Tag: Justine Greening

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, at Marlborough House in London on 11 May 2016.

Introduction: the cost of corruption

Thank you for that introduction and thank you to our hosts the Commonwealth Secretariat and Baroness Scotland.

I’m delighted to be able to join you today. This conference is an absolutely critical precursor to tomorrow’s Anti-Corruption Summit. I know there have already been some important and wide-ranging discussions over the course of today.

I’m not going to take this opportunity to make a long and detailed argument about why corruption is a bad thing…

We know corruption is propping up failed and failing regimes, and providing cash for criminals and terrorists. We know how corruption is bad for global economic growth – and adds about 10% to business costs globally.

We also know how, behind all the statistics, there are people… people being robbed of the life they might have had…women being sexually exploited when they try to get basic services like water and electricity. People who then have no chance to get justice from corrupt law enforcement officials.

Corruption hurts the poorest most – but in the end it is a threat to the national interests of every country.

The brilliant ‘Leaders Manifesto’ published by Transparency International today is an extraordinarily powerful call to arms for why we must take action now.

Corruption is bad for people. Bad for development. And bad for business.

And yet – despite knowing how much it costs us – as a global community I believe we have been far too hesitant about getting to grips with corruption. It’s too often been seen as too entrenched, too widespread, just too subsuming to knock down.

So the questions we’re left with are not whether corruption should be fought but whether corruption can be fought and whether we – as a global community – are prepared to fight it?

Growing momentum

The answer to the first question is yes – yes, we can fight corruption and secondly yes, we can defeat it.

Many brilliant examples of civil society, citizens, businesses and governments fighting corruption have been showcased here today.

And for the last few years there’s been growing momentum around this agenda.

The Open Government Partnership, strongly championed by the UK and others as part of our role in driving forward a global movement on transparency, has grown from 8 to 69 countries since 2011. Greatly welcome President Buhari’s commitment that Nigeria will join.

The Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the world last year acknowledged the vital importance of tackling corruption for defeating poverty – with Global Goal Number 16 committing us to reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.

I’m very proud of how the UK, led by our Prime Minister David Cameron, has seized the initiative on this these last few years. The government’s 2010 Bribery Act introduced some of the world’s strictest legislation on bribery – making companies corporately liable to prosecution if they fail to prevent bribery. We are first major country in the world to establish a public central registry of who really owns and controls companies that will go live next month.

But we need to do more – and do more together. Which is of course the theme for today, and indeed for tomorrow, tackling corruption together – all of us, civil society, business, government leaders and citizens.

The Summit: exposing, punishing and driving out corruption

So is the world really prepared to take the comprehensive actions needed to stamp out corruption?

Tomorrow’s summit, hosted by our Prime Minister, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to show that we are. The summit brings together world leaders from Afghanistan to Colombia to Nigeria to Norway, multinational companies, civil society groups, law enforcement bodies and multilaterals like the UN and the World Bank.

But whether or not this summit will truly be a turning point in the fight against corruption depends on whether this unique coalition will commit to practical, transformative steps that will expose corruption, punish the perpetrators and drive out entrenched corruption wherever it exists.

We all know the world we want – countries’ resources being used to improve people’s lives not stolen and squandered domestically or hidden abroad – the international legal system effectively recovering stolen funds and the perpetrators being punished – citizens being able to report and expose the corruption if they encounter it in their daily lives – businesses operating in a level playing field.

So what needs to happen tomorrow to ensure that we get there?

Firstly, tomorrow’s summit is about developed countries including the UK getting their own house in order and making key commitments.

In critical areas such as:

– Lifting the veil of secrecy over who ultimately owns and controls companies

– Denying the corrupt the use of legitimate business channels and ensuring anyone who launders the proceeds of corruption feels the full force of the law

– And ensuring the necessary laws are in place to expose and punish corruption, including working together across international borders to pursue and prosecute the corrupt.

Secondly, and just as crucially, tomorrow is about supporting change in developing countries, because tackling corruption is a two-way street – it’s not ‘us and them’ or ‘here and there’, it’s about sharing expertise, information and best practise – for our shared interests.

And that’s why it’s so important that developing countries, like Kenya, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria will have a voice at the table tomorrow, so that we can work together, in partnership, to stamp out corruption in all its forms.

And let’s be clear – supporting these countries to fight corruption should be an absolutely key priority for everyone working in development. In many of the poorest countries, the resources lost through corruption often far outstrip the aid flows they are receiving.

It’s a key priority for the UK, as set out in our new UK Aid Strategy. I’ve ensured that my Department for International Development has anti-corruption and counter-fraud plans for every country we give bilateral aid to.

And we’ll be saying more tomorrow about our commitment to boost partnerships between UK institutions and their counterparts in the developing world.

Of top concern to me is effective and transparent tax systems.

I believe the Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) launched at Financing for Development last year has the potential to be really transformative. Countries like Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania are signing up to put a priority on developing their own sustainable tax administrations – while donor countries like the UK are providing the right support, we’re doubling our support whether financial or technical assistance. It means as growth happens, these countries are better placed to reap the financial rewards.

To date, 31 countries have committed to the ATI and over the course of this summit we want to see many more step up and make a public commitment to this crucial initiative.

Thirdly, this summit is not just about governments – we also want to see businesses really seizing the initiative on this.

To me this is about much more than corporate responsibility – it’s in businesses’ best interests to join the fight against corruption. Corruption is bad for business.

And in a recent survey of business attitudes to corruption – carried out the by business risks consultancy Control Risks – 34% of respondents from Africa reported losing out on deals to corrupt competitors. That’s why having a level playing field is so important.

So governments will play their part but the onus is also on businesses themselves to take action on transparency, on procurement and who they’re working with – and it’s crucial that we see more and more businesses adding their powerful voice to the anti-corruption agenda. And I want to see businesses engaged in a race to the top in terms of standards.

Fourthly, and importantly, tomorrow’s summit must be about empowering citizens to fight corruption – with civil society playing a key role in this.

This summit needs to offer new hope for citizens – a guarantee that when the dust settles it won’t be business as usual and that corrupt leaders and officials will not have impunity.

That means commitments for more opening up of government data to citizens, using the latest technology to make it accessible and it means protections for whistleblowers.

Civil society will continue to have a vital role helping to mobilise citizens to monitor their governments using all the new data available. And I hope that even more civil society groups can play a role in changing attitudes, and changing public expectation over what can be achieved in the fight against corruption.

I also want to see civil society organisations building innovative partnerships with other players…in particular working in partnership with businesses to stop corruption.

I look forward to hearing from you on how this could work in the next session.

Conclusion

So, in the end, this issue of tackling corruption is for everyone.

Tackling corruption is not only morally the right thing to do – it’s in our national interest, it’s in every country’s national interest.

This week is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for developed countries to get their house in order and for developing countries who suffer the most from corruption – and have the most to gain by stamping it out.

There is no question that corruption matters wherever you are in the world, whoever you are and whatever field you represent.

That’s why this Anti-Corruption Summit needs to stick – it can’t be a one-off, it has to be the start of a truly global movement to stamp out corruption.

Governments need to live up to their promises – and civil society and businesses need to hold governments to account but also commit to learning and adapting from each other.

We won’t eradicate all corruption at the summit tomorrow, but we are taking a crucial step in the journey. And I firmly believe that, with the right global effort, we can turn back the tide of corruption.

We owe this to the poorest people in the world – we owe it to ourselves. The world and our global economy can’t afford not to tackle corruption. The world needs to look very different by 2020. Let’s make sure tomorrow’s summit is the crucial step to driving just that.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development annual meeting in London on 11 May 2016.

I’m delighted to be here with you at the EBRD’s 25th Annual Board of Governors meeting.

Over the last quarter of a century the EBRD has played a unique and powerful role on the world stage, helping countries transition towards market orientated economies and democratic principles.

More than 30 countries, from Bulgaria, to Mongolia, to Jordan, to Tunisia now benefit from the Bank’s investment and expertise.

My key message today is that in our age of crisis, with all the challenges the world is facing, a strong and effective EBRD – an international institution with a European heart – has never been more important. More than ever we need the private sector to be centre stage in tackling the global challenges we face – and the EBRD’s leadership on this remains absolutely essential.

We know the world is facing unprecedented challenges to our global prosperity and global security.

Uncertainty in the markets, the threat of climate change, the impact of protracted displacement crises such as we are seeing in Syria and the region.

And the reality is we have a shared responsibility for meeting these challenges. If we choose to neglect the problems beyond our borders today – they become our own tomorrow.

So we must work together to tackle the root causes of poverty and instability.

The past 25 years have shown us that trying to build development and to help transition in any country without a solid foundation of peace and stability simply doesn’t work.

Stability is not only about war and conflict – it’s about countries having strong economies, a strong private sector, healthy and educated populations and, crucially, it’s about the strength of their institutions.

Today, we are gathered in the City of London – the world’s leading financial centre and home to many multinational firms. And not too far from this building you will also find the sites of many of Britain’s great institutions from the London Stock Exchange, to the Bank of England, to the Royal Courts of Justice.

These institutions were vital to Britain’s own development. Without rule of law, without parliamentary democracy, without open markets – Britain would never have prospered in the way we have – and that’s true for so many of the countries represented here.

So institutions matter – to citizens and to businesses as well. And it’s not only national institutions that matter – the strength of our international institutions is critical as well. The UN, the World Bank, the IMF and, of course, the EBRD.

Twenty-five years ago when this Bank was formed, just after the Berlin Wall had fallen and with it, symbolically, Europe’s Iron Curtain. It was a time of great hope but also great uncertainty. There were no guarantees that former Soviet bloc countries could easily transition into democratic, market orientated economies.

But in response the world’s leaders did not sit back and wait to see what happened. Just as they had once forged new alliances after the Second World War – the end of the Cold War paved the way for new and enduring partnerships, and ultimately a more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous Europe.

The EBRD was formed with a unique economic and political mission – that focused on the creation of open market economies in countries committed to multi-party democracy and pluralism.

And the Bank has played a critical role supporting: banking systems reform; the liberalisation of markets; replacing inefficient state monopolies with greater competition; and the creation of proper legal frameworks for property rights.

This has helped foster the kind of open societies and open economies where jobs, growth and enterprise can thrive – and individual rights to liberty and property are safeguarded. All of which, in turn, opens the door to greater private sector investment and a virtuous circle of growth.

Of course the challenges of 25 years ago are different from the challenges we face today. The EBRD has to evolve and adapt in a changing, and often turbulent, world.

And under Sir Suma’s leadership the EBRD is rising to this challenge.

In response to the Arab Spring, the EBRD rapidly expanded into the Southern and Middle Eastern Mediterranean countries region – with support from the UK and others.

In light of the economic and financial challenges facing Ukraine, and in recognition of the new government’s resolve to undertake comprehensive reforms and combat corruption, the EBRD has reconfirmed its commitment to support Ukraine in this reform process. In fact the Bank is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine.

And I’m pleased that the EBRD and the UK will be collaborating on our response to the refugee crisis in Jordan.

At the London Syria Conference earlier this year, the international community took its first step in recognising the global public good that neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey are providing by hosting the vast majority of Syria’s 4.6 million refugees.

Together the world pledged vital, record-breaking billions to meet the urgent humanitarian needs – and made historic commitments to provide education, jobs and, in doing so, hope for refugees stuck in a permanent emergency situation.

Again, the EBRD will play its part and has already engaged with government agencies, donors and other stakeholders to identify where and what investment is needed. As a result the UK has agreed a £30 million grant to the EBRD to support a series of investments in Northern Jordan. This will focus, firstly, on improving overstretched infrastructure in refugee-hosting cities.

And, following the crucial commitments at the London Syria Conference to open up work permits to up to 200,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, the EBRD will help deliver some of these opportunities by identifying skills and engaging with the private sector to offer training and work based learning opportunities and routes into jobs.

I also want to commend the EBRD and Sir Suma for your work promoting inclusion, in particular the Bank’s strategy for the promotion of gender equality.

It is now increasingly recognised that women’s economic empowerment is one of the biggest potential levers we have for boosting global prosperity. That’s why the UN Secretary General has set up the UN’s first ever High Level Panel to kick-start a global movement on women’s economic empowerment – and I’m proud to be one of the founding members of this Panel.

The EBRD has a crucial role, working with businesses, to create new opportunities for women’s economic participation. As much as any other reform law, it is how we underpin and unlock growth.

I believe it’s critical that all of us working together – including the EBRD – continue to up our game on this and break down the remaining barriers that prevent girls and women from fulfilling their potential and contributing fully to the global economy. We can’t afford not to.

In today’s world, with all the challenges we face, the EBRD’s mission is as relevant and as important as ever.

Aid alone will not be enough for delivering sustainable development and global prosperity – we need business, more jobs, growth and enterprise. And that means dramatically increasing and improving our performance in leveraging private sector financing.

The UK believes that the EBRD with its in-depth knowledge, experience and expertise must be at the heart of helping to solve some of the most difficult and urgent challenges we face – whether that’s the displacement of people and the refugee crisis or helping countries transition to low carbon economies or empowering women economically.

The EBRD, by committing to its private sector mission, by continuing to concentrate more of its efforts and resources in the poorest and most fragile areas it works in, and by focusing on inclusion, gender equality and results, can and must play a fundamental role in delivering sustainable, inclusive development over the next 25 years, working alongside other multilateral organisations.

A quarter of a century ago investing in former soviet bloc countries was morally the right thing to do – but it was right for our national interests too.

Today we have a fresh set of complex global challenges but we need to show the same determination, innovation and ambition.

Then, as now, our best chance of rising to the challenges we face is by working in partnership – working together to build the more stable, peaceful and prosperous world we all want. With the EBRD continuing to play a central, unique role on behalf of our continent.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, at the London Business School on 29 April 2016.

I am delighted to be back here at the London Business School. Although I’ve been a Member of Parliament for over 10 years, even now, most of my career has been spent in business.

And some of that time was spent here doing an MBA in this very lecture room.

In fact it was in the sandwich shop over the street that another student, who was more involved with the Conservative Party than I was then, suggested I go on the Parliamentary Candidates list.

So it wasn’t just my business career that got a kick start at LBS, it was my political career too.

All of which means, I know from first-hand experience that this is a place that builds people’s future. It’s a place that builds opportunity.

And the decision we make on 23 June will either open doors, or close them on, opportunity for Britain’s young people.

And it will be a decision of profound importance to not only our country but much wider in the world.

It is unlike any vote this country has had in decades.

For many people, myself included, it will be the first time we get the chance to have our say on Britain’s relationship with the EU.

The consequences of those millions of votes cast in just 8 weeks’ time will be as long-lasting in the decades to come as the result of the 1975 referendum.

There will be no election in 5 years’ time to change our mind if we get this wrong.

Generations of people growing up in our country will have to live with the consequences of our vote.

In fact the younger you are, the longer you have to live with the consequences.

So for young people this is no vote to leave to others.

Those who advocate us leaving the EU make an argument about sovereignty, and being able to choose the people who take the decisions that govern our lives.

I agree…. those issues – sovereignty….and choosing those who take the decisions, being in control of our own destiny – they are vital.

But I disagree that this means Britain should leave the EU.

People say our decisions should be made in Westminster. I agree. And they are.

But quite simply, we are part of a wider world that takes decisions that affect us too.

We are not insulated from them.

Europe is our continent. It’s not a choice, it’s a geographical fact.

What happens across Europe affects us, first and foremost because of proximity, not politics.

We can’t just ignore this.

This isn’t a vote to abolish the EU, it will still be there.

As a group of nations, the European Union will still be taking decisions that affect Europe’s single market.

To me, it’s an odd concept of sovereignty and influence…that sees our country walk away from being a voice around the table where decisions are taken that affect us.

That somehow we are a more powerful voice all on our own.

It flies in the face of common sense, and of basic diplomacy.

Staying in the EU is smart diplomacy and smart economics.

Smart economics because we keep access to the European free trade area we call the single market.

A single market of 500 million people, and we keep a say over the rules of doing business across Europe. That means more jobs, lower prices, and more financial security for British families.

And it’s smart diplomacy because we can influence more widely by staying within the EU. As President Obama said, this amplifies Britain’s influence.

Britain can no more successfully insulate itself from the EU and Europe than Sheffield could declare itself a “Nuclear Free Zone” in the 1980s.

Some say we will embark on a new British “internationalism”.

But de facto, on our own, it will be a unilateral internationalism.

And if that sounds like an oxymoron that’s because it is.

The reality is that Britain’s and Europe’s common future is as surely bound up together as our past has been.

Europe is our continent. A continent that our country has shaped as much as any other country that is part of it.

I’m proud of Britain’s history standing up for freedom and liberty.

Europe wouldn’t even exist in its current form if we hadn’t.

But are we really to reach the conclusion that those days of influence are over?

That those arguments on the future course of the EU are ones our country does not have the wherewithal to win?

I believe that those who advocate leaving Europe are wrong in substance and wrong in strategy.

They are wrong in substance because whether you take your economic analysis from the IMF, the OECD, the IFS, or the Treasury, to name a few, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear.

The choice in this referendum is: economic security as part of the EU free trade area that we are already in, or a leap in the dark.

A Britain outside the EU will be worse off by comparison.

£36 billion, or maybe even more.

Annually.

That is a huge dent in our public spending on the very things our country depends on for its success: education, health, transport infrastructure, all of it put under pressure if we leave.

The central estimate from the Treasury analysis is that in the long run GDP would be lower and Britain would be worse off by £4,300 per household, every year.

So this affects us all.

Look at Albania…as I understand it, that’s the current Brexit destination of choice.

A country with a deal that the Prime Minister of Albania has pointed out this week, took 6 years to negotiate, one that still doesn’t give it full access to Europe’s single market and keeps tariffs on certain goods.

A deal that sees it have to comply with EU regulations to sell into that single market, getting checked up on by EU institutions so they follow the rules, but with no seat around the table.

I said those advocating leaving were wrong in substance and strategy.

Leaving is wrong in strategy too, because it is illogical to make an argument that we shape the EU more from being outside than in.

Why? How would we do that? Again, it flies in the face of common sense.

It would be like getting divorced, moving out, then still expecting to pick what colour curtains you have in the front room.

There’s not a lot of post-Brexit referendum strategy out there to analyse. Maybe a plan is coming.

But it seems to me that as it stands, leaving the EU is a one-way ticket, with no clear destination.

As far as I can see, we want to leave Europe’s single market, to then immediately attempt to rejoin it, but on better terms?

There is no evidence for that being possible all, in fact quite the reverse if you look at Norway, Canada, Switzerland…

Why would any club or membership organisation give non-members a better deal – people who are outside it?

It’s like cancelling your gym subscription and expecting to get upgraded access to all the fitness machines.

But of course, this is no joke.

This is worse than wishful thinking because it comes with a cost.

As I said, that cost is our economy – a £36bn hit to tax receipts every year – it won’t just be public services squeezed, it will be our jobs, especially the livelihoods of people on lower incomes.

When I go back to my childhood I was surrounded by people.

They were adamant about their vision of a better Britain, why it was right… It was also one that somehow didn’t want to confront economic reality….

These were the same people who thought it was sensible to declare Sheffield a Nuclear Free Zone.

But I learnt that it’s never them that pay the price for misplaced idealism, the unwillingness to deal with reality.

It’s other people, generally on much lower incomes.

People like my father. They’re the ones who actually lose their jobs when idealism unravels in the face of hard practicalities.

And if you’re someone already fed up of this EU referendum, well if we vote to leave, then you’ll have a lot more Europe in the coming years.

This referendum debate will be just the start as the big Brexit renegotiate kicks off.

It’ll be on our TVs every night for ever. Gogglebox will get really boring.

As we leave the EU…to then start our renegotiation to get back in to the European single market.

We would get 2 years to negotiate a new agreement with the EU – that’s how long the grace period is.

Otherwise we end up with a WTO country status which is worse than the Norway model, worse than the Canada model and it would cost us £47bn – annually.

In addition, there are 53 markets we have free trade with through the EU that we would leave and have to renegotiate.

With more on the way, including with some of the world’s biggest markets such as the US, India and Japan. These would lapse the day we left the EU and would have to be renegotiated. How long would it take to negotiate trade deals with over 50 countries?

And this argument that on exports the EU needs us more than we need them is also wrong in fact.

44% of our exports are with the EU, but just 8% of theirs are to us. The EU exports more to the United States than it does to us.

So as well as being back of the queue for the US, as President Obama pointed out, there’s a danger we’ll be back of the queue for the EU too.

So queues, lines, whatever you call them, we’ll be at the back.

And these renegotiations, taking years, would be an unwanted, frustrating source of diplomatic friction across the board on our international relationships.

In practice, the danger is that there would be little space for us to work on anything else.

It would take all of Britain’s diplomatic bandwidth. At a time when we can least afford it.

In this job I have had to confront some of the most intractable problems that our world faces: from Syria, to South Sudan, to Yemen….

… to the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, …..

…..the progressive impact of climate change,…..

…. and dramatically changing demographics in Africa.

And we have the challenges of economics as we see commodity price falls and the knock on effects of global instability.

These global shifts are there irrespective of the EU, and whether we’re in it or not.

We either face them together, or alone.

Our best chance of rising to those challenges is by working in partnership.

It was Britain, sat around the EU table, making the case that there needed to be more support in the region for Syrian refugees…

…That the smart response to the refugee crisis last summer was to take people direct from the camps. Something the EU is now doing.

It was Britain, sat around the EU table, making the case for education for Syrian children, for jobs and livelihoods for Syrian refugees to better support themselves…

….working with Germany so that we could both lobby the EU and other member states directly at a European Council meeting in December last year….

And that gave us the platform for our successful London Syria conference earlier this year.

We just wouldn’t have had the network or the sheer lobbying clout to do that outside of the EU.

This is an example of what we mean when we say being around the EU table “magnifies” Britain’s influence.

We have always been a country that has taken a lead, taken the world’s priorities and made them ours to deal with too.

I was at the World Bank two weeks ago. Not one person I met wants Britain to disengage from Europe.

We are the country that has not only shaped Europe’s response to the Syria humanitarian crisis, but the world’s.

And to walk away from our own near neighbourhood would be taken by others around the world as a step of isolation, not “internationalism”.

At the very moment our views around the table are most needed and can make the most impact.

Britain pulling up the drawbridge doesn’t stop the world out there from having these problems. It just makes it a lot harder for us to make sure the global response is a smart one, tackling problems at source.

It’s a bit like arguing you should get rid of police tackling crime and just put all your money into putting more locks on your front door.

It’s an unwise choice in today’s world and the future world.

And it’s a false choice.

We need to do both.

The world isn’t more secure with Britain isolating itself from Europe, it’s less secure…

…just as surely as if we left NATO, or the UN Security Council. Which would of course also be nonsensical.

And fundamentally, if Britain has something to say, why would our great country not be around the EU table to say it?

And that’s why in the end this is a vote not just about Britain’s place in Europe…

… but about Britain’s place in the world.

Together, working as partners, shaping events,

Or,

Isolated, lobbying from the sidelines.

And I wanted to finish by saying that I think Britain’s young people understand this better than any of us.

They are the most connected generation ever.

For them, the world feels like a much smaller place, and they understand it’s only going to get smaller still in their lifetime.

The young volunteers we have on DFID’s International Citizens Service understand that you address today’s challenges by working constructively with others, not by turning your back.

My message to young people is – this is your country.

This vote is about your future.

This vote is about what you want Britain to stand for in the 21st century. Part of the wider world, or apart from it.

This vote is about whether your voice will be at the EU table of the future.

I believe that winning those arguments about Europe’s future….

….about how we collectively rise to the global challenges my department grapples with every day….

…..that starts with being in those debates in the first place.

This referendum will produce a result.

A result that will have to be accepted by everyone. Including you.

So as a young person, if you’re not even voting in this referendum, how can you make your voice count?

Yet your view matters as much as anyone’s.

We know each new generation is less likely to vote than the one before. Nearly 80% of over 65’s vote, but well under half of 18-24 year olds vote.

That works out at 2 million missing votes of young people, compared to if they voted as much as their grandparents.

It’s a powerful voice. But it’s not being heard.

2 million missing votes

So it’s time for a new generation to have your say.

This isn’t about party politics, if that’s what’s switching you off voting.

It’s about taking care of our country’s future – of your future.

Your country has never needed you to vote more than it will do on 23rd June, 2016.

Our democracy is precious, but it only works when everyone has their say.

That has to include you.

This referendum can be an opportunity – a watershed moment for Britain, and it can be a watershed moment for a new generation of voters.

If you’ve never voted before, give yourself the chance to take a first step towards building the country that you want and making our democracy work for you.

Shaping our politics away from a divisive, negative debate about what we don’t want towards an agreement about what we do want.

Make it a vote about setting out what our country stands for, what our place is in the 21st century.

Even if you don’t get involved with the formal campaign, if you care, get out there and persuade your friends, your family. Make the difference in this referendum.

To those 2 million missing young voters and all young people.

Don’t leave this referendum to others.

So much of what is ahead of you and Britain will turn on referendum day on the 23rd June.

Everything is at stake.

And it’s time for you to start setting the agenda, to start setting our agenda.

This is about your country, your future.

It’s about your vote. Use it.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, at the Southbank Centre in London on 6 March 2015.

Introduction

I’m absolutely delighted to be here with you today and speaking at this festival.

As the UK’s International Development Secretary for the last two and a half years I’ve put empowering girls and women very much at the heart of everything my department does in developing countries.

We are supporting more girls to go to school. We’re helping more women to vote, to own their own land, to start their own business and to plan their family for the first time.

And I’ve been determined to take on important issues that in the past I think the development community has backed away from as being too sensitive and too difficult to deal with. In particular child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation.

Last summer, the UK government and UNICEF hosted the first ever Girl Summit at a school, a fantastic school – Walworth Academy – to rally a global movement to end FGM and child marriage, bringing together governments, activists, NGOs, businesses, young people.

And bit by bit, alongside the efforts of so many others – many of you in this room – all of this work is giving girls and women a voice, choice and control over their lives and their futures.

Activists leading the way

A lot of this couldn’t ever have got going without the amazing activists and campaigners – many of you are here today – and people we’re going to hear from on this panel, who were talking about issues like FGM and child marriage long before anyone else wanted to go near them.

It’s thanks to the work that you started that gender equality is no longer a niche interest in international development.

And together we’re now pushing these issues right up the global agenda. Our Charter for Change at the Girl Summit was agreed by more than 490 signatories, including 43 national governments – with more still signing.

So we’ve come a long way. But if we’re really going to succeed in achieving gender equality, we need our work to lead to fundamental changes in attitudes towards women around the world; and I believe we need everyone to be advocating for this change; girls and women, boys and men.

Tackling social norms

Too many millions of girls around the world are still having their potential snuffed out at a very early age; their lives end up being limited and defined from the moment they’re born, just because they’re a girl.

I think we have to ask the question, why is it this way in the first place? And it’s because in these communities, women normally stay at home, they normally get married very early, they normally wouldn’t vote, they normally don’t run a business.

And we have to ask the question how these norms, which tip the balance away from women and girls’ rights, get set in the first place and who and what dictates what is normal?

And I believe that to advance the cause of women’s rights further, and faster, we really need to tackle these social norms, the deeply held beliefs, attitudes and often the traditions that mean girls and women are too often seen as lesser then men.

Supporting grassroots activism

So how do we challenge and rewire these social norms?

At the Girl Summit, Malala talked about people themselves changing and having their own traditions. Traditions don’t have to be set in stone and she was right.

Very often local activists and community groups are best placed to build the trust and credibility within local communities, and particularly with boys and men, that we need to challenge discrimination and social norms.

However, it is difficult for local, grassroots organisations to obtain funding. Often small amounts can go an incredibly long way and be transformative.

And that’s why I’m pleased to be announcing today that my department is investing £8 million in a new initiative, AmplifyChange – a fund, not just supported by the UK but others too, that will primarily support smaller community groups, activists and individuals that work on sexual and reproductive health and rights and related issues, including the causes and consequences of child marriage, FGM and gender-based violence.

Men and boys

Importantly, this fund will be for working with boys and men as well as girls and women. I know a lot of our time, our work on gender equality has rightly been spent working with girls and women directly. Some of the most inspiring people I’ve met are the women campaigning for women’s rights in Afghanistan very bravely, or women steadily and tirelessly working to end child marriage in Zambia.

But I also think that a key area that has been too easily neglected in the past, and the first point I want to make, is engaging with men and boys more.

So often, it is boys and men setting those social norms; so we need to work with them to change their attitude.

And I think we need to recognise men and boys can be change makers in gender equality too. Many of them are already championing change themselves.

We’re seeing growing momentum on this, the HeForShe campaign by UN Women that aims to “bring together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all” has 200,000 plus signatures and high profile support from President Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

And at the Girl Summit last year some of the most eloquent contributions came from young men who were at that event talking about their hopes for their sisters, for their mothers, their friends who are female. They were an inspiration.

And you can meet male role models perhaps where you least expect them. Last year, the MP Bill Cash put a law through parliament that means my department is legally obliged to consider gender equality before we fund a programme or give assistance anywhere in the world. It’s something many other countries are looking at and taking a lead from. It is a unique Bill we should be proud of.

And in his time as Foreign Secretary, and since, William Hague has worked tirelessly to end sexual violence against women in conflict.

These are men who are really making a difference for women. But we need to see more men making more of a difference, more men demanding change for and with women if we’re going to be successful.

Human rights

My second point is about human rights and values. As Hilary Clinton said at the historic women’s conference in Beijing 20 years ago: “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”

This should matter to all of us. Because when anyone is at a stage where they relegate another human being to some sort of secondary position to them, to less than them, they’ve crossed an important rubicon. Because once you’ve done that it’s so easy to add others to the list; after ‘being female’ can come having a different religion, having a different sexuality, having a different ethnicity. But the crossing of that rubicon so often starts with girls and women.

So this cause isn’t just about winning for girls and women, it’s about winning for everyone who faces discrimination around our world.

Momentum rising

The final point I want to make is that countries with poor human rights and women’s rights records should realise that in today and tomorrow’s world, the light of transparency and accountability is only going to get brighter and brighter.

Not just from governments but perhaps and I think more powerfully, from people, millions of people around our world.

You can go on the web right now and see terrible news stories of women who have been stoned. And we all know about the story of Meriam Ibrahim, forced to give birth in a South Sudanese prison just because she married a Christian.

Whereas once these stories may have gone under the radar, today we know all about them, we can see them for ourselves in an increasingly transparent, digital media age. It’s as easy as going outside our own front doors and seeing what is happening in our own communities.

That knowledge gives us the power to press for change. When I say ‘us’, I mean people, I mean voters. I believe that in democracies, as ever, people will vote for governments that reflect their priorities and those priorities will increasingly reflect people’s concerns on the unacceptable state of women’s rights in too many places around the world.

People will vote for governments that put a priority on progress.

Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are about values; about dignity, equality, freedom of expression, accountable power. Some people will call them Western values. But that’s wrong. I’ve met people with those same values all over the world, in countries that face the biggest challenges.

And for those people who’d like to turn back the clock on gender equality, perhaps claiming they are supporting ‘traditional family values’: your so-called values are not values, they are excuses for the status quo, a status quo that cannot be justified and cannot be sustained.

Those who stand against those values of dignity and equality will find themselves fighting against an increasingly unstoppable wave. Change never happens overnight. Here in the UK, the suffragette movement took 50, 60 years to get women the vote. But I believe the momentum is with the young people and campaigners around the world who are demanding progress.

They are saying that when it comes to violence against women and girls, on FGM, on child marriage, on forced marriage, on sexual violence in conflict: enough is enough. And they are right.

We need to lock in the achievements we’ve made. This year, 20 years after Beijing, the world agrees a new set of global development goals for tackling poverty, the UK is determined to put girls and women are at the heart of these goals with a standalone goal and comprehensive set of gender targets mainstreamed throughout the new development framework, including on violence against women and girls, child marriage and FGM.

It’s essential that everyone here makes their voice heard; men and boys being the force for change along with girls and women. I believe that together, by continuing to put women’s rights here and around the world under the spotlight we can break down the social norms that hold girls and women back, we can build a world where every girl can reach her potential and decide her own future.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, at the Overseas Development Institute in London, on 8 March 2016.

Introduction

Thank you for that introduction. I’m delighted to be here at the end of what I know has been a fantastic, powerful day.

And I’m delighted to be speaking here, on International Women’s Day, looking ahead to what I believe is an absolutely vital year in the battle for girls and women’s rights.

And, actually, I know I said this time last year that 2015 was a key year for gender equality.

And 2015 was an important year for girls and women – as we successfully fought for that standalone gender equality goal, Global Goal 5 in the new Sustainable Development Goals, and – against real opposition – for the first time the world has key targets on sexual and reproductive health, ending FGM and child marriage.

What’s more we’ve made sure that gender equality runs through the Global Goals, because no goal, whether on education, sanitation or health, will be considered achieved unless it’s achieved for everyone – women and men, girls and boys. No one can be left behind.

But that’s why this year, 2016, is so important. Last year was about getting the rights of women and girls on the world’s to do list – this year is about doing that to do list. We shouldn’t lose a single moment when it comes to making these goals a reality.

2016 will also be the year of the UN High Level Panel on girls and women’s economic empowerment – announced by the UN Secretary General in January…the first time the UN have ever put together a High Level Panel on this.

In the UN Secretary General’s words: “To achieve the Goals, we need a quantum leap in women’s economic empowerment”.

I absolutely share that view and I’m very proud to be one of the founding members of this Panel. I believe that women’s economic empowerment is something that simply can’t wait. Girls and women around the world can’t wait, the world can’t wait. A lack of empowerment for women is pulling us all down.

The challenge

But what I want to be very clear about today is that when it comes to winning the battle on gender equality, we are getting there but it’s taking far, far too long.

Yes there have been big victories in the battle for women’s rights – but, frankly, the pace of change has not been good enough – and that’s what we need to keep at the forefront of our minds this International Women’s Day. If we are to achieve the acceleration in progress for girls and women that we want and so badly need.

The problems faced by girls and women will have been set out many times over the course of today. The statistics that, in some parts of the world, paint such a terrible picture for so many women.

Child marriage: 1 in 4 girls in developing countries will likely be married before the age of 18, and 1 in 12 before the age of 15
1 in 3 women worldwide are beaten or go through sexual violence in their lifetime. How is that something any of us can accept?

200 million women around the world have undergone FGM. This represents brutal violence against women. In Uganda, a woman is 123 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in the United Kingdom

Globally, just 50% of women participate in formal labour markets and have the financial independence that brings – compared with 77% of men

In 17 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working

In 29 countries women are prohibited from working at night

And in 34 countries women do not have the same inheritance rights as men.

Even here in Britain we need to ask ourselves searching questions.

It was 150 years ago that John Stuart Mill presented a petition to Parliament to give women the same political rights as men. Over six decades later, in 1928, all women over 21 in Britain finally won the right to vote. Change really took time to happen here – and we still have further to go. There are still glass ceilings to smash.

Party leaders have come and gone, but there’s been just one female leader of a major political party.

There are more women on FTSE 350 boards than ever before, with representation of women more than doubling since 2011.

But as CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn set out earlier this year, there are just 9 more female executive directors on FTSE350 boards than in 2010 and the number of female chief executives has hardly moved.

Even in our schools, where you might think there must be equality as women have been teachers for decades. In fact, only 37% of school heads are women despite three-quarters of teachers being female.

Here in London, the UK’s capital and one of the most advanced in the world, more progress is needed:

– less than a third of London Assembly members are women (8 of 25)

– on average men working in the City earn over £20,000 more than women

– more than half of all newly identified cases of FGM, 1,300, in the UK from July to September last year occurred in London.

When we look globally, according to the World Economic Forum, the global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics has closed by only 4% in the past 10 years, with the economic gap closing by just 3%. They suggest it will take another 118 years to close this gap completely.

On the flip side of this:

If girls and women were operating at their full potential and playing an identical role in labour markets to men’s then, according to the McKinsey Global Institute’s recent research, an estimated $28 trillion, or 26%, could be added to global GDP in 2025.

They estimate the UK could add £0.6 trillion of additional annual GDP in 2025 by fully bridging the gender gap.

So the world shouldn’t just wait for girls and women’s economic empowerment to steadily happen – we should turbo charge it.

And what that shows is that our global economy needs women’s economic empowerment as much as any other lever that the central bankers can pull.

And as well as being about basic, human rights for girls and women – gender equality is also in all our interests. When women are losing out – we’re all losing out. And at a time when there is still much economic uncertainty in global markets, we can’t afford to lock women out of the workplace – we need them in board rooms, offices and in industry.

Economic empowerment goes right to the heart of women’s rights – it’s about jobs but it’s also about access to bank accounts, tackling violence against girls and women, overcoming discriminatory laws and reducing the burden of unpaid domestic work. All things the High Level Panel must tackle.

I believe women’s economic empowerment is a game-changer – both for tackling poverty and for building global prosperity.

No country can afford to leave half its population behind. This has been going on for too long – I don’t accept it.

The UN High Level Panel is fundamentally about turbo charging all our efforts to deliver real and lasting change and I’m proud to be part of that.

Voice, choice, control

The question for all of us today is not just where we need to go but how fast we can get there – how we can accelerate the pace of change.

What’s that going to take?

I think it comes down to voice, choice and control. We have to look at politics, the business world, the attitudes people have within their communities and in the home.

So what about women having a real voice over the decisions that affect them? Internationally we need the next UN Secretary General to really pick up the baton on gender equality – perhaps for the next UN Secretary General to be a woman for the first time.

Again, on women having a voice, we need women to be equally represented in Parliaments around the world.

In Somalia – where only 14% of MPs are women, in Sierra Leone – where just over 12% are women, but also Japan – where only 9% are women. And Britain – where it’s still only 30% despite all the progress we’ve made. We still need around 130 more women MPs here to be equal. Let’s find the 130 more.

My message to women in Britain is: if you’re a great, capable woman then run, run for Parliament or for local government, or to be a police commissioner, and if you know a great, capable woman – then ask her to run.

What about women being able to choose their own futures? Whether they’re sitting in Britain’s boardrooms or smallholder farmers in Ethiopia they need to be economically empowered.

And finally the control women have over their lives and their own bodies, when and how many children they have, when they get married, not having FGM.

We have to finally overcome those discriminatory social norms that hold women back – the cultures and traditions that can define what a girl is for. Culture and tradition should never be used as an excuse for inaction on girls and women’s rights.

Britain is going to fight for a world where there is voice, choice and control for women.

Nationally, we are getting our own house in order, with new league tables to put the spotlight on companies that are failing to address the gender pay gap. By supporting women to start and grow their own businesses, including through start-up loans & mentoring. And by supporting FGM and forced marriage units as well as refuges and rape support centres.

Internationally, we will continue to work with countries that are moving in the same direction on this – supporting countries like Ethiopia that are focused on stamping out harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM. But this political leadership is, of course, not the case everywhere.

In countries where that political leadership simply is not there, we’ll focus on supporting their grassroots movements, the local organisations and women’s rights groups, the women and men, girls and boys demanding change.

When John Stuart Mill – a man fighting for women’s rights it’s worth pointing out – when he presented that petition to allow women to vote to Parliament, the establishment was all against him. By 1928 resistance had broken down. And that was because of a grassroots movement – the suffragettes – who kept fighting for change and in doing so transformed this country.

It all adds up to this: the mission for gender equality will underpin everything we’re doing at DFID. It underpins what this government is doing in the UK. And it needs to underpin the work of the UN, the work of all governments around the world.

The fight for women’s rights needs to have the same momentum, the same progress, the same deal-making, the same pace and urgency we’ve recently seen around the climate change movement in recent years – culminating in that ground-breaking deal in Paris. If we can do a deal to save the planet, then surely we can deliver gender equality now, in the 21st Century, too.

Call to action

So, I want to conclude with a call to action – not just to this room, but to everyone who cares about this issue, in Britain and around the world.

Inequality between men and women is the greatest unmet human challenge the world continues to face this century. It requires the same global commitment that we’re now seeing around tackling climate change. The whole world needs to rally round women’s rights.

The Sustainable Development Goals is a blueprint for women’s rights around the world – so let’s use it.

In the end by building a better world for women, we are building a better world for everyone. We can see the world we all want – we just need to accelerate towards it as fast as we can. We’ve got to go further, faster.

I’ve often said that when it comes to women’s rights – if we’re not winning this battle then, de facto, we’re losing it. There’s plenty of people who think things have already gone too far and will try to claw back the progress we’ve made. Just to stand still we have to keep winning.

But the other aspect of that is we are now seeing a network effect. As we see more progress, and more rights for girls and women – there’s more and more voices to call for change.

So the more we can be and give a voice to those that don’t have one, the more we shout for change, the more we can give a platform to those voices demanding change – I believe the more irresistible this movement will become until no country can withstand it.

I don’t want someone in my place to be here in 150 years’ time talking about this day and this speech I made. In fact, making a similar speech about the need for more pace and urgency on women’s rights because there’s still more to do. It’s too long to wait. In our lifetimes, for our girls, for our children, for everyone – let’s all of us, men and women, girls and boys, finish off the job. Let’s make women equal.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, in London on 16 February 2016.

Introduction

Good afternoon.

It’s a real pleasure for me to have the opportunity to speak to you today under the auspices of the Centre for Social Justice.

This is an organisation dedicated to putting social justice at the heart of British politics and policy.

And it’s great to be speaking here at 2nd Chance, which does fantastic work giving unemployed young adults a future, by helping them move into sustained employment.

Now you might be wondering why, as Secretary of State at the Department for International Development (DFID), I’m here today talking to you about social mobility.

Well partly it’s because international development and social mobility are both issues very close to my heart.

But it’s also because improving social mobility is a generational challenge.

And tackling generational challenges is really what DFID has been all about:

– Ending extreme poverty,

– Ending Female Genital Mutilation,

– Eradicating polio and malaria.

If these are the generational challenges for our world, then I believe social mobility is the generational challenge for our country.

DFID is all about creating a levelled-up world, and I think it can equally help point the way to how we can get a levelled-up Britain.

I know from personal experience just how much social mobility matters. It has underpinned my personal and my political life.

Today is a long way from the local comprehensive school I went to in Rotherham.

And climbing the ladder has been exhilarating but at times a real challenge. It involved going to university – a step in the dark.

When I asked my parents for advice on where to go, what to study, it was new to them too. As no one in my family had done it before.

At the time, I remember that it felt like a risk, because I was putting off when I would start earning money in a job.

I didn’t know what kind of job I was aiming for, so I wasn’t 100% sure what I should study.

When I look back, my horizons were quite limited.

I didn’t consider doing law as a degree, because I’d never met a lawyer.

And instead, I chose to study something that had already had a big impact on my family.

Economics. Which at the time was all around me in Rotherham and South Yorkshire.

I grew up against the backdrop of the steel industry strikes and miners’ strike.

In fact, my first ever economics lesson was the day my dad was made redundant from British Steel.

That year he was unemployed was the toughest year of my childhood.

But I knuckled down at school and college. And I got on with climbing my own ladder.

As I got on through university and got on with my career, sometimes you had a feeling almost of ‘vertigo’, from gradually getting further and further away from where I started.

Things didn’t always go well. I’ve had to be very resilient at times.

And the bottom line is that my own experience of climbing the ladder is that it is often extremely hard.

I’m not alone in my experience.

The question I ask is: is it easier climbing the ladder now?

Well, if you look across the piece, there is progress on social mobility. But it’s a mixed picture, depending on how you define progress.

So in Britain over the past 50 years, as in other developed countries, we have seen so-called “absolute” social mobility take place. It’s a sort of “quantity” measure.

This is, put simply: have there been more opportunities for people? The answer to that is yes. There have been more opportunities for more people.

Fundamentally, the research by people like Goldthorpe suggests it’s been a story of economic restructuring, as jobs became less manual and more office-based, and economic growth.

With more jobs, many young people have had the opportunity “headroom” to get on.

It’s why keeping our economy on track, creating jobs with our long term economic plan, is so vital.

But what if we look at social mobility in a more qualitative way?

Relative social mobility is when we strip out what’s happened over time in the economy. Look at an underlying picture.

And when you strip out those economic structural and cyclical effects, then, as in so many countries around the world, it’s a different picture.

Because where you relatively start still over-whelmingly predicts where you relatively finish. Even today.

So not accepting that lack of relative social mobility and then changing it, that is our generational challenge.

And this government is rising to that challenge.

UK social mobility: the goal

On his first day back in Downing Street after the General Election, the Prime Minister set out how he wants to make Britain “a place where a good life is in reach for everyone who is willing to work and do the right thing.”

And, we have already got on with delivering on that ambition:

– More students from disadvantaged backgrounds in English universities

– More apprenticeships

– Lower youth unemployment

– Lowest levels of young people not in education, training or employment since records began.

As a nation our social mobility strategy has a lot of good elements already in place.

And I want to set out what I believe lessons from DFID can contribute to get that structural shift our country needs in relative social mobility.

And it’s worth briefly setting out the case of why we do need social mobility.

In my department, we talk about development being not just the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.

I believe that dramatically improving social mobility is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do for Britain.

There is both a moral and an economic case for more social mobility in Britain.

It’s better for individuals – as I know from my own experience. When people believe they can get higher, they aim higher. And when they aim higher, they’re likely to go further.

It’s better for communities. When people believe we all have an equal shot, it makes for more cohesive, stable communities.

It’s right for society. The wider the pool of people from which we draw our Parliament, our courts, our boardrooms, our newsrooms, the stronger the basis for trust in accountability, in how Britain runs day-to-day.

But it’s more than that.

Improved social mobility, making more of our country’s human capital, is one of the biggest structural levers we can pull in the UK economy.

Work for the Sutton Trust has assessed that improved social mobility could boost our economy by up to £140bn a year by 2050, that’s an extra 4% of GDP.

It means that only when people can reach their potential, will our economy reach its potential.

Lessons from DFID

So, to take a first lesson from our work on DFID.

On improving prospects for girls in developing countries.

That has taught us that alongside day to day work, there are “critical moments.”

For example girls reaching adolescence may be under pressure to marry, have children and drop out, instead of staying in school.

Yet if they stay in school they’ll marry later, have fewer, healthier children, and if they can work they’ll reinvest most of what they earn back into their family and community.

So focusing on supporting these girls through those moments is especially important to their lives down the line.

For young people in the UK those “critical moments” might be different, but recognising them and helping manage through them is vital.

Another lesson comes from our projects tackling FGM. Getting that work done, and making that generational change on FGM, means taking a comprehensive, holistic, approach.

One that works at a range of levels – all at the same time and for long enough, for change to take root from the top right the way through to the grass roots.

If you look at the work we have done combating FGM, it has seen:

– National Laws changed

– National and local political leadership

– Grass roots projects working with communities and individuals

– Community leaders and religious leaders giving the same messages on ending FGM

– Civil society voices backing up and amplifying the message, often doing the work on the ground.

And all tailored at the local level for communities. Take Ethiopia, for example, where tackling FGM at the local level means dealing with challenges like the fact that over 80 different languages.

So the lesson is the power of an approach that is comprehensive but locally tailored, and locally led.

Another lesson I’d point to from FGM and across the board, that I can’t emphasise enough, is the huge role civil society plays in success, and the momentum that civil society brings.

Make Poverty History was a hugely influential movement that had a big impact.

And the ability of our NGOs to work collaboratively as one team has proved immensely powerful in generating political consensus.

And in getting culture, tradition, attitudes changed on the ground.

The fight against ebola is just one example. It was civil society work that helped people understand in communities how they could stay safe.

And civil society advocacy has helped take what was wrongly a niche issue like FGM to being much more mainstream.

Looking at all that, I don’t think we will have the sort of step-change on social mobility we need here in the UK, without that kind of coordinated advocacy and campaigning from civil society.

You’ve got to be out there, beating the drum, holding all our feet to the fire as well as doing the amazing projects you do.

Time and time again, our work in DFID tells us, it’s about finding momentum and keeping it, because otherwise the power of inertia and status quo drags you back.

In international development we have International Women’s Day coming up on 8 March, we’ve just marked International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM (6 February).

What are the days and moments for social mobility we can come together on?

Another lesson from DFID: meeting that challenge, sustaining that momentum, and staying the course, is about not chopping and changing our approach every few years.

We’ve been working to eradicate polio for at least 25 years, and working towards a malaria-free world for at least 15 years.

Generational challenges require generational policy.

If we are to shift the dial on social mobility in Britain, we need a longer term approach. Not interventions that are changed with every incoming government.

That means achieving a cross party consensus, built around an evidence-based strategy, working on the 80% we can agree on rather simply arguing about the 20% of this agenda we don’t agree.

And here is another lesson from development work: the central role of evidence, of data and analysis in what we do.

DFID works in complex places, in tough places, with a lot of risk, sometimes danger, and tracking effectiveness is critical.

So in DFID we are data and measurement geeks – and proud of it. That approach to evidence is also key to social mobility strategy in the UK.

It’s happening – take the Sutton Trust-run Education Endowment Foundation, take the work of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.

But we need more. And what we’ve got needs pulling together and sharing much more systematically.

The other side of the evidence coin is ‘scale’ and scaling up what works.

At the end of January, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission published its Social Mobility Index.

Most strikingly, while we are in a city, London, that really topped the tables – this city is a social mobility hotspot – whilst other cities, including relatively affluent places like Oxford, Cambridge and Worcester, are social mobility coldspots.

We need to dig into why we are finding such big differences on the ground, what has worked in London – can it work in other places? How might it need to be tailored?

If every city could replicate London, that would be a prize worth having.

Call to action

For our part, this Government is stepping up to the challenge on social mobility.

We have a Prime Minister who is leading from the front, who has put giving the opportunity for every child in Britain to go as far as their talents will take them at the heart of this government’s work over the next five years.

In the last month alone the PM has announced the new campaign for mentors for children.

We have BIS working with universities on going further to bring in those from disadvantaged and BME backgrounds, and the Cabinet Office setting out how we will tackle inequality in the public sector.

We have our forthcoming Life Chances strategy.

And so, step by step we are doing what we can in Government.

But Westminster and Whitehall are only part of the solution on social mobility. This is so much more than just about government.

All of us have a role to play. We can and should all ask ourselves, what more can we do?

Employees – ask your boss what more your company can do.

Employers, business need to see that apprenticeships is a start, but what else?

Are they really getting beyond the usual recruits? Are you promoting outside of the usual networks?

My then employer Smithkline put me through an MBA at the London business school. It’s not that normal though.

How can Britain’s corporate world do a better job of more consistently pulling in and then pulling through talented young people who start as rough diamonds?

Professions – there’s been lots of progress, but there’s much more work to do.

My profession of accountancy has done lots but there’s much more work to do.

Conclusion

I started by talking about my own journey.

But what galvanised me as a young person wasn’t being angry about a less than perfect start. I’m actually very proud to have been born and brought up in Rotherham.

I remember how I felt. It was a mix of challenge, of excitement, of optimism, of aspiration, of being in an amazing country, with an amazing history, having a sense of wider world out there too, which I wanted to be part of.

It was great parents, encouraging teachers, adamant swimming coaches, who taught me about single-minded persistence to reach your goals.

And I believe that our young people will get themselves and our country a very long way.

But we need to make that ladder of opportunity one that’s easier to climb now and in the future, than it was for those of us climbing it in the past.

It’s about setting Britain fair to help our young people successfully navigate those critical moments, having them channel their energy into achieving goals rather than overcoming barriers.

Improving social mobility is a lot more than individuals reaching their potential.

It’s about our community, our society, our economy, our politics.

A social contract between all of us with everyone else. To me it underpins everything. And it’s complex.

That’s also why delivering a more socially mobile Britain is hard, because it’s about changing Britain’s DNA if we’re going to be successful.

But we’re truly making a start now and we have a huge amount to be proud of.

Britain is a recognised world-leader in international development.

And I believe, in time, we can be a world leader on social mobility too.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, in London on 11 January 2016.

I am grateful to the honourable Lady and to you, Mr Speaker, for the chance to discuss this important matter today.

No-one who has seen the pictures coming out of Madaya can say it’s anything other than utterly appalling.

This atrocious situation is deliberate and man-made. The Assad regime has besieged the town since July, causing horrific suffering and starvation.

I should remind the House that the UK has been at the forefront of global efforts to help people suffering inside Syria from day one, day in day out, for the last 4 years.

The House will be aware that a humanitarian convoy is delivering enough food to all those in Madaya for the next month. The aid on this convoy is UK funded.

We have allocated £561 million to help people specifically inside Syria. This is partly delivered out of Damascus – which is around 40km from Madaya – with the consent of the regime, as well as across borders from neighbouring countries without regime consent.

This sits alongside all the work the UK is doing to help Syrian refugees across the region. Our overall response of £1.12 billion for Syria and the region represents our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis and makes us the second largest donor after the US.

We lobbied hard for UN Security Council Resolutions 2165 and 2191 – superseded by Resolution 2258 – which now enable the UN to deliver aid across borders, without the consent of the regime. This is pivotal in order to get to people we need to.

But we must remember the people of Madaya are not alone in facing these horrors. They represent just 10% of people in besieged areas and 1% of people in so-called hard-to-reach areas in Syria. There are 400,000 people now live in besieged areas like Madaya and around 4.5 million in hard-to-reach areas in Syria.

Across Syria, Assad and other parties to the conflict are wilfully impeding humanitarian access on a daily basis. It is outrageous, unacceptable and illegal to use starvation as a weapon of war.

The most effective way to get food to people who are starving and to stop these needless and horrific deaths is for Assad and all parties to the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law.

So, right now, I call on the Assad regime and all parties to the conflict to allow immediate and unfettered access to all areas of Syria, not just Madaya.

We will not stop in our fight – whether through hard work on a political solution that will deal with the root cause of this problem, or humanitarian efforts that provide immediate life-saving relief.

This shocking situation underlines the vital work of aid agencies and the importance of them knowing they have the resources to keep going, and the importance of next month’s Syria Conference in London which we are co-hosting.

Below is the text of the statement made by Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, to the House of Commons on 8 February 2016.

With permission, Mr Speaker, I shall make a statement updating the House on the recent Syria Conference, which the UK co-hosted with Kuwait, Norway, Germany and the United Nations last Thursday.

For nearly five years the Syrian people have suffered unimaginable horrors at the hands of the Assad regime and, more recently, Daesh.

Inside Syria there are 13.5 million people in desperate need and a further 4.6 million people have become refugees.

As we have seen over the past 72 hours alone the impact of this crisis on the people of the region is terrible and profound.

I was in Lebanon and Jordan last month and spoke to refugees, some of whom are now facing their fifth winter spent under a tent, and their stories are similar. When they left their homes, they thought they’d be back in weeks or perhaps months at most.

It’s turned out to be years, with no end to in sight.

UK response

Syria is now not only the world’s biggest and most urgent humanitarian crisis. Its far-reaching consequences are being felt across Europe and touching our lives here in Britain.

More than 1 million refugees and migrants risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean last year. Of these around half were fleeing from the bloodbath in Syria.

Mr Speaker, since the fighting began, Britain has been at the forefront of the humanitarian response to the Syria conflict.

Aid from the UK is helping to provide food for people inside Syria every month, as well as clean water and sanitation for hundreds of thousands of refugees across the region.

Our work on the Syria crisis gives people in the region hope for a better future and is also firmly in Britain’s national interest. Without British aid, hundreds of thousands more refugees could feel they have no alternative but to risk their lives by seeking to get to Europe.

But more was needed.

The UN Syria appeals for the whole of last year ended up only 54% funded – other countries needed to follow the UK’s lead and step up to the plate.

That’s why the UK announced we would co-host an international conference in London on behalf of Syria and the region. This would build on three successful conferences held in Kuwait in previous years.

Supporting Syria & the Region

Mr Speaker, on Thursday last week, we brought together over 60 countries and organisations including 33 heads of state and Governments.

The stage was set for the international community to deliver real and lasting change for all the people affected by this crisis – but in the end it would all come down to choices.

Could we pledge the record-breaking billions needed – going much further than previous conferences? And could we commit to going beyond people’s basic needs and deliver viable, long-term solutions on jobs and education for Syria’s refugees and the countries supporting them.

At the London Conference the world made the right choices to do all of those things – countries, donors and businesses all stepped up and raised new funds for this crisis to the amount of over $11billion (£7.7 bn). This included $5.8bn (£4 bn) for 2016 and another $5.4billion (£3.6 bn) for 2017-2020.

This was the largest ever amount committed in response to a humanitarian crisis in a single day. It means more has been raised in the first five weeks of this year for the Syria crisis than in the whole of 2015.

The UK, once again, played our part. We announced that we would be doubling our commitment – increasing our total pledge to Syria and the region to over £2.3 billion.

Going beyond people’s basic needs, at the London Conference, the world said there must be no lost generation of Syrian children, pledging to deliver education to children inside Syria and education to at least 1 million refugee and host community children, in the region outside Syria, who are out of school.

This is an essential investment not only in these children, but in Syria’s future. It also gives those countries generously hosting refugees temporarily the investment in their education systems that will benefit them for the longer term.

The London Conference also made a critical choice on supporting jobs for refugees and economic growth in the countries hosting them.

We hope historic commitments with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan will create at least 1 million jobs in countries neighbouring Syria, so that refugees have a livelihood close to home. This will also create jobs for local people and leave a legacy of economic growth.

By making these choices, we’re investing in what is, overwhelmingly, the first choice of Syrian refugees: to stay in region and closer to their home country and their families still in it. And if we can give Syrians hope for a better future where they are, they are less likely to feel they have no other choice left but to make perilous journeys to Europe.

Mr Speaker, I’d like to thank all of those civil servants from my own department, the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, and BIS, who worked tirelessly as a team to help deliver such a such a successful and vital conference.

It’s not often that civil servants get the thanks that I believe they deserve, but on this occasion I’d wanted to put that on record.

The political process

Mr Speaker, the world has offered an alternative vision of hope to all those affected by this crisis but only peace will give Syrian people their future back.

The establishment of the International Syria Support Group at the end of 2015 was an important step on the path to finding a political settlement to the conflict. The Syrian opposition has come together to form the Higher Negotiations Committee to engage in negotiations on political transition with the regime and the UN launched proximity talks between the Syrian parties in January.

The UN Special Envoy for Syria took the decision to pause these talks following an increase in airstrikes and violence by the Assad Regime, backed by Russia.

The UK continues to call on all sides to take steps to create the conditions for peace negotiations to continue. In particular Russia must use its influence over the regime to put a stop to indiscriminate attacks and the unacceptable violations of international law.

Across Syria, Assad and other parties to the conflict are willfully impeding humanitarian access on a day-by-day basis. It is a brutal, unacceptable and illegal action to use starvation as a weapon of war.

In London world leaders demanded an end to these abuses, including the illegal use of siege and obstruction of humanitarian aid.

Our London Conference raised the resourcing for life-saving humanitarian support. It must be allowed to reach those in need as a result of the Syria conflict, irrespective of where they are.

The campaign against Daesh

I also want to take this opportunity to provide an update on the campaign against Daesh in Iraq and in Syria.

Since my Right Honourable Friend the Foreign Secretary last updated the House on the campaign against Daesh in Syria and Iraq, the Global Coalition, working with partner forces, has put further pressure on Daesh.

Iraqi forces, with Coalition support, have retaken large portions of Ramadi. In Syria, the Coalition has supported the capture of the Tishreen Dam and surrounding villages as well as areas south of al-Hawl.

The UK is playing our part. As of 5th February, RAF Typhoon, Tornado and Reaper aircraft have flown over 2,000 combat missions and carried out more than 585 successful strikes across Syria and Iraq.

We are also leading efforts to sanction those trading with or supporting Daesh. My Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister gained agreement at the European Council in December on asset freezes and other restrictive measures.

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, in conclusion since day one of this crisis the UK has led the way in funding and shaping the international response. We have evolved our response as this incredibly complex crisis itself has evolved.

There will be no end to the suffering until a political solution can be found.

The Syria Conference, co hosted by the UK and held here in London, was a pivotal moment to at least respond to help those people affected and those countries affected. We seized the chance to offer the Syrian people and their children hope for a better future.

The UK will of course now be at the heart of making that ambition a reality and keeping the international community’s promise to the Syrian people.

This is the right thing to do on behalf of those suffering and, fundamentally, it is also the right thing to do for Britain too and I commend this statement to the House.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, in London on 4 February 2016.

Thank you Baroness Anelay. I now have this amazing privilege of being the person that gets to wrap up this incredible conference that we’ve had today.

I want to start by saying a huge thank you to absolutely everybody who’s contributed today, and to everyone who’s been working so hard, over so many weeks and months, to put this Conference together.

On behalf of the UK Government, I’d also like to massively thank our co hosts Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the UN.

But most of all, I want to say thank you to everybody here, individuals, countries, NGOs and businesses, who came here today and pledged to stand by Syria in the weeks, months and years ahead.

I think nobody came here this morning doubting the scale of the challenge we’re facing. We’ve heard so many speakers today talk about that.

This is not only the world’s biggest and most urgent humanitarian crisis but its far-reaching consequences are touching all of us. The unprecedented people flow. A whole generation of children at risk of being lost to conflict.

And in these last five years the people of Syria have endured so many horrors – the barrel bombs, starvation and torture inflicted by the Assad regime, the unspeakable atrocities committed by Daesh and others involved in the fighting.

Now, peace alone will give the Syrian people their future back but in the meantime the question that we faced today was could the world come together and make a real and lasting difference to the lives of the millions of people affected by this crisis?

Could this be a turning point and a day of hope for those people affected by the Syrian conflict?

And in the end it all comes down to choices.

And I believe that today we’ve made the right choices.

Because countries, donors and businesses have all stepped up, you’ve all come forward, and we have raised new funds for this crisis to the amount of over $10billion dollars.

As the Secretary General said, together we have committed the largest ever amount in response to a humanitarian crisis, in a single day.

That is a phenomenal, record-breaking total but it also fully reflects the enormity of the crisis that we’re all facing and the scale of the suffering.

It also represents a promise, a promise not just to the Syrian people but to those countries that we’ve heard from today who are supporting them, countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt who have shouldered so much of the responsibility.

But we’ve gone beyond simply funding. Because today was more than that, it was more than about getting funding for UN agencies and NGOs to provide day to day life-saving support, as vital as that is.

We also made a choice on behalf of Syria’s children and children in host communities as well. Today the world has been unequivocal: that there should be no lost generation of children affected by the Syrian conflict.

And we have pledged to deliver education to children inside Syria and outside Syria. We’ve pledged to make sure that there’s access to education for all refugee and host community children by the end of the 2016-17 school year. Now this is a monumental pledge and a crucial one – not just for those children and their hopes for their future. But it’s an investment in Syria’s future as much as anything that we’ve done today.

And today we’ve also made a second critical choice on supporting jobs for refugees and economic growth in the countries hosting them.

And these historic agreements with Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have the potential not only to open up economic opportunities for refugees – but to create jobs as well for local people, and to leave a legacy of economic growth in the countries that have so generously opened their borders to the vast majority of Syrian refugees.

Finally, and critically, we have all condemned – again – the ongoing atrocities committed by all parties to the conflict. We do not accept them – the barrel-bombing, the sexual violence, the targeting of schools and hospitals. And today with one voice we have rightly called on all parties to the conflict, and those with influence over them, to ensure that International Humanitarian Law is upheld.

Today’s been an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis. We’ve offered an alternative vision of hope to the people of Syria and all those affected by this crisis.

And we should take real pride in what we’ve been able to achieve today.

Now, though, we need to deliver.

Today we’ve set the ambition. For the sake of Syria and for all of us, we’ve now got to make that ambition a reality. And we’ve got to keep our promise to the Syrian people.

If we can, I believe that in the years ahead we can truly look back with pride and with hope on what we’ve managed to accomplish today.

And I think that in the years to come, we will truly be able to say that we’ve been part of a historic and incredible day.

Below is the text of the speech made by Justine Greening, the then Secretary of State for Transport, on 18 January 2012.

Thank-you Matthew for that introduction [Matthew Lugg – ADEPT President].

And thank you also for inviting me along.

ADEPT and its members don’t just help to shape the transport debate in this country – you also help to set the transport agenda, so it’s a real pleasure to be with you this evening.

Now there are 2 important lessons I’ve learned since going into politics.

The first is that the words, “I wish the minister had gone on longer…” are rarely on the lips of an audience at the end of a speech.

And the second is that you don’t win applause, or for that matter any votes, by keeping people from their well-earned dinner.

So, with both of those lessons in mind, I promise to keep my speech brief.

Good transport equals good economics

I am honoured and proud to be the Transport Secretary, just as I was honoured and proud to serve as a Treasury minister.

And, in each of these roles, I have come to understand the crucial importance of a certain equation.

Now, as equations go, it’s a pretty straightforward one. But it drives my policy approach at DfT.

The equation I’m talking about is this: good transport equals good economics:

– cutting commuting times and speeding up journey times

– moving people and products faster

– connecting our businesses and wealth creators with the global economy

That’s how you generate growth and put people back to work. That’s how you make Britain’s competitive edge razor sharp.

The plain truth is that we cannot afford to sit back and look on while other countries invest in world class transport networks.

In the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America, In the Middle East and Africa, and even in the United States and the European Union, nation after nation is upgrading and expanding their infrastructure.

They are our competition in the international marketplace, in the race to win the future.

Every bridge they repair and every road they improve, every rail track they lay and every global gateway they open drives their growth and increases their prosperity.

So, if Britain is to out-produce, out-innovate and out-compete the rest of the world, then we too must update our transport infrastructure and make it fit for the 21st century.

And that’s precisely what this government is doing.

A different choice

We know that ageing, past their best transport links are a tax on British businesses and British families. They cost them time and money.

Which is why we made a different choice.

Instead of taking the axe to capital investment, as previous governments did when the fiscal going got tough, we looked long-term and chose to invest in transport.

Take last year’s spending review – over £30 billion for road, rail and local transport across the country.

We set up the £560 million Local Sustainable Transport Fund – a fund to give local communities more power to design and deliver local transport schemes.

We put in place a Growing Places Fund – half a billion pounds worth of support to help kick-start infrastructure projects.

And, in the Chancellor’s ‘Autumn statement’, a multi-billion pound investment package in which transport took centre-stage – everything from electrifying more of our rail network, to easing congestion on our motorways.

HS2 decision

This government made a different choice about transport investment because we were looking well beyond the horizon.

Taking decisions to improve our national well-being, not just for the next four or five years, but for the next four or five decades. And not in spite of the economic challenges we face, but as a means to overcome them. And it’s that same long-term national interest which motivated my recent decision to give the go-ahead to HS2 – a national high speed rail network

HS2 will slash journey times, shrink our country and radically improve the connections between our cities and regions.

It will help to create jobs and generate growth, promote social mobility and spread prosperity.

That’s why I am absolutely convinced that pushing this project over the finishing line is the right thing to do for our country’s success and our children’s future.

Local matters

But it’s not just the big-ticket national projects that can make a difference.

Improving our quality of life and enhancing our economic prospects also means investing in transport at the local level.

Nearly all journeys start, or end, on local transport networks. And those journeys can shape your entire day, for better or for worse.

It only takes a late bus, a packed train or a congested road and a short commute becomes an endurance test and a good day turns into a bad one.

So, as the members of ADEPT know better than anyone, local matters.

And, because it matters so much, not only did we announce 20 local transport schemes in the ‘Autumn statement’, just before Christmas I gave the green light for a further 21 local major transport schemes. That’s an investment package worth £854 million.

Smart localism

Modernising local transport networks, getting the very best out of them, isn’t simply about putting in the resources, as crucial as that is.

It’s also about devolving power – giving local people a real say over the transport services and issues that affect their lives.

It’s what I call smart localism.

Smart because it recognises that a one size fits all approach cannot work in the modern, consumer focused world.

Smart because it enables local services, like transport, to be tailored to local needs.

And let me walk you through just a few of the ways we’re making smart localism an everyday reality. We’ve simplified funding, cutting the number of separate local transport grant streams from 26 to just 4 and transferring some funding into formula grant.

And the end result of this radical reform? Local communities will have greater flexibility and freedom to decide their own priorities.

We are cutting red tape and ending pointless top-down bureaucracy.

One practical example: after the biggest review into Britain’s traffic signing system for 40 years we published a new framework that will free up local councils to remove expensive and unsightly clutter from our roads – a reform that will save money and improve the local environment.

We’re looking at ways to devolve more responsibility for commissioning local and regional rail services – a move that could increase transparency, strengthen accountability and, by doing so, improve the passenger experience.

And we are also committed to implementing a more devolved system for local major schemes beyond 2015 – enabling local communities and businesses to take real decisions about the transport improvements in their areas; constructing a system that’s much more responsive to local economic conditions and needs.

And with greater devolution must follow greater local accountability.

For example making sure new schemes achieve genuine value for money. We are ready to work with individual transport bodies to put in place a system that works for them.

I hope to publish a paper soon and invite views on early proposals for a new system and I look forward to seeing your response.

Concluding remarks – productive partnership

Investment, reform, localism.

These are all important ways of transforming our country’s prospects by transforming its transport system.

But so is productive partnership – government and stakeholders coming together and working together, pulling in the same direction to bring about real and positive change.

And I’m pleased to say that partnerships don’t come more productive than the one between my department and this association.

Whether it’s helping us improve winter resilience in the transport sector; leading work streams in the highways maintenance efficiency programme; or assisting us to review future options for the integrated transport block allocation, ADEPT and its members have shown that they are sector leaders as well as productive partners.

So, before I conclude, and more importantly, fulfil my pledge not to keep you from dinner for too long, there’s one final thing I’d like to do – and that’s pay tribute to the work you do and the difference you make.

For decades, you have been at the forefront of the transport debate, both as the County Surveyors’ Society, and more recently, as ADEPT.

In particular, you have played a vital role in managing and maintaining our infrastructure, and strengthening the links between transport and other drivers of sustainable growth and development.

Today, you are helping to shape the agenda on many key areas of government policy – including planning, waste management, housing, and climate change, as well as transport.

And it is precisely because these issues are all closely connected that makes your work so valuable, and your contribution so appreciated.

Thank you for listening and I look forward to taking some questions.