of European food surpluses as food aid has been raised, and I think that we all know that it is in the minds of many members of the public. The existence of these food stocks in the European Community 776 naturally leads people to expect a generous response with food aid in emergencies. In the last 12 months, 72,000 tonnes of grain have been delivered under the Community's food aid programme to Ethiopia. A further 10,000 tonnes of grain will arrive next month, and 25,000 tonnes for food for work projects will arrive in two shipments in February and April next year. The House will be pleased to hear also that the Commission announced yesterday a new commitment of 25,000 tonnes which will arrive next month. The Commission is planning now to send an average of 10,000 tonnes a month, including the amounts already pledged, to Ethiopia during 1985.
Inevitably, that aid costs money. It is sometimes said — it was said this morning on the BBC — that it is cheaper to send grain surpluses as food aid than to store them. My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury has argued that point, but it is not really true. The grain has been brought into store, but it would normally be sold, as my hon. Friend acknowledged, when market conditions allowed. If the grain is sent as food aid, it is obviously no longer available for sale, and the Community's taxpayers foot the bill. The grain has to be both paid for and shipped, and the internal distribution costs have to be met. In the present circumstances in Ethiopia, donors have to take a major responsibility for the internal as well as foreign exchange costs. The cost of buying and delivering a tonne of grain as food aid from Europe to the famine areas in Ethiopia is £250 — more than 10 times the annual storage cost, which the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food put at £20 a year. The needs of Ethiopia and other drought-affected African countries must be met, but there are substantial costs, and the Community cannot bear the burden alone. I do not think that anyone expects the Community to do so. The United States has recently pledged 130,000 tonnes, the Canadians 80,000 tonnes this year and the Australians 25,000 tonnes. The Community's relief effort must therefore be seen as part of the international response by many donors. The relief commissioner, whom I saw a day or two ago on his way back from the United States, had been profoundly moved by the response in North America. A substantial international effort is being mounted, and that is exactly what is needed.
The World Food Programme reports that arrivals at Assab are subject to some uncertainty, but it puts them provisionally at 61,000 tonnes in December, 53,000 tonnes in January and 57,000 tonnes in February. Forecasts of arrivals at Djibouti and Massawa are not available in any detail, but it is probable that additional supplies, including the additional 25,000 tonnes from the European Community, will arrive through those ports as well as the supplies diverted from Assab. My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury has challenged those World Food Programme figures. Obviously, that is something into which I shall look carefully.
I am determined that the momentum generated within the Community will not be lost during the course of next year. I welcome the Commission's intention to continue substantial shipments to Ethiopia throughout 1985. I am pressing for the urgent needs of drought-affected areas to take priority in 1985 over regular food aid programmes and for early decisions on the allocation of the 1985 programme.
I am glad that the aid given by the Community and other Western donors has stimulated the Soviet Union and its allies into providing help, particularly with transport. We 777 should remember that their provision of military equipment and advice has encouraged the ravages of civil war, which have added to the problems of the region. We do not support the secessionist groups and do not wish to interfere in Ethiopia's politics, but I urge the Ethiopian Government and those who oppose them to set aside their differences and to co-operate in bringing relief to the thousands who face death by starvation. We pledge ourselves to help the Government and people of Ethiopia in this task and to do so in close co-operation with the other donors, multilateral bodies and voluntary agencies who share this objective. The responsibility for co-ordinating these efforts rests largely and inevitably with the Government of Ethiopia and I am glad that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has appointed a co-ordinator to assist them. We wish Mr. Jansson every success in this important work.
Turning to the future, we must look to the multilateral agencies, and in particular the European Community, for the kind of assistance that can help avert further disasters. The pattern of negotiation agreed under the Lomé convention enables the Community to achieve the right context for aid much more effectively than could be done by a single donor. The pragmatic approach taken by the Ethiopean Government to famine relief makes me hope that a similar approach can be adopted to longer-term agricultural development. I understand that the latest discussions between the Government of Ethiopia and the World Bank have shown encouraging signs of that. The problems of Ethiopia have to be seen in the context of famine and the threat of famine elsewhere in the world, especially in Africa. There are many needy people in many countries and the answer is to be found, not in creating new institutions and bureaucracies, but in using most effectively those that we have already.
In closing, let me remind the House of some of the things that we are doing to help Ethiopia in its need. In the last three weeks we have sent Land Rovers and other supplies for the voluntary agencies and tomorrow we shall be flying out mobile workshops for Ethiopia's relief and rehabilitation commission to help it repair vehicles needed to transport food. We are responding quickly to other requests put to us by the commission, recognising the valiant efforts that it is making to get food to the hungry. In the same plane, tomorrow, there will be blankets, plastic sheeting and food kits for distribution by the voluntary agencies to those who are cold and hungry. Hon. Members have referred to the airlift of food and other supplies within Ethiopia by the Royal Air Force. My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury said that he hoped the Royal Air Force would be able to stay in Ethiopia until all urgent needs had been met.
As the House is aware, we have agreed to supply two aircraft for three months. We think that, with the two Air Force Hercules, there are enough planes in Ethiopia at 778 present to transport essential food and relief supplies. Keeping two aircraft fully operational in the country also involves the use of five aircraft and 100 men. I believe, from all the reports that I have heard, that our Royal Air Force team is doing a splendid job.
As I said earlier, our help is not limited to Ethiopia. The House will know that I approved recently £250,000 for relief in Chad. That will support a Red Cross feeding project. In addition, I have in the last few days earmarked up to £500,000 for drought relief in the Sudan, much of it for projects identified by British voluntary agencies. We are doing what we can and what is more, we can be sure that our contributions get through to the hungry, and for that I pay a special tribute to the many workers and others who face hardship and danger to achieve this goal.
There are many more things to be said, and many more things will be said in the House about the problem that we are discussing. I hope that nothing I have said has given any impression of complacency. I believe that what has to be done is urgent and extremely important.
§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettWe are all grateful for what the Minister has said and for the fact that he is going out to Ethiopia to see conditions for himself. Will he give us an assurance that as soon as he comes back he will make a statement in the House, assuming that the Leader of the House makes it possible?
§ Mr. RaisonI shall consider that carefully. As the hon. Gentleman says, it is up to the Leader of the House to determine whether I can make a statement, but I note his point.
§ Mr. David Maclean (Penrith and The Border)Will my right hon. Friend comment on the reports in the press that much of the effort of some of the multilateral agencies has been wasted because of in-fighting and that there must be a more co-ordinated and friendly effort between them in future if aid is to get through more quickly than at present?
§ Mr. RaisonI do not think that the in-fighting has been in Ethiopia. It may happen in other places from time to time, and that can be worrying, but my impression is that, given the sudden, enormous surge of activity, the system out there is not working too badly, and I believe that with the addition of a special co-ordinator, and with strengthening in one or two other ways, it will work increasingly well.
We are trying desperately to do the right things. We shall have to keep it up. The problem will not be solved in a week or two We all know that. However, progress is being made in meeting a challenge that is obviously of enormous importance.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at fifteen minutes to Eleven o'clock.