§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
How far they have been able to take into account the outcome of the 1992 Earth Summit conference on development and the environment in their overseas development priorities during the last year and in their forward plans for overseas development expenditure.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyThe primary conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was the need for national and global sustainable development. Agenda 21, adopted by UNCED, set out what that should entail. Promotion of sustainable development in order to reduce poverty is the overarching purpose of our aid programme to developing countries, the 111WA aims and objectives of which are set out in the FCO/ODA Departmental Report for 1993 (Cm. 2202) laid before Parliament on 10th February. All these objectives are fully consistent with Agenda 21. We intend to retain sustainable development and poverty reduction as the overarching purpose of our aid programme, and to continue to ensure that our priorities remain entirely consistent with the aims of Agenda 21.