§ 16. Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent representations she has received regarding assistance for projects in Zimbabwe. [157658]
§ 22. Mr. WalterTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions she has had with other Governments in the industrialised world concerning future aid to Zimbabwe. [157665]
§ 24. Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her Department' s involvement in aid projects in Zimbabwe. [157667]
§ Clare ShortSince 1997 I have kept our development programme in Zimbabwe under regular review. As part of this process, I have had discussions with and from representations from a variety of interested parties from Zimbabwe, the UK and elsewhere. We remain committed to helping the poorest in Zimbabwe who are suffering the combined effect of economic mismanagement and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. But the situation in Zimbabwe is difficult and we continue to work only where we are confident our support can be effective.
For that reason, I have closed 12 development projects and suspended or substantially modified five others in the last 12 months. Most recently, we wrote to the Zimbabwe Government on 6 April informing them that we were ending our support to the Privatisation Agency of 301W Zimbabwe and to a Trade Policy Capacity Building Programme. In the continued absence of Government policies likely to reverse current economic decline and reduce poverty, I concluded that those projects were likely to have little beneficial impact for the people of Zimbabwe.