APPG Ministerial briefing

On the morning of Wednesday 16th October, the APPG held a Ministerial briefing in Parliament with the new Minister for International Development Anneliese Dodds.

The Minister joined us to update the APPG on her recent visit to UNGA, to discuss the new government’s policies and priorities for international development going forward, and to hear the views of APPG members.

In attendance were APPG Co-Chairs Lord McConnell and Jess Toale MP, as well as new APPG members Iqbal Mohamed MP and Monica Harding MP. We were also joined by Lord Browne and Lord Purvis.

The Minister updated the APPG on her commitment to upholding the SDGs, describing their implementation as “so critical” and “a powerful tool for humanity”. She spoke about the recent UN Pact for the Future, and how it demonstrated that the world can still come together and agree on progress for international development.

She then took questions from APPG members, on topics including the importance of funding water and sanitary healthcare, the UK’s role in the conflict in Sudan, and what role we might play in reconstruction, how the UK can monitor its own progress towards the Global Goals, UK funding towards landmine clearances, how the government can shape the public narrative on aid and development, and the UK’s agenda towards debt cancellation.

We’d like to thank the Minister for her early engagement with the APPG, and hope to continue this engagement over the course of the new Parliament.

We are also very pleased to have many new members of the APPG, bringing our total up to 59 MPs and 66 Peers - the highest ever total!