§ 5. Mr. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green)In which areas of Mozambique the main British aid effort is concentrated. [123174]
§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)We are working at national level to support Mozambique's impressive commitment to reform. We are supporting customs reform, health and education reform and providing budgetary aid. I am happy to tell the House that I have recently decided that Mozambique should have a further £40 million in budgetary aid. Our provincial focus is in Zambezia province, which is one of the poorest areas of Mozambique and was a major centre of fighting during the civil war. We are focusing there on de-mining, land reform, rural roads and micro-finance.
§ Mr. McCabeI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Does she agree that before the floods, Mozambique was almost a model in Africa for progress in its economy and efforts to heal the divisions following the brutal civil war? What progress is the country making in recovering from the devastating effect of the floods?
§ Clare ShortMy hon. Friend is right; Mozambique is a star. After years of war and bad economic management, it raised its economic growth to 9 per cent. a year. That is the kind of level that countries in Africa need to move the economy forward and reduce poverty. Mozambique is a country of desperate poverty, but with a very powerful commitment to reform and making great progress. The floods set it back, and this year's economic growth 277 will probably be 5 per cent.—but still positive. The expectation of all donors in the international financial institutions is that Mozambique will recover and get back on its path of growth and reform.
§ Mr. Gary Streeter (South-West Devon)Will the Secretary of State confirm that her departmental report this year includes a cut of £24 million in spending on Mozambique over the next three years? Is that not a reflection of the fact that under Labour the British aid budget expressed as a percentage of gross national product has fallen from 0.27 per cent. in 1997 to 0.23 per cent. in 2000? Will she confirm that that is a clear breach of the manifesto commitment that she gave to increase the aid budget expressed as a percentage of GNP?
§ Clare ShortNo, I cannot confirm that. The hon. Gentleman's questions confirm the fact that he has serious numeracy problems. There has been no cut in our aid programme. This year, there has been the biggest increase in aid spending in one year—an all-time record in the British aid programme. Because the OECD development administration committee in Paris counts in calendar rather than financial years, there is a technical flaw in the figures, as it says in its announcement. The hon. Gentleman needs to go back to school for some arithmetic lessons.
§ Mr. StreeterThe Secretary of State's excuses simply will not do. She used to attack us on the basis of the GNP figures, and she must accept those figures herself. She cannot confirm my points—though she is wrong—so will she confirm that she is presiding over the lowest GNP spend on aid for 30 years? Will she confirm that for the first time in a decade, despite all her spin and hype, the British aid spend is less than the average of OECD countries? Will she confirm that even according to her Department's figures, the average GNP spend on aid over this Parliament will be less than that over the previous Parliament? She said that under Labour, GNP spend would go up; it has gone down. Is it any wonder that the British people are beginning to reject this Labour Government?
§ Clare ShortThe hon. Gentleman has got serious problems with any attachment to accuracy and truth. It is the job of Oppositions to oppose. but it is also their job to accept facts as facts. I have just told the hon. Gentleman that, after years and years under the Government of whom he was a member—in a junior capacity, admittedly—there was decline and decline in Britain's aid budget. That has been reversed. This year there is the largest ever increase in a single year. There is a technical measure in the OECD development administration committee's announcement, but it adds that that is a technical measure, and that Britain's programme is going up. So, no: the hon. Gentleman is wrong, wrong, wrong, not attached to the truth, and has real numeracy problems.
§ Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley)Does not the Government's record on aid to Mozambique underline their policy of helping countries that show positive signs, as Mozambique has done since the end of its civil war? The fact that so much has been done to overcome the disastrous floods shows that the Government have 278 responded in a positive way. Does not Mozambique send out a positive signal to Angola, on the other side of Africa, about what could happen if it got over its civil war and went forward in a positive way?
§ Clare ShortMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. Important studies have recently been conducted on where aid is effective. It is effective where there are reformers, and big resource transfers come behind them to leverage and speed up economic reform, and then reform in education and health care. We are moving away from the gesture spending of the European Commission and the previous Government and towards backing reformers. That says to any country that if it goes down that road we will be behind it, and it can have fast economic growth and improved social programmes. We are beginning to get reformers setting good examples for others.[Interruption.]