§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the recommendations of the United Nations Development Programme on the proportion of developing countries' budgets which should be devoted directly to meeting the priority human needs of their people and the proportion of international aid for development which should directly support those needs.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThrough our bilateral aid programmes, and our support for multilateral aid organisations including UNDP, we encourage developing countries to adopt effective poverty reduction strategies and to promote human development, including better education and health, and children by choice. These are two of our priority objectives.
The proportion of international aid directed to meeting basic human needs varies from country to country. Rather than set sectoral spending targets we believe that needs should be assessed on a country basis which enables us to provide effective aid.