Speeches by Dodds.

“I will try to be really quick. I was really pleased that they were appointed. We have now seen the first UK engagement in Port Sudan to have taken place since the conflict began. It is incredibly important that that happened. We have doubled our aid to Sudan and we continue to work with a range of other bodies, bilater…”

“We have worked with other nations to make sure that the UN’s fact-finding mission was renewed. I was really pleased that we saw additional African countries coming in to back that. It was very important that the mandate was renewed, so that there is that fact-finding. We are also supporting work that is ongoing through…”

“Thanks very much for that question. I believe that we are on track to deliver that. That is also related to the fact that, currently, so much development work is intimately connected with particularly climate adaptation, as well as mitigation. For example, if we were to look at the situation in Zambia, where I recently…”

“No, I would not read that implication from what I said. What I was trying to underline was that, when the Foreign Secretary said that climate and nature would be at the heart of everything we do, that was both because we will have explicit targets and explicit programmes around this, and because the drivers of extreme …”

“I suppose this relates again to that point about partnership that we were talking about before. We have not been in a position where we have had to say that we cannot pursue those priorities that I set out at the beginning because we have to hit that target. We have not been in that situation. Instead, I would say we h…”

“We can always do better. Certainly, I as a politician always believe I need to do more to make sure that I am communicating as clearly as I can. I am learning from others around this. When it comes to that particular example, it is very intuitive for people to understand. My kids, without going into too much detail, th…”

“We are not talking about a reclassification. We are not talking about a change to the rules. We are determined to make sure that we meet our commitments around this. Just to go back to the point again, I was trying to underline that the impact of the climate crisis now on people’s life circumstances is so intense that …”

“That can be a quick answer, because we are determined to ratify. We are moving forward at pace. Of course, quite a lot of technical work needs to be undertaken, but we are really determined to ratify as soon as possible. It is of great importance, both to me as the Development Minister and to the Foreign Secretary.”

“You can push me. You will not get one, but that is not because we are not working at pace and really hard on this. We have been liaising really intensively with our DEFRA colleagues on this. They want to move forward on this as quickly as possible. I know that it is a real priority, certainly for this Government, but i…”

“I know that Lord Collins, the Minister for Africa, has visited Rwanda. He has visited Angola and DRC as well. It is extremely concerning to see the situation that has developed within DRC, of course. I have been seeking to ensure that our development spending, wherever it is in the world, delivers on our objectives and…”

“It has been a real pleasure and I really did genuinely appreciate the engagement of the Committee before I went to the West Bank previously. It has been wonderful to have this conversation now. I know this Committee has so much development expertise within its ranks, as well as expertise from the forces and lots of oth…”

“Yes, six months.”

“I will be delighted to set them out in just one moment. If you will permit me, Chair, I just want to say, first of all, what a huge privilege it is for me to be in front of you. I really mean that. Doing this job is a dream come true for me. It really has been such a privilege, so I am very excited to be having this se…”

“That is such an important question and one that I have been thinking about really deeply. We need to take the right decisions for the medium term, but for the long term as well. That does mean making sure that we get that balance right. For example, it is very important that when it comes to multilateral funding, we en…”

“As you probably heard in the previous session that you had with officials, because of the decisions that have been taken by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in discussion with us, at year-end Darren was able to say—subject to the agreement of Parliament, as with any such financial measure—that the FCDO will receive …”

“No, we are seeking to ensure that, where possible, we see continuity within the bilateral programme. The reason for that is because of what I talked about before. There was a lot of damage created to relationships. In some cases, we saw staff having contracts terminated and that kind of thing, but also a direct impact …”

“I would love to attend the conference in person. I do not think we have sorted out our exact arrangements around it, but we are certainly preparing for that Paris conference right now. I have had preliminary discussions around it and the work that we will need to undertake with partners. You and other committee members…”

“Thank you so much for that question. Minouche Shafik has been focused on issues that I know have been of considerable concern to the Committee around capability and capacity, really making sure that we are doing all that we can to restore our development reputation, as I mentioned. She has been working at pace on that.…”

“On the latter, that would be a really good idea. I do not have any problem with that at all—I am just looking at officials—but that would be sensible. At the time when we commissioned the review, some of those principles were set out, but it would be good to talk about that together, given the Committee’s expertise in …”

“I have been having discussions with Baroness Shafik throughout the whole process, so obviously I have seen a considerable amount of material from her already. I hope that we would be able to both have that private discussion that was mentioned before and share how we are going to take this forward with the Committee as…”