Belize and Guatemala
House of Lords
Written answers and statements, 5 May 2009
Lord Ashcroft (Conservative)
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Malloch-Brown on 30 March (WA 178), (a) what is the breakdown of the £500,000 allocated to projects in Belize and Guatemala from their conflict prevention pool during the 2008—09 financial year, and (b) what steps have been or are being taken to ensure that this funding is spent on conflict prevention.
Lord Malloch-Brown (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Labour)
During financial year 2008-09, a total of £517,000 was allocated from the tri-departmental conflict prevention pool to projects in Belize and Guatemala. These projects aimed to encourage confidence-building measures between the Governments of Belize and Guatemala to help them reach a settlement on their long running territorial dispute, with a view eventually to referring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for resolution.
The breakdown of expenditure is as follows: £200,000 for the Organisation of American States (OAS) Belize/Guatemala: ICJ Legal Fees Fund; £125,000 support to the OAS office in the Adjacency Zone (in the Belize/ Guatemala border); £75,000 support for information and awareness raising campaigns in Belize; £90,000 for confidence-building measures; £27,000 for research projects.
Project bids were initially assessed against our conflict prevention strategy for the Americas and are monitored by our embassies in Belize and Guatemala and through the OAS, including through periodic progress and evaluation reports.