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International Development
Labour's huge and sustained rise in overseas development spending is something that I am very proud of.
The Government is committed to reaching the UN target of giving 0.7% of national income to international development by 2013, and I have been very active in securing a pledge to meet this goal at the Labour National Policy Forum. If the International Finance Facility is successful, the 0.7% target may be reached by 2008/09.
10 Labour Achievements on International Development
- Increasing aid to Africa to £1billion a year
- Created a separate Department for International Development and introduced the International Development Act to focus all aid on reducing global poverty
- Launched the Commission for Africa to take a fresh look at how the world can help Africa to transform its future
- By 2005/06 the UK will have almost doubled its overseas aid budget to £4.6million
- Committed £700million to basic education in developing countries since 1997
- Launched a HIV/AIDS strategy which has pledged £1.5million over the next three years. The UK is now the second largest bilateral donor on HIV/AIDS in the world.
- Pressing for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to help make trade fairer for developing countries
- Agreed to pay 10% of the cost of servicing debt owed by the poorest countries to the World Bank and the African Development Bank
- Untied all bilateral aid so that developing countries are free to spend it wherever they get best value
- Given over £170million to help poor countries negotiate a fairer trade system
We have an opportunity in 2005 to deliver a modern Marshall Plan for the developing world - a new deal between the richest countries and the poorest countries.
The Plan aims to achieve:
1) Finance for Development - doubling aid to halve poverty through setting timetables to increase development aid; agreeing on an International Finance Facility to offer immediate funds; and making a commitment to double aid to Africa.
2) Debt Relief - full debt relief for burdened countries through matching bilateral debt relief with 100% multilateral debt relief; and agreeing on measures to ease the debt service burden
3) Trade - to end protectionism by opening markets and removing subsidies; allowing developing countries to open up their trade; recognising that developing countries will require extra resources to build their trading capacity; and ensuring that the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements really deliver for development.
The Alternative
The Tories' sums on international development do not add up. In government they slashed the aid budget as a proportion of national wealth to 0.26% in 1997. Too much aid was focussed on isolated projects, rather than supporting developing countries' capacity to run their economies more effectively.
Three times, Labour has created a separate Ministry for International Development. Each time the Tories have got back into office they have shut it down again.