Thank you for your acknowledgement of the UK Government’s commitment to education and welfare in Africa and for your support of the Government towards achieving its aims. In your letter you mentioned the UK Government’s announcement to significantly increase aid for education by spending at least £8.5 billion ($15 billion) on aid for education over the next ten years, entering into 10-year agreements with countries. The UK Government will contribute an extra £100 million to The Education For All Fast Track Initiative (FTI) over the next two years to support countries in speeding up and expanding their education plans.
In addition, the Department for International Development (DFID) runs a school linking programme designed to encourage and increase understanding of the challenges and opportunities that face school children across the world. Support, including grant funding, is available to schools who wish to participate in the programme, funding for which was doubled in April 2006 to £7.5 million over three years. A new publication draws together all the sources of advice and support for schools in one easy and accessible guide. DFID school partnership coordinators will be holding regional roadshows for schools later in the year to help explain what they can do to establish, build and maintain a link with a school in the developing world. For your information I enclose a copy of the joint publication between HM Treasury and DFID "The World Classroom – Developing global partnerships in education." This is also available on the DFID’s website
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/world-classroom.pdf.
On the issue of Nigeria’s repayment of its debt to the Paris Club, the UK Government worked very hard with the Government of Nigeria to deliver the 20 October 2006 Paris Club debt deal. This deal saw some US$18 billion cancelled (equivalent to about 60% of Nigeria’s debt in the Paris Club) in return for Nigeria using part of its oil windfall to pay off its remaining debt. This represents the largest single debt relief package ever for sub-Saharan Africa and is a tremendous achievement. The debt deal was designed by, and done at the request of the Nigerian government, based on their wish to use their additional oil revenues in this way and in support of their own economic reforms and development strategy.
The UK alone cancelled £2.8 billion and in exchange received a payment of almost £1.7 billion. In terms of the UK’s balance sheet, or net worth, this resulted in replacing an asset with a nominal value of £4.5 billion with another asset (cash) worth £1.7 billion. So, as a result of the deal, the UK is no better off and its net worth has in fact been reduced by £2.8 billion. This means that if the UK were to hand back the £1.7 billion it would require DFID to finance it from its development budget. This would mean reallocating DFID’s budget at the expense of other poor countries. Nigeria is not a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), and given its relative financial position and oil resources, for the UK to go further and provide one hundred per cent debt cancellation for Nigeria (as it does for HIPCs) would not be an appropriate allocation of our aid resources given that they are not finite.
The President of Nigeria and his Finance Minister at the time both welcomed the debt deal, and we hope that others can support the elected Government of Nigeria as they seek to tackle poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The historic debt deal freed up resources to fight poverty. This year $750 million that would have been paid to creditors was allocated instead to education, health and infrastructure projects through a virtual poverty fund. Federal Ministries accessing the fund have to meet strict criteria, including better project design, strict compliance with procurement rules and external scrutiny non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Progress has been also been made overhauling accounting systems; new computers have replaced the old ledger books and spending has been tagged to make sure it reaches the poor. Nigerians are starting to see the benefits:
· 145,000 teachers were retrained over the summer
· 40,000 new teachers have been recruited, and
· construction has started on water, road and power projects across the country.
The UK Government made significant progress in 2005 in the fight against poverty. The Gleneagles G8 summit agreed on an ambitious multilateral debt deal that will cancel up to $50 billion of debts owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the African Development Bank. Many countries have made commitments to substantially increase their aid levels. DFID has committed £1.1 billion in bilateral assistance to Africa for 2005/06, and has committed almost twice that amount in aid though multilateral institutions, a significant proportion of which will help Africa to meet the MDGs.
In your letter you raise the issue of Nigeria’s "Universal Free Primary Education". While primary education has theoretically been free in Nigeria for about three decades, it is well known that it has not been free in practice. It was to address this problem that President Olusegun Obasanjo signed the Universal Basic Education Act in 2004. Although significant progress is being made, and the current Federal Government of Nigeria is to be highly commended for its strong political commitment to making education free in practice as well as in theory, the economic and financial barriers are still the greatest obstacles to poor families sending their children to school. (Source: Nigeria Ed-Data Demographic and Health Survey, National Population Commission, 2004.) Families still have to pay fees to Parent Teacher Associations that maintain the fabric of the school buildings and employ some of the staff. They also have to bear the cost of educational materials (including textbooks) uniforms, food and transport. That's one of the main reasons why about 40% of primary-school-aged children do not attend school. 65% of girls do not attend primary school in parts of the poorer north.
You may like to be aware that DFID is providing £26m between 2005 and 2007 to help the Governments of six northern Nigerian states get more girls into school. The project is implemented by UNICEF. An independent review in 2006 found that girls' attendance had risen by 25% in the Local Government Areas supported by the project. DFID is also supporting three other northern states (including the high-population states of Kano and Kaduna) to prepare prioritized, fully costed education sector plans that will improve access, quality and equity throughout the education sector. This is enabling them to access an additional $50m of World Bank financing, as well as using their own resources much more effectively. DFID is also providing critical technical support to the Federal Minister of Education, Dr.Obiageli Ezekwesili, as she undertakes a major reform of the entire Nigerian education sector.
I have noted your strong concerns about illegal immigration to the UK. This Government has put in place policies to protect people from being exploited, such as the National Minimum Wage and Gangmaster legislation. The Government's policy in relation to amnesties is that they can act as a pull-factor and should not be used to reward those who are working illegally.
The Government is taking steps to strengthen its response to illegal working, focusing on the responsibility of employers to only employ legal workers and will be targeting rogue employers who deliberately use illegal immigrants, often with little regard for their health and safety.
I hope that you will find this reply helpful.
Yours Sincerely,
Bruce Ridewood
International Poverty Reduction Team
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Posted by Robot| 14.02.2007 10:29