Overseas Aid Budget

EDM number 577 in 1992-93, proposed by Matthew Taylor on 19/10/1992.

That this House is horrified by press reports that Her Majesty's Government may cut the overseas aid budget by 15 per cent. as a result of public spending cuts; notes with alarm that in Africa up to 40 million fellow human beings face starvation; believes that cuts in aid will undermine hopes for peace and democracy as well as development in many parts of the African continent, thereby causing much longer-term dependency on overseas aid; further believes that the British Government, as President of the European Community Council of Ministers and member of the UN Security Council, G7 and the Commonwealth, is well placed to take a lead in initiating an urgent plan for Africa to help it overcome its crises; and calls for a meeting of the G7 finance ministers to agree measures to implement the original Trinidad terms for official debt, and to convert IMF debt into concessional loans as well as reducing the level of commercial debt.

This motion has been signed by a total of 118 MPs, 3 of these signatures have been withdrawn.