Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 23
Fifth Report - Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals
Published 13 Dec 2022
Paragraph 111
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)
It has only been three years since the last Voluntary National Review. However, a great deal has changed in this time both domestically and internationally. To maintain its reputation as a global leader in development, the Government must commit to completing a Voluntary National Review of progress on the SDGs. Strategically, given the stand-out importance of the forthcoming SDG Summit in 2023, the last opportunity for Heads of State to collectively assess and look to accelerate progress before the SDG 2030 deadline, the UK Government must present its Voluntary National Review in 2023. An honest appraisal of both the challenges and opportunities that the UK Government is facing in terms of delivering SDG progress, married with a renewed promise to leave no one behind and commitment to SDG 1.1, could transform both the UK’s standing on development and the global conversation around these priority agendas. In addition, the Government should review our predecessor Committee’s recommendations in relation to VNRs on engagement and timescales.
From: International Development Committee, Fifth Report - Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals (HC 149), paragraph 111, 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".