HL Deb 23 April 1998 vol 588 c225WA
Lord Judd

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What agreement was reached at the international high level March seminar on how to put the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 21st century strategy for international development into practice; and on how to fulfil the OECD's international development targets. [HL1279]

Lord Whitty

EU member states have endorsed the international development strategy (IDS) in the OECD. Following discussion at the EU seminar, we expect the EU Development Council on 18 May to agree a resolution covering the IDS and poverty eradication.

Participants at the seminar noted the need to implement the IDS through:

promoting partnership and local ownership of the strategy;

seeking coherence between all policies which affect developing countries;

better co-ordination;

contributing to international work to measure progress against the strategy and targets, and contributing to a review of overall progress.