Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 8
Eighth Report - Covid-19 in developing countries: secondary impacts
Published 26 Jan 2021
Paragraph 51
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Humanitarian crises monitoring: coronavirus in developing countries: secondary impacts All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the UK’s role in extending the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative to 30 June 2021, the measure to temporarily suspend debt service payments for the poorest countries. As the majority of these outstanding debts are governed by English law, the UK Government is in a unique position to send a global message on debt service payments by suspending or cancelling repayments. We urge the Government to extend the Debt Service Suspension Initiative beyond June 2021 and to use its influence to persuade private lenders to join this scheme. Furthermore, the Government should consider options for the cancellation of debt and provide this Committee with the rationale behind its decisions on debt relief versus debt cancellation for low- and middle-income countries.
From: International Development Committee, Eighth Report - Covid-19 in developing countries: secondary impacts (HC 1186), paragraph 51, 26 January 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 April 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government agrees on the need for a strategic approach and for efficient aid spending, but states there are "no plans for a separate covid-19 strategy" and "no immediate plans to publish a global health strategy".
- On ODA, it describes the move from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI as a "temporary decision" and says it "will return to the 0.7% target when the fiscal situation allows".
- On debt, the UK "will work with G7 and G20 partners to take a coordinated view on a further extension of the DSSI"; it is "willing to cancel debts where required in order to restore debt sustainability".
- On sexual and reproductive health, it does not ringfence contraception funding, saying ringfencing "could provide unnecessary limitations of choice for women and decrease integration between services".
- On nutrition commitments, the Department is "undertaking an internal review" and "will update as soon as is feasible"; it agrees that cash transfers can help different groups respond to secondary impacts.