on people be making their own celebrations of scotland's national poet and when next we will lessen our exam and sure we'll make our own contribution to celebrating their mortal memory of robert burns. under mature was the international development for the first two years of the coalition government that's the one elected and twenty term in that period has set the administration's course and finally achieving a united nations target on international development that was the one for set back in one hundred seventy today he states the case for maintaining that level of contribution let's hear from under. the conservative coalition government elected in twenty turn was the first government to implement britain's promise to the poorest people in the world that we would spend no point seven percent of our budget of our g.n.p. on international development and i believe this is some of the best public expenditure britain makes and i'm very proud to have been a member of a government which stood by its promise to the poorest people in the world and in

spite of a time of great austerity in britain refused to balance the books on the backs of the poorest in the world or indeed in britain now this budget it contributes to the safety and stability and the prosperity of some of the poorest countries in the world it stopped conflict from starting once it stopped it it then seeks to reconcile people caught up in conflict and it also focuses absolutely on building prosperity by trying to make sure that economic activity increases because the way the poorest people lift themselves out of poverty is by being economically active so it has a real impact on the ground in the poorest parts of the world but it's also in our national interest every penny of this budget helps britain's national interest by making the world a safer and more prosperous place that increases our own trade and our own safety here on the streets of britain and as you look at the problems that are coming down

the runway migration. climate change terrorism protectionism the international development budget spent by britain really tackles all those things at the heart of those prob. that's why i strongly support it and why i think that some of the best public expenditure we in britain support well welcome under mitchell you wear the international who draw the budget towards the target of zero point seven percent which was achieved in twenty fifteen for the first time but it's now under fierce attack people say the daily mail the newspapers say that look because of the in large budget some of the spending there's mr ective what's your answer to that well it is a large budget and we have to justify every penny and the way it is spent to the british public we have to be clear that every pound of hard earned tax payers money that is spent on international development is actually delivering a hundred pants on the ground and i think in fact it's one of the more efficient budgets that whitehall dispensers but we justify because it makes the world

a safer and more prosperous place and britain is a big hearted country and we need to support it what we need to justify because it has huge effectiveness on the ground but we're undergoing a major crisis and the national health service of the present moment what should i answer to be able to look at that craters in the health service say well look some of that thirteen billion pounds spent of international aid would be better devoted to the health service. well firstly i think you should do both i think public expenditure should pursue both these objectives i think they're both very important i think the international development budget is a huge investment in the future of the younger generation and there is an intergenerational this year in britain where the older generation of had it rather better than the younger generation have it these days so i think it's an important investment in their future but as i say i think you need to do both but you need to justify the spending because there's nothing that more irritates people than the

suggestion that the international development budget is either being misspent or corruptly taken. both yourself and your success. just in giving a heavily commit. see that's been heavily committed to this large international it budget but since then some people of the tempted not so much enthusiasm among the set list is indeed but it's just in the form just christmas the talk about breaking old jam jars to use international aid spending for other budgets. well the commitment that the coalition government which this government reaffirmed the general election is not only to the point seven it's also to the way in which that money is spent in other part other departments. who have eligible expenditure under the rules which govern the spending of international development money they are entitled to spend that money and they should spend it but it has to be spent well and it has to be spent in accordance with those objectives and the treasury would

never allow us not to do that and it's one of the reasons why i established a watchdog which looks over the expenditure so the public can have faith that the money is being spent in accordance with those rules and being spent well many people in international sector than in the volunteer agencies is this a real danger of other departments effectively reading the international aid for example there would be for security purposes things are that you think that could be prevented in terms of the rules that your stylist i think it's not possible to do that because it's not possible to spend it in in the wrong way because the rules governing the way this expenditure is made are so clear so for example there is money from defeated the development department which is spent by the foreign office by the environment department and also by the defense ministry but they have to be in accordance with the rules and tackling instability and insecurity tackling

conflict is absolutely at the heart of international development it's a totally eligible expenditure and indeed conflict is development in reverse in the sense when you apply sleeves you must have seen many projects in the ground can you point to one which you you find most moving or most impressive in terms of the the good that was doing to deprive communities internationally well i suppose it is the humanitarian relief work that britain leads in many different parts of the world seeing there's nothing more moving really than seeing starving children and seeing the british taxpayer through our efforts coming to the aid of children who are starving and i've seen severe malnutrition in parts of africa. in the horn of africa and uganda and i see the way the british taxpayers efforts are making a real difference to the life saving lives of people in desperate poverty and in desperate conditions so i certainly saw almost every day that i was development

secretary the power of good that the british taxpayer was doing through the disposition of this budget and what would those six other countries who've achieved the united nations target which was say away by more than a generation ago in this kind of even countries mainly what would your message be to the other rich countries in the world who haven't got anywhere near. what germany for the first time has reached it recently and i think that's great we want to see rich countries putting their money where their mouths have been and standing up and spending this commitment for the benefit of the poorest in our world and it really matters because the world is scarred by these extraordinary inequalities of opportunity and wealth and our generation has the power to do something about that and we need to make sure that our generation steps up and does precisely that. you

know for it was a binge of the you trained of conservatism in favor of international development in favor to keep public spending is losing. the governing party at the person you think you strand of conservatism is are alive and well yes i do but of course there are dangers in that if you dismiss the budget or disparage the budget then it will that will be reflected in the public view on international development and people will will feel that it's not doing the enormous amount of good that it is you know it's important that the conservative party stands up for this expenditure and explains why it matters but you know the tory party is a coalition like the scottish nationalist party and there are different views and i certainly don't feel alone in expressing the views i. within the conservative party on this very important matter finally andrea mitchell do you think your case for sustaining that zero point seven percent of of national income devoted to international development do you think that will be sustained and when the day if

they do because parliament will not allow even if the government wanted to parliament will not allow britain to step back from that commitment and both by that i have every confidence that the government will continue to stand by this is story commitment that is delivering so much around the world to britain's interest as well as to the interest of the people we're helping now under just just one remaining thing from the well from the new year from coming on a state in a patient total to the quick gallic for the loving cup you know how to do this of course goes in there or some other less potent substance if you wish and then you pass alone your close friends and only your close friends thank you very much indeed i have a scottish heritage so i'm familiar with it and i shal use it with pride and pleasure and rachel thank you very much for stating your case thank you coming up after the break we'll examine in detail that comes to the city. what does business

big. about the work in the field. the new global economic war is in the realm of education the right to education being supplanted by the right. education. higher education is becoming just another. tool. but it's not just about education it's also about running a business and what you. want is the place of students in this business model.

education the new global economic war. i don't think any country can push a button and get rid of. political backlash money is a very fine thing and i think it will be very quick before people found ways around it because. it would be damaging it might cut it back but the idea that you could do anything nearly. is very. welcome back the achievement of the u.k.'s international aid target since twenty fifteen has not been without controversy although now i wouldn't mind as a legal commitment that has been a powerful newspaper lead into both the straight on better target the thirteen billion pounds plus budget those bebo's been examining some of these arguments the

u.k.'s commitment to far to meet has been the subject of considerable debate. in the house of commons what does it say about the priorities of the government when it allows so many operations to be cancelled over the next few weeks of the same time as more and more nearly every year into overseas aid can i say to the minister to the government through the minister that people are going to be about this in the country where there's so much money billions of pounds of overseas aid is so clearly needed by many people in the united kingdom will the government get a grip of this is massively out of touch with public opinion if it doesn't meet your government's point seven percent commitments a budget to foreign aid has been strained in law since the two thousand and ten coalition government of late however that money has been spread across a number of departments i spoke to head of advocacy oxfam to find out the impact of

that on the work that they do get him interested in finding i suspect some of the current work in the areas of critique across the world what are your latest project i mean sadly it sort of breaks down as really an ever increasing list of humanitarian crises around around the world where one of the only major international n.g.o.s actually working inside yemen where you currently have sixteen million people that's greater than the population of london and new york combined without access to clean and safe drinking water and we're trying to work with in there to deal with the conditions that we have and of course as is always the case women and children are disproportionately affected by and things are happening internationally and of course a natural disaster is do you have any projects around specifically to help women find their feet again absolutely we do anything you have to take gender and the needs of women and girls into account on all levels so take something like a refugee camp without proper feedback mechanisms that ask women in how it works

for them you don't find out things like the fact that in adequate light. seeing around shower blocks mean that they will go without going to the bathroom for fear of being attacked going to visit the toilet in the night without understanding the fears about leaving the camps for instance to find so i would in places in africa you realize that women are just going without finding food because they're too scared about leaving the camps and being and being raped by belligerence in in the conflict so gender has a huge place in humanitarian programming but absolutely also in the kind of long term work we do with communities and so much of our work with communities is about working with women and i think getting that point across is really important because there are many invaded for use and impressions on international aid will come to that in a second in the government's commitment but also public perceptions around it because obviously a lot of your fundraising comes from from private entities from individuals etc to

understand that this is not just about helping people in these difficult situations but it's about helping them build both a future and both upon their skills and i think as much as can be done to highlight that we see it must help you in terms of getting people to donate to some of your causes i mean british people are through and through tremendously generous i've done fundraising in the london underground just running around in victoria for so many crises and people with the things that come together and we see that in comic relief and we see that in responses to disasters but of course when the media camera goes away these these problems don't disappear and then come on to foreign aid and international development we know of the government's commitments and schoolish government point seven percent however there's been much commentary about high that is neither being spent the answer for fiscal studies said last year that this concern about an ability they impact on eradicating hopefully global poverty if that to be spread across departments and the lotus office and also suggested

that this the need to be much more in-depth and. alice says of how the money is actually being spent for in departments with death ed i wonder what your view was in all of this and how it's impacting on if it's not all going through desperate it's not a challenge channeling through that house and passing on the work that you can do and in part of this shows just how observed and scrutinised and regulated aig money is some of the most scrutinized money that the government spends because of the need to prove to the taxpayers and to others that that it's value for money so you know transparency like this and questions like this is all also always a good thing it's also west saying that the vast majority of british it doesn't mean anything things you know there are eleven million children around the world that have an education thanks to british aid it's helping in yemen it's helping in bangladesh as i said it's helping in in uganda. but i do think

that it's important to get past the question of how much aid we spend the sort of no point seven we've got across party consensus on that and that's great and should be here to stay and start focusing on on how although he has given some tory backbenchers are challenging that point seven percent it is still a a broad cross-product issue consensus yet not without its challenges but we hope that to stay the question of how it's spent is important.