§ Mr. Harry GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much overseas aid is proposed for the current year; what was the figure for the year to May 1979; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydProvision for net aid to developing countries in the financial year 1992–93 is £1,831 million. Net aid expenditure in the financial year 1978–79 was £727 million.
§ Sir Thomas ArnoldTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made towards agreeing the future financial basis of the International Fund for Agricultural Development special programme for Africa, and if he will make a statement about the contribution due from the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development—IFAD—agreed in May 1991 that the special programme for Africa should be extended for a second and final phase. To date, firm pledges totalling almost $20 million have been made by Kuwait, Sweden and Nigeria. Conditional pledges have been made by France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
We made it clear in 1986 that we viewed the special programmes a one-off exercise, justified by the disappointingly low level of resources pledged for IFAD's second replenishment. We consider IFAD's future activities in Africa should now be financed from its regular resources in the same way as its work for other poor regions. The most important priority is to work for a successful outcome to the fourth replenishment of IFAD's resources, discussions on which began in Qatar in April and will continue in Rome in July.
§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentage of(a) bilateral aid and (b) multilateral aid from the United Kingdom goes into (i) health projects, (ii) education projects, (iii) agricultural projects and (iv) commercial ventures.
§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd[holding answer 11 May 1992]: The amount and shares of bilateral aid allocable by sector spent on projects in the sectors of health, education and agriculture in 1990 (the latest year for which figures are available) were: 142W
Amount (£000) Percentage of bilateral aid allocable by sector Health 61,182 10.69 Education 103,098 18.02 Agriculture 52,214 9.12 In addition, there are some multi-sector projects which also benefit health, education and agriculture. This assistance cannot readily be quantified.
Aid for commercial ventures is not identified in a way which allows aggregate figures to be provided. Much of our programme aid to support economic reform programmes is used to help recipient governments cover the foreign exchange requirement of imports needed to increase capacity utilisation in commercial firms in developing countries. Our bilateral programme aid in 1990 was £73 million. ODA supports small enterprise development. It also supports the reform and privatisation of parastatal bodies and some projects which they implement. The Commonwealth Development Corporation operates in developing countries investing in both private and public sector commercial enterprises and projects. Total CDC investment in 1990 was £137 million.
A comprehensive breakdown of multilateral agencies' expenditure by sector is not available. However certain multilateral agencies specialise in the sectors listed, for example the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation. I therefore refer the hon. Member to table 8 of "British Aid Statistics" 1986–1990, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. This table gives details of United Kingdom multilateral aid by agency for the last five years.