Historic Decision by UK Parliament on ODA

Sometimes I may be a little critical of my country and the present Coalition government but on Monday i was proud of it.

On Monday the House of Lords passed the "The International Development (Official Development Assistance (ODA) Target) Bill" which will make it legally required for all UK governments to provide 0.7% gross national income (GNI) for ODA. It is awaiting royal consent. The last time that didn't happen was under Queen Victoria so it is going to happen.

The bill was proposed by the Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore under what is termed a Private Members Bill and supported by all sides of the House and shepherded through the House of Lords by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Purvis.

There was some attempt by a few conservative MPs to stop it but they failed.

The UK is the ONLY G8 country to give 0.7% GNI I hope others will follow. Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, USA and Canada please note.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the climate agenda will require considerable public money to support their implementation and although ODA will not be the only way that will happen it can play a significant role in helping developing countries transition to a clean and healthy environment, and to deal with the impacts of climate change.
G8  countries % GNI in 2013 on Overseas Development Aid (ODA)
UK 0.70
France 0.38
Germany 0.37
Russia 26.4
Japan 0.19
US 0.19
Italy 0.16






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