Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 2
Fifth Report - Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals
Published 13 Dec 2022
Paragraph 30
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the FCDO’s position papers on health systems strengthening for global health security and universal health coverage, and ending preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children by 2030. We recommend the Government builds on these, and the disability inclusion and rights strategy, and develops a coherent cross- departmental Global Health Strategy, with clearly defined targets and delivery plans, within six months. We repeat our previous call for this to set out how the UK intends to use levers at multilateral and bilateral levels to achieve its aims, how this ensures progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal, and how the strategy will reach the most marginalised and vulnerable communities.
From: International Development Committee, Fifth Report - Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals (HC 149), paragraph 30, 13 December 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 March 2023 (deadline 13 February 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and to ending extreme poverty, and in response to the Committee's recommendations it largely points to existing strategies and programmes rather than adopting new structures.
- On a cross-government Global Health Strategy, it describes an existing "HMG Strategic Framework" and says Ministers "are considering options for communicating" it. No new strategy or six-month deadline is committed to.
- On the 0.7% of GNI aid target, it says it is committed to spending 0.7% "as soon as the fiscal situation allows", and states this was re-emphasised at the Autumn Statement 2022.
- On adding the $2.15 extreme poverty line to British International Investment's scoring, it says doing so was "considered and rejected at the time because it did not materially change the scores".
- On transparency and reporting, it has "made a public commitment to attain 'Very Good' in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index" and intends to update planned ODA allocations "in due course". On a 2023 Voluntary National Review, it says "No decision has been made".