§ 2. Valerie Davey (Bristol, West) (Lab)What recent progress has been made on the international finance facility. [179123]
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown)We welcome the proposals at the G8 summit last week that advance our proposal for the international finance facility to double aid and halve poverty. In September, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will report on the proposal. I can also confirm that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation has indicated interest in applying the principles to the next stage of its important work.
§ Valerie DaveyI thank the Chancellor for that reply and for his strong international leadership in this field. The vast majority of my constituents want the Government to give a strong moral and financial lead in campaigning for global justice, so can my right hon. Friend tell them and the House how the IFF will link to and support the Commission for Africa?
§ Mr. BrownThe Commission for Africa will report at the beginning of next year. It will look at proposals under which money for education, health and anti-poverty programmes in Africa can be financed. That report will contain recommendations about the financing of such proposals, including support for the IFF. Over the next few months, we shall have discussions with other countries; France and Brazil will be making a report in the next few weeks; I shall be visiting the Vatican to discuss how it can help to move the proposals forward; and I believe that many other organisations will join the 50 countries that have already given support to the facility.
§ Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)Despite the Chancellor's lead on the matter, we are unlikely to make much progress until after the US presidential election, so will he consider the Treasury working with the Department for International Development to produce a paper that could be published at the start of the United Kingdom's G8 presidency to show how long it will take, at present rates of development assistance, to reach the millennium development goals? Many people in Congress and elsewhere think that the US millennium challenge account will do it all. There is insufficient international recognition of the fact that at present levels of spending we are light years away from meeting the millennium development goals.
§ Mr. BrownI am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who is Chairman of the Select Committee on International Development. He has played an important part internationally in giving support to the proposals. He is right: on present trends, in sub-Saharan Africa the education and anti-poverty targets will not be met until 2150—not 2015 but 150 years from now. That is why there is urgency to persuade the Americans and other countries that we must find a new mechanism to finance development aid. Support for the UK proposal is growing and I am grateful that we have support for it on an all-party basis. I believe that we can do more to win over the Churches and the non-governmental organisations, as well as Governments, and I look forward to support for the proposal from parliamentarians of all countries.
§ Ms Julia Drown (South Swindon) (Lab)Can my right hon. Friend assure the House that the important lobbying for the international finance facility will not be an excuse for this country not spending 0.7 per cent. of our gross national income on international aid? If part of the lobbying for the IFF says that nations need to mean what they say when they sign up to things such as the millennium development goals, do we not need to mean what we said when we signed up, 34 years ago, to spend 0.7 per cent. of GNI on aid? That target is achievable. Will we see it in the comprehensive spending review?
§ Mr. BrownI am grateful to my hon. Friend for taking a very big interest in these matters. She chaired a meeting that I spoke at only a few weeks ago. We have increased overseas development aid from 0.26 to 0.4 per cent., and there will be further announcements, of course, in the spending review that will report before the summer recess. There has been a real-terms increase of almost 100 per cent. in the amount of money going into development aid and, because of the untying of it, there has been a doubling and more in the aid that is going to Africa, which is the source of some of the greatest problems that she has talked about. I can assure her that we remain fixed on the goal of 0.7 per cent. I can also assure her that there will be further announcements to come. Perhaps she would note the fact that, if the Opposition had their way, they would freeze development spending in cash terms, cut it by 5 per cent. in real terms, and the percentage of overseas aid would 897 go down to the 0.26 per cent. that we had to inherit when we came to office. I hope that they will reconsider their position.
§ Mr. Russell Brown (Dumfries) (Lab)I appreciate that the IFF has been designed to front-load and meet the required targets to achieve our millennium development goals. I have heard what my right hon. Friend has said this morning, but has any real progress been made in ensuring that the other interested Governments—in particular, the United States—are as committed to what we in this country are trying to achieve?
§ Mr. BrownThe reason I wanted to deal with this question after the G8 meeting is that progress was made on debt relief for the poorest countries. The G8 decided only last week to provide the necessary financing for the completion of the debt initiative, so progress is being made on one specific aspect that would come under the IFF. I believe that there is also general agreement that, if Africa is to make the necessary reforms, support for education, health and anti-poverty programmes must be provided. I think that my hon. Friend will know that 50 countries have already supported the proposals. I look forward over the next year, particularly in our presidency, to achieving far wider support for the IFF. It is one of the means by which we can indeed meet the 2015 millennium development goals.