§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions h has held with(a) churches and (b) church leaders on debt relief and the campaign for trade justice. [159049]
§ John HealeyOn 16 February, Lord Carey and Lord Griffiths hosted a conference on "Making Globalisation Work For All: The Challenge of Delivering the Monterrey Consensus" at the Treasury. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for International Development were among the keynote speakers at the conference which was attended by a number of church leaders and faith groups.
The conference brought together leaders from faith groups, NGOs, governments, businesses and universities to discuss how to make progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and eliminating global poverty. Debt relief and trade justice are central to improving growth and reducing poverty in developing countries, and the UK continues to call for the full implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and for a strengthened commitment to ensure that trade liberalisation delivers poverty reduction.
The conference also focused on the need for extra resources to provide further debt relief, and for additional aid to improve the investment climate and help the private sector in developing countries respond to the new opportunities and challenges created by trade liberalisation. The UK's proposal for an International Finance Facility would provide the much-needed substantial increase in resources that debt relief alone would not achieve and that could be disbursed byway of grants and additional debt relief.