House of Lords written statement – made at on 2 June 2009.
Lord Tunnicliffe
Government Whip, Government Whip
My Honourable Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Ivan Lewis) has made the following Statement.
Today,
This joint strategic framework is written at a time of great opportunity but also of great challenge for the African continent. Overall economic performance in most African countries has been good, but progress towards the millennium development goals still needs to accelerate. The global financial crisis has introduced new pressures and uncertainties.
Slower global economic growth, more difficult credit conditions and changes in the international aid architecture pose additional challenges to which the African Development Bank will need to respond. At the same time, the bank must be better able to deal with the longer-term challenges facing Africa, including climate change, development in fragile states, gender equality, ensuring that private sector growth has positive benefits for the poorest and helping countries in Africa to work and trade together.
In addition to the three-year objectives on bank effectiveness set out in the joint strategic framework, the UK has several specific objectives for the African Development Bank over the next 12 months.
Response to the financial crisis
The financial crisis is impacting on Africa, with commodity prices down, remittances falling and private investment flows slowing. The bank has a key role to play in Africa's response and to help countries deal with the challenges they are facing. In particular we will work with the bank over the coming year to:
enable it to meet additional demand for lending during the crisis. We expect demands on the bank's finances will increase during the crisis, and we are committed to ensuring the bank has the resources it needs to deliver its mandate for all members; andchange policies that limit the impact of the bank's response, especially removing the cap on the proportion of bank funds that can be used for budget support. Fragile states
Fragile states experience huge poverty and human development problems. In these countries, the millennium development goals are most off-track with extreme poverty, and child and maternal deaths three to four times more prevalent than in other developing countries. The African Development Bank's £400 million fragile state facility is an important instrument that the bank can use in fragile states. We will work with the bank this year to:
establish effective bank programmes in all countries receiving funding under the fragile states facility.
Decentralisation
As the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness said, developing countries must set their own strategies for poverty reduction. To support this, the African Development Bank is decentralising its staff from the headquarters to bank offices around Africa. The bank has made good progress establishing a large number of field offices in recent years, but these offices need to be strengthened with the right expertise and given an appropriate level of delegated authority. This year we will work with the bank to:
complete the decentralisation process in 15 countries, with 15 fully staffed country offices operating effectively with appropriate delegated authority.
Results
Effective development organisations need clear objectives and must be able to benchmark and demonstrate progress against achieving them. The African Development Bank now has a single results system for all its operations, but the system is still being bedded in, and in some cases baselines against which progress can be measured still need to be established. We will work with the bank over the coming year to:
establish results frameworks in all bank country strategies; and ensure bank management reports every six months on its performance indicators.
A copy of the joint strategic framework will be placed in the House of Commons Library.
The house of Lords is the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament. It is filled with Lords (I.E. Lords, Dukes, Baron/esses, Earls, Marquis/esses, Viscounts, Count/esses, etc.) The Lords consider proposals from the EU or from the commons. They can then reject a bill, accept it, or make amendments. If a bill is rejected, the commons can send it back to the lords for re-discussion. The Lords cannot stop a bill for longer than one parliamentary session. If a bill is accepted, it is forwarded to the Queen, who will then sign it and make it law. If a bill is amended, the amended bill is sent back to the House of Commons for discussion.
The Lords are not elected; they are appointed. Lords can take a "whip", that is to say, they can choose a party to represent. Currently, most Peers are Conservative.
The House of Commons is one of the houses of parliament. Here, elected MPs (elected by the "commons", i.e. the people) debate. In modern times, nearly all power resides in this house. In the commons are 650 MPs, as well as a speaker and three deputy speakers.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
When speaking in the House of Commons, an MP will refer to an MP of the same party as "My Honourable Friend".
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
