Development Issues (Hansard, 28 January 1998)

§ 3. Mr. Hope
What initiatives she is taking to promote greater awareness of development issues; and if she will make a statement. [23860]

§ Mr. Foulkes
We attach great importance to this area. Everyone has a right to understand the global considerations which shape their lives. I will have the privilege of chairing the first meeting of our new development awareness working group in March which will put in place an ambitious and exciting new strategy.

§ Mr. Hope
I thank my hon. Friend for his reply, and I congratulate him and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on the excellent nationwide tour that is currently taking place in which local organisations, Church groups, non-governmental organisations and councils have the opportunity to debate at first hand the issues in the White Paper. I stress that we are impatient for change on development education, and raising awareness is important. Will my hon. Friend confirm that the development awareness working group will meet soon, will have proper terms of reference and will take early action to raise public awareness of the need to eradicate world poverty?

§ Mr. Foulkes
I thank my hon. Friend for his kind remarks about the programme of visits. I had the great pleasure of starting off the programme, and we chose Belfast as an appropriate place to start. In Belfast, and in Aberdeen, I found great enthusiasm for the principles and the programmes of the White Paper, and very great enthusiasm for the work of the Department. I can confirm that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has just sent out invitations to hon. Members to join that working group. We hope to have the meeting as quickly as possible to produce the kind of programme of activities which I know my hon. Friend will enthusiastically endorse.

§ Mr. Rowe
Without seeking to prejudge what the working group will decide, I must point out that the 333 Minister will be well aware that most of the development education so far undertaken has been undertaken by NGOs. It seems to me that there is very little need for huge Government funds to be involved—merely the facilitation of high-quality education, sponsored by those NGOs.

§ Mr. Foulkes
Part of the work of the working group will be to mobilise and extend the work being done by NGOs, to learn from their best practice and to spread it around. There is a big job to be done in relation to the formal curriculum. The working group will look at the curriculum and informal education, and will try, through the wider media, to get the message over to as many people as possible.

§ Ms Squire
I welcome the initiatives taken by my hon. Friend the Minister and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to increase international development awareness throughout the UK, and I especially welcome the establishment of the working group. Will that group address the concerns which all of us have about child poverty and exploitation, especially when such exploitation produces goods that go on sale in our high street stores? What specific action do the Government intend to take to raise awareness of the part that we can all play in ending such exploitation throughout the world?

§ Mr. Foulkes
The Department is taking action through our contribution to the Independent Labour Organisation, where work is being done on core labour standards. I am sure that the working group will look at this matter to get over a wider awareness of the way in which children are being exploited—for example, there is bonded labour in some countries. This is a way of making people in the UK aware of some of the practices currently taking place which ought to be stamped out.