Alma Mata are invitees at the Royal Society of Medicine’s 36th Breakfast Briefing

February 16, 2010 by jennyhall

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

On the 9th February 2010 the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) hosted the Right Honourable Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development at their 36th Breakfast Briefing. Alma Mata was offered a table at the briefing as part of the RSM’s support for organisations working in global health under the auspices of their ‘Global Health Programme’. Seven members managed to rouse themselves out of bed and looked surprising alert considering the meeting started at 7.30am, but that could just have been the prospect of a proper breakfast!

After an introduction by Mr B Sethia, an RSM Trustee and surgeon, the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell took the stage and presented the Conservative Party’s plans for International Development if they come into power later this year.

Charity starts at home…but it doesn’t end there

The first point he made was that the Conservative party would be ring-fencing the International Development budget of £2.1bn pounds over three years, saying that now is not the time to turn our back on the poor. He also committed a Conservative Government to achieving, by 2013, the UN target of spending 0.7% of GNP as aid. To those who would argue that the money would be better spent at home he would say that we have a moral duty to do something about the injustices in the world. For many this is sufficient justification but for those who remain to be convinced that this is an appropriate use of taxpayer’s money the Conservative party stance is that ‘Poverty breeds extremism, incubates disease and drives migration and conflict.’ Though this rationale may sit less comfortably with many, and Andrew Mitchell was challenged on it, he argued that it may be necessary to convince the general public that international development does serve the national interest in order to maintain support for it through these difficult economic times.

Here come the party politics

Andrew Mitchell highlighted the fact that many of their policies are not hugely dissimilar to those of the Labour party saying that this is a strength as it reflects the ‘Britishness’ of international development, and lends more security to international development as it is less prone to party politics. However, he was keen to stress that there are important differences in how the Conservatives would take things forward. He referred to the ‘failures’ and ‘mistakes’ of Labour policies, not doubting their intentions but questioning their ‘old-fashioned ideology’ which has ‘blunted the Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) effectiveness’. He claimed that Labour focus more on the ‘inputs’, for example the money going in, rather than the ‘outputs’ or ‘outcomes’, for example lives saved, and that aid given has not been rigorously evaluated for impact and outcome.

Three areas of importance

With the requisite bashing of the Government out of the way we could move on to talk about the Conservative’s plans for the future. DFID’s position is assured and the Conservative’s plan is to focus on what they see as three main areas of importance: conflict; value for money; and wealth creation, as well as continuing to work towards the Millennium Development Goals.

The first, conflict, is fairly uncontroversial. Conflict makes development virtually impossible and condemns people to poverty and misery therefore conflict resolution and peacekeeping seem sensible areas for attention. This will proceed through multilateral and regional approaches and when asked about the issue of the arms trade Andrew Mitchell pledged his party’s support for the International Arms Trade Treaty.

The second, value for money, would also seem reasonable in the current economic climate and includes publishing comprehensive information about the effectiveness and outcomes of all forms of British aid, an independent evaluation of British aid that will report to Parliament, greater transparency, tackling corruption, focusing on outcomes, rewarding NGOs who perform well and giving British taxpayer’s a greater say over how and where aid is spent. All easy to say in opposition and one suspects somewhat harder to carry out if they were to come into power.

Wealth creation, however, may give rise to concern for many, especially those who remember the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The Conservative party see a very strong role for the private sector but there are also goals for trade to be free, open and fair and for health and education for all.

Other ideas such as stopping aid to China, which has its own space and nuclear programmes, and twinning of hospitals were also mentioned in what was a whirlwind trip through the plans.

Further reading

A podcast of the meeting will be available at the RSM website. In order to make up your own mind about the relative benefits of each party’s plans you might like to peruse their commitments. The Conservative party’s green paper ‘One World Conservatism’ is available at the Conservative Party wedbsite. As a green paper it is only a proposal without any commitment to action.

The Labour party’s plans for international development are available at the Labour Party website

The Liberal Democrat’s are working on their plans and aim to report in June 2010 but more information can be found here at the Liberal Democrat's website

Breakfast briefings

This was my first breakfast briefing at the RSM and I found it both interesting and informative. The next briefing will be given by Ms Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme when she will be talking, among other things, about the situation in Haiti. It is on the 26th February at the RSM so if you can face getting up in the small hours of a cold and dark February morning you will be rewarded with a no doubt stimulating presentation - and a delicious breakfast. If you are interested in attending please contact Colin Brown at colinbrown@doctors.net.uk.

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