§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the United Kingdom's contribution to the Monterrey United Nations Conference on Financing for Development on 18 March. [46294]
§ Clare ShortThe United Kingdom played a leading role in the preparatory process leading up to the Monterrey Conference in helping to formulate the EU position for the Conference. The EU worked hard during the negotiations of the text of the outcomes document: the "Monterrey Consensus". This is a good document, in which developing countries commit to set in place the pro-poor economic policies and good governance that is required to attract foreign direct investment and mobilise domestic resources; and donor countries commit to provide enhanced support to developing countries through providing more and better quality oda, through opening up markets to trade access in the context of the Doha process, and through ensuring that the HIPC process provides sustainable debt relief. The UK also played a leading role in developing the package of commitments announced by the EU at Monterrey, which includes a commitment to increase EU aid volume from an average of 0.33 per cent. to an average of 0.39 per cent. by 2006—which represents an additional 7 billion dollars per annum. Baroness Amos and I represented the UK at the Conference itself. I chaired a round table on financing sustainable development and participated in a round table on partnerships. Baroness Amos held a press conference to publicise the DFID/HTM paper on the case for aid and participated in a round table on coherence.
§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her Department's policy in respect of sustainable development, with specific reference to the United Kingdom's participation in the Monterrey Conference on 18 March. [46293]
§ Clare ShortIn the "Monterrey Consensus" document which was agreed at the Financing for Development Conference, the nations of the world agreed that developing countries need to set in place pro-poor economic policies and good governance in order to attract foreign direct investment and mobilise domestic resources. Donor countries need to provide more and better oda; provide better market access for developing country products through the Doha negotiations; ensure that the HIPC process provides heavily indebted poor countries with a sustainable exit from debt, and take concrete steps to give developing countries a stronger voice in the international financial architecture. The UK Government, throughout the Financing for Development process, has promoted the view that development assistance should be untied and should be targeted on poor countries with large numbers of poor people and good policies; and that donors should harmonise their procedures to reduce the burden on developing country governments; should move away from stand-alone projects towards direct support through government budgets where possible; should strengthen government accounting and audit capacity 871W so as to enable a greater use of budget support by donors; and should provide aid in support of country-owned poverty reduction strategies.
The Government believes that the Monterrey Consensus, alongside the WTO Doha Declaration, provides an excellent basis for a new global partnership to tackle poverty eradication and manage globalisation so that it works for all the world's people, including the poorest. We hope that the World Summit on Sustainable Development, at Johannesburg in September, will build on these outcomes, and help to identify means of implementation.
A full outline of how my department is contributing to the delivery of the Government's commitment to global sustainable development will be published in our Departmental Report next month. Priorities are set out in the two White Papers on International Development (which can be found on www.dfid.gov.uk or obtained from the DFID Public Enquiry Point). In addition, my department has considered the full sustainable development implications of its bid for resources as part of the Spending Review.