§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make it her policy to publish before the end of the year criteria by which Her Majesty's Government will judge their performance on targeting aid at the reduction of poverty and meeting basic needs.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe overall aim of our aid programme is to promote sustainable economic and social development, in order to improve the quality of life and reduce poverty, suffering and deprivation, in developing countries. Our six priority objectives for the aid programme support this overall aim. They are:
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- to promote economic reform and longer term economic growth;
- to promote good government;
- to help developing countries to define and carry out poverty reduction strategies;
- to promote human development, including better education and health, and children by choice;
- to promote the social, economic, legal and political status of women in developing countries; and
- to help developing countries tackle national environmental problems.
We are currently developing a new policy information markers system, as part of a further improvement to our monitoring systems, which will enable us to provide reports on progress against each of these objectives. If the trials are successful, we hope to have produced the first reports by the end of 1994.
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to secure a balance of bilateral and multilateral expenditure on oveseas development aid.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydOur aid allocations through both bilateral and multilateral channels are kept under regular review. Most of our multilateral aid commitments result from negotiated agreements covering several years ahead.