Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

FCO Objectives: Prioritising Development Opportunities

Wednesday 10 June 2020 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 3 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • UK Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office collaborate in 32 bilateral posts, nine multilateral missions, and eight joint units.
  • UK Government is committed to reducing poverty in developing countries through trading opportunities.
  • Response acknowledges the effectiveness of DFID in delivering aid, citing decades of experience.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Jerome Mayhew Con Barnet and Camden
Foreign Affairs
Context

The questioner asks about the coordination between the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Question

What co-operation there is between her Department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on prioritising development opportunities identified as FCO objectives?

Answer from Anne-Marie Trevelyan (The Minister for Africa)

Development policy and foreign policy are remarkably intertwined, which is why the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office already work together in 32 bilateral posts, nine multilateral missions and eight FCO-DFID joint units. To deal with coronavirus as effectively as possible and to co-ordinate our international efforts, we established a superb joint conflict, security and governance covid-19 hub, so the UK has a stronger presence in the world when speaking as one Government, rather than as only individual Departments.

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Q2 Jerome Mayhew Con Barnet and Camden
Business & Trade
Context

The questioner emphasizes the role of trade in lifting developing countries out of poverty, suggesting that DFID should use its soft power to expand trading opportunities with these nations.

Question

Beyond the immediate covid response, the past 30 years have shown us that trade, not aid, lifts developing nations out of poverty. With this in mind, does the Secretary of State agree that the considerable soft power that her Department wields should be used to encourage and expand trading opportunities with developing nations?

Answer from Anne-Marie Trevelyan (The Minister for Africa)

The UK Government are firmly committed to ensuring that developing countries can reduce poverty through trading opportunities. Indeed, that is one of the critical outcomes, and we will have to work very hard to help those countries get back on their feet. DFID has a joint team with the Department for International Trade, which is working to enhance market access for developing countries, ensuring that they can take advantage of this access through trade-related assistance and using our influence in organisations such as the World Trade Organisation.

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Q3 Sarah Champion Lab Rotherham
Taxation Foreign Affairs
Context

The questioner highlights the International Development Committee's report on UK aid, questioning the secrecy around a review of DFID's functions and budget.

Question

Yesterday, the International Development Committee released its review into UK aid, which concluded that DFID was by far the best Department to deliver it. The integrated review is formally paused, but it seems that the Secretary of State is carrying out her own stealth review. The official development assistance meeting was chaired by the Foreign Secretary. All but 200 future DFID programmes are paused, and DFID looks as if it is taking most of the forecast ODA cuts. Can the Secretary of State tell us what is the scope of the review, what is the timetable, and why the Committee found out through whistleblowers rather than through official channels?

Answer from Anne-Marie Trevelyan (The Minister for Africa)

I thank the hon. Lady for her Committee's report, which I was able to read overnight before it was published. I also thank her for her compliments about DFID. Indeed, the effectiveness with which DFID is able to deliver aid is because the Department has decades of honed experience in understanding the most effective and targeted ways of spending taxpayers' money and getting the most developmental impact. It was a really encouraging report. As I said earlier, because of the likely drop in gross national income, we are having to assess, across the board, how we will manage the 0.7% target in the coming year. We are working across Government to ensure that we do that as effectively as possible, because as far as we are all concerned—the Prime Minister has been very clear on this—UK aid must be spent to help the world tackle covid-19.

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