PRESS RELEASE : UK vision to reduce poverty and tackle climate change [April 2023]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 27 April 2023.

International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell will give a speech today (27 April 2023) on the future of the UK’s international development work.

• International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell will set out his vision to reduce poverty, tackle climate change and reinvigorate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• the Minister will launch a new UK development brand that badges the FCDO’s work to use partnerships to advance development progress and deliver prosperity
• Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will also announce plans for a new international volunteering service, and a programme to get six million more girls into schools around the world

The UK will today set out a new vision to improve global prosperity and reduce poverty through building partnerships with other countries.

In his first major speech, International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell will say the future of development relies on us working alongside countries as partners, rather than them being dependent on aid budgets.

Using the entire Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office global footprint, the UK will work with other countries to advance shared aims that benefit us all, like security and economic growth, recognising the need to tackle poverty and climate change together. The Minister will also say the international financial system needs to be fundamentally reformed, so countries can access the finance at the scale they need to drive their own development and tackle climate change in the face of global challenges.

He will announce a new brand, UK International Development, to demonstrate UK development is broader than aid, and is ultimately about working with countries by building mutually beneficial partnerships.

He is expected to say:

Placing partnership at the heart of the UK’s offer shows that at its core, international development is not about charity, handouts and dependency. It is about listening to our partners and working together to advance our shared objectives.

From today, the new brand will be on all new UK development programmes.

The Minister will set out how, using the UK’s strengths, he will champion and take forward the 7 priorities the Prime Minister set out in the Integrated Review Refresh last month: reforming the global financial system, making global tax systems fairer, delivering clean, green infrastructure and investment, improving global food security, making the case for ‘open science’, preventing the next global health crisis and putting women and girls at the heart of all development.

Building on the Prime Minister’s Integrated Review Refresh last month, the Minister will say he is making sure women and girls are at the forefront of all policy decisions.

He will announce a new programme designed to get 6 million more girls into school by improving education spending in low and lower middle-income countries and scaling up teacher training and in-class support so there is better access for vulnerable children.

In a bid to link the British public to the UK’s development work, the Minister will also announce that later this year the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office will go out to tender on a new international youth volunteering programme, similar to the former International Citizen Service.

The Minister will also make clear Britain is firmly behind the ambition set out by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, last year to enable countries around the world to tackle climate change and the reversal of development progress over recent years.

The UK is pushing for concrete progress on multilateral development bank (MDB) reform, drawing on a UK initiated review, to unlock hundreds of billions in financing for developing countries and help bridge the global climate and nature finance gaps. Britain is providing technical expertise so countries can unlock funding from global climate funds. The UK government, together with the City of London, is driving innovations in insurance, paying out the first drought insurance support for Somalia.  We are ensuring part of our humanitarian relief is used in ways that builds future resilience to climate impacts.

Since taking up the International Development Minister role 6 months ago Minister Mitchell has driven work to tackle hunger and malnutrition in some of the poorest countries. During a visit to Somalia last year, he saw first-hand how children were suffering with severe malnutrition and the impact drought had on the country.

In his speech he is expected to say: “It is frankly obscene, that in the 21st century and in our world of plenty, children are today slowly starving to death.”

To bring this to the top of the development agenda the Minister will announce a food security event in London later this year to demonstrate the breadth of the UK’s work to tackle hunger and malnutrition, bringing together the expertise and skills of the academic, medical, research, philanthropic and the NGO community.