International Development - Restoring the UK’s Role

Submitted by: 11 party members
Mover: Layla Moran MP (Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development)
Summation: Lord Purvis (Lords Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development)

Conference notes that:

1. The Liberal Democrats were the first UK political party to commit to the 0.7% of Gross National Income target for Official Development Assistance spending, and enshrined this target in law whilst in Government.
2. Britain's reputation as an 'international development superpower' has been seriously compromised by the previous Conservative government, after:
   1. Boris Johnson abolished the independent Department for International Development (DFID), merging it with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, resulting in the new department's development capability being "reduced" according to the National Audit Office.
   2. Rishi Sunak took the decision to cut UK international development spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI, which has resulted in thousands of preventable deaths and vital programmes being cut.
3. Conflicts in the Middle East, the Sahel, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Ukraine mean the UK's support is needed more than ever, while the UN Secretary General has made clear that progress towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require a concerted international policy response which is currently lacking.
4. UK bilateral ODA spending has been further cut by the former Conservative Government's failure to cut the asylum backlog, resulting in almost 30% of UK ODA being spent on in-country refugee costs in 2022.
5. The incoming Government does not have plans to re-establish an independent department for international development, and has not yet committed to restoring ODA spending to 0.7% of GNI.

Conference believes that:

1. The British people always respond with great generosity of spirit to humanitarian disasters and conflicts in other countries.
2. UK ODA spending is a powerful tool for good in the world which helps the most disadvantaged and vulnerable.
3. The UK reneging on its promises has created a vacuum which Russia and China want to fill.
4. For the UK to best play its role on the world stage, it needs to restore its role as a development superpower.
5. An independent department is the best way to ensure that the UK is a global leader on development.

Conference reaffirms the Liberal Democrats' commitment to:

1. Immediately reversing the international development cut, returning UK ODA spending to 0.7% of GNI.
2. Ensuring that the use of ODA is consistent with the OECD/DAC rules/guidelines, and with UK legislation, and in particular that its primary purpose should remain the economic development of, and poverty reduction within, the partner country.
3. Ensuring that the Sustainable Development Goals, which have universal applicability, lie at the heart of the UK's international development policy.

Conference accordingly calls on the UK Government to restore the UK's development superpower status, including by:

1. Establishing an independent department for international development.
2. Immediately restore full funding for programmes supporting women and girls.
3. Creating the role of a UK Sustainable Development Goals tsar to drive delivery of the SDGs, in both domestic and international policy, including conducting a root and branch review of the allocation of UK ODA to maximise its impact on developing countries.
4. Restoring the humanitarian relief reserve fund, increasing the UK's ability to respond to conflict, such as in Sudan and Ukraine, as well as natural disasters.
5. Addressing the increasingly severe challenges of debt distress.
6. Recognising the role of education as a force for good and committing to spend 15% of ODA on education in the world's most vulnerable areas, with a fully funded Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Education Cannot Wait (ECW).
7. Restoring the cuts to water and sanitary health programmes, and health programmes.
8. Increasing the proportion of ODA committed to tackling climate change and environmental degradation.
9. Addressing the growing global crisis of food insecurity and malnutrition by restoring our commitment to nutrition and famine relief and increasing the proportion of ODA committed to delivering life-saving nutrition interventions.
10. Tackling the asylum backlog, and accordingly ensuring that ODA is not used to cover for a broken asylum system, as took place under the former Conservative Government.
11. Taking further steps to tackle economic crime, including the use of tax havens and money laundering, by passing further economic crime legislation.

Applicability: Federal.

­

Mover: 7 minutes; summation of motion and movers and summation of any amendments: 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see page 8 of the agenda. 

The deadline for amendments to this motion, see pages 10–11, and for requests for separate votes, see pages 7–8 of the agenda, is 09.00 Thursday 12 September. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Saturday’s Conference Daily.