Parliamentary Questions - Africa

Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): What proportion of his Department's budget he expects to be spent in Africa through budget support in the next financial year.

The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn): In 2004-05, we expect that 30 per cent. of our projected total bilateral spending in Africa will be in the form of poverty reduction budget support; plans for 2005-06 will be decided during the rest of the year.

Tony Baldry: If budget support is to be successful, sustained capacity-building will obviously be needed in the receiving African countries. The Secretary of State is fortunate in heading the Whitehall Department with the largest number of fast-track civil servants, so does he agree that if budget support is to work, Ministers in the receiving African countries must be able to work up their senior management teams so that they, too, can call on good-quality officials both to work up and deliver policy?

Hilary Benn: I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman. As he will know, we take three steps before deciding whether to give budget support. The first is that there should be a thorough review of public financial management, which, of course, includes the capacity to manage resources effectively. Secondly, there should be agreement to reform any weaknesses that have been identified, and thirdly-recognising that giving budget support entails some risks-the risks should be outweighed by the development benefits. As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, a large part of the work that we undertake is with the Governments of those countries and elsewhere to build that capacity, because once countries have that capacity they can do the job that we all look to Governments to do, which is to provide for our needs. If we can then provide financial support through budget assistance, it will enable the countries themselves to do more of the things that they have already decided they want to do.