§ Mr. Geoffrey Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he intends to set up an inquiry on his Department's responses to the famine in Ethiopia and the lessons learnt by his Department in handling the crisis.
§ Mr. RaisonI see no need for an inquiry. The Department has responded most efficiently to the demands placed on it. But there are always lessons to be learnt
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department is currently doing to assist the relief of famine in Ethiopia; and if he is satisfied with the current programmes.
§ Mr. RaisonOver £3 million of the £5 million I announced recently has now been allotted to help expand the feeding efforts of the voluntary agencies, to strengthen the Ethiopian transport fleet, and to reinforce the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Our 6,500 tonnes food aid should be shipped within a fortnight. The 15W problems are very great, but together with substantial new aid we have just agreed in the European Community I believe this will make a real impact on the crisis.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will list the amount of aid given to Ethiopia over each of the past five years, distinguishing between food aid and money aid.
§ Mr. RaisonThe figures for aid to the Ethiopian Government are as follows:
£000 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Food aid 1,021 1,091 22 5,194 2,510 Other aid* 1,742 478 144 106 527 TOTAL 2,763 1,569 166 5,300 3,037 * This includes development loans and grants, disaster relief and technical co-operation, but excludes aid channelled through the European Community, the World Food Programme and other multilateral agencies.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures he will take to assist Ethiopia over the next year.
§ Mr. RaisonOur first task must be to spend to best effect the £5 million already allotted to Ethiopia and other drought-stricken African countries, and the £35 million supplementary aid now decided upon by the European Community of which we pay about a fifth. This will take us well into next year. I shall then review what more we might do.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the amount of aid given to Ethiopia from the contingency fund.
§ Mr. RaisonAs my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced to the House on 24 October, £5 million has been allocated from the aid programme contingency reserve for Ethiopia and other African countries affected by the drought and famine. The bulk of this will be spent on Ethiopia. In addition, £1.4 million has been allocated to the purchase and transport costs of food aid for Ethiopia; and the United Kingdom's share of the allocations from the European Community budget for additional food and other emergency aid will be attributed to the aid programme. The United Kingdom's share in relation to Ethiopia is some £2 million, but it is not yet known how much of this will be spent this financial year.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will state the conditions tied to aid given to Ethiopia over the last five years.
§ Mr. RaisonNearly all aid given or promised to Ethiopia during the last five years has been humanitarian or food aid. Part of the food aid is channelled through the World Food Programme. This has not carried any conditions imposed at our instance. Our recent agreement to forgive future repayments due on past aid loans is unconditional. Technical co-operation provided or promised is, as usual, tied to British sources. Aid by the European Community, to which we have subscribed our share, has been given in accordance with the Lomé convention and the Community's regulations governing food aid and disaster or emergency assistance.