§ Mr. PendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what level of resources, and what consideration, he has given to the implementation of sport-as-aid packages as part of development aid to disadvantaged groups and for developing the sports infrastructure of recipient countries; if he will make it his policy to develop further such packages; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe provision of sports infrastructure has not featured significantly in our bilateral aid programme. We have found that neither poor people nor their Governments give high priority to using aid for such234W purposes, although they can be part of health or education projects. Our basic priority is to use aid to increase the productive capabilities of people in developing countries and we do not expect any change in this.
We have occasionally funded small contributions to sports and other cultural developments through the heads of mission gift scheme, however. A recent gift was for South African black townships. We are also providing aid to match contributions by local people for sports equipment within slum improvement projects in India.