§ 4. Mr. Ian BruceWhat is the annual cost of the United Kingdom's UNESCO membership. [23861]
§ Clare ShortThe cost of UK membership of UNESCO for the calendar year 1998 is £11 million, although that might vary slightly with currency fluctuations. UNESCO's remit is the promotion of international co-operation in education, science, culture and communications. We welcome UNESCO's commitment since we rejoined to strengthening its contribution to meeting the international commitment to primary education for all children in the world by 2015.
§ Mr. BruceI know that the Secretary of State will be proud of meeting the commitment in the Labour party manifesto to rejoining UNESCO; but there was also a promise to pay for that out of savings from the rest of her budget. I understand from answers given by the Minister that membership is being paid for out of the contingency reserve. The previous Government would not have rejoined UNESCO, because the £11 million could otherwise have gone directly into schemes that we know get better value for money than UNESCO ever provides.
§ Clare ShortI am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his concern for my budget. I am concerned to ensure 334 that every farthing is well spent. In fact, the payment came out of my contingency reserve, which is part of my budget. If it had not gone on that, it would have gone on some other project.
We are proud of the quality of our bilateral programmes, but we are strengthening our commitment to the multilateral system. We cannot reach the poverty eradication targets alone, no matter how good our programmes are, so we must strengthen our commitment to making the international system work well, so that the targets can be reached in every country, including the ones in which we do not work individually.
§ Dr. PalmerIn view of the concern expressed by the hon. Member for South Dorset (Mr. Bruce) about the Department's budget, will my right hon. Friend urge the Conservative party to donate the £ 1 million that it has received from drug dealers?
§ Clare ShortI am grateful for the suggestion, but I am proud of the fact that the House has generally dealt with International Development questions in a bipartisan way, without playing political games. That is right, because these matters are of such concern to all parties. I hope that Opposition Members will support our tightened commitment to poverty eradication and our strengthened commitment to the multilateral system. In that way, Britain can make a bigger contribution to eradicating poverty throughout the world.