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Jowell gets role helping mothers and children in developing countries
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Tessa Jowell is to join forces with Sarah Brown to draw up a blueprint with the aim of introducing elements of Labour's early intervention Sure Start scheme in the developing world .
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The architect of the London Olympics, who recently announced her retirement from the shadow cabinet, is to advise Labour on how early intervention schemes can be embedded into the architecture of international aid plans.
Ivan Lewis, the shadow international development secretary who will announce Jowell's appointment today, wants help for babies and toddlers from their mother's pregnancy up to the age of five to be placed at the heart of what is known as the "post 2015 agenda". This is the next phase in international development after the deadline for the millennium development goals (MDG) passes in 2015. David Cameron warned at the UN in New York last week that the international community is on course to fail to meet the goals.
Labour is turning to Jowell because of her success in winning and then delivering the Olympic Games. As founder of the Sure Start scheme, which is credited with improving the life chances of children in deprived communities, Jowell played an instrumental role in showing how the legacy of the Games would help deprived parts of London. Brown has agreed to advise Jowell in her role as patron of the White Ribbon Alliance which campaigns on maternal health in the developing world.
Lewis said that Jowell will advise on how to integrate health, education, play and parenting support for children in the developing world can as they are under the Sure Start programme. "Tessa Jowell is uniquely qualified to build a cross party and global coalition which if successful will transform life chances for the world's poorest children," he said. "Our Olympic success was significantly due to her personal conviction, vision and willingness to reach across the political divide for the greater good."
The shadow international development secretary will use his speech to announce that Labour will accept the decision of the government to cut Britain's aid budget by £1.7bn. The government insists it is committed to meeting the UN target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on overseas aid by 2013.
But Britain's negative growth means that GNI has recently fallen. This means the aid budget can be cut in cash terms while remaining on track to meet the UN target.
Lewis will say that the decision means the government must now live up to its commitment to enshrine the 0.7% target in law. "We will not reverse that," he said of the £1.7bn cash cut. "But that means there is now an even more powerful argument to enshrine the 0.7% target in law."
He will also announce in his speech that Labour will place the fight against corruption at the heart of its aid strategy. Hadeel Ibrahim, executive director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, will head a review that will tackle "corruption and the causes of corruption". This will draw up measures to tackle corruption in the private and state sector.
