§ Miss LestorTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy that 20 per cent. of aid is to be allocated to priory needs for human development.
§ Mr. BaldryThe purpose of the British aid programme is to help people in countries poorer than our own to improve their lives. To that end, we have established seven priority objectives, one of which is to promote human development. We do not favour setting spending targets for individual objectives for this can reduce the quality of activities undertaken and because the objectives are mutually supporting.
A substantial proportion of our bilateral aid is devoted to basic needs such as education, health care, clean water and safe sanitation. In 1993–94, 15 per cent.—£147 million—of the bilateral aid programme, excluding emergency relief, was spent in these areas. If emergency relief, most of which was used to meet basic needs in crisis situations, is included, the figure rises to 28 per cent.—£321 million. These figures are conservative since they omit expenditure in support of volunteers and that under the pound for pound scheme for non-governmental organisations—other than block grants—which is not categorised by objective in ODA statistics.