Select committee: International Development Committee
Recommendation 4
Fifth Report - Humanitarian crises monitoring: impact of coronavirus (interim findings)
Published 13 Nov 2020
Paragraph 91
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 believe the FCDO should: • recognise that the eradication of the pandemic everywhere is an integral part of resolving the threat anywhere and therefore switch its financial support for Covid-19 vaccines, therapies and tests voluntarily from its ODA pot to other budgets (thereby freeing up resources for more frontline activity on secondary impacts in developing countries) • re-commit to its ongoing programmes and provide new funding for the Covid-19 response—in particular in relation to secondary impacts—from ODA, freed up from Covid-19 vaccine R&D, rather than allowing the transfer of scarce resources from existing programmes, especially those tackling other diseases • use its significant leverage as leading development actor in many areas (gender equality, disability inclusion, poverty alleviation) to lead an inclusive and transparent approach by the donor community (both bilateral and multilateral), • put local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their partner International NGOs at the heart of the global Covid-19 response as they are closest to end-user communities and benefit from existing relationships of trust and confidence.
From: International Development Committee, Fifth Report - Humanitarian crises monitoring: impact of coronavirus (interim findings) (HC 292), paragraph 91, 13 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 January 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government sets out continued commitment to existing health and gender-based violence programmes, but states that it "disagrees" with the Committee's view that ODA funding should be switched away from COVID-19 research and development.
- On existing disease programmes, it says it will "continue to fund existing programmes which tackle previously identified diseases", including through Gavi and the Global Fund.
- It does not accept that COVID-19 research and development should move from ODA to other budgets, stating that such investment "qualify as ODA" under OECD DAC rules and that moving it "risks underfunding" research suited to developing countries.
- On gender-based violence, it says it "remains committed to eliminating all forms of gender-based violence" and is launching a successor programme, What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale.
- On a wider global health strategy, it describes the 2021 G7 Presidency as an "opportunity" and says it will work to implement the Prime Minister's five-point plan, without committing to the strategy the Committee proposed.