M otion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—( Helen Jones.)

When it comes to mobilising enormous resources and making huge interventions that have the power to change the world, nothing compares with the power of government. This week's G20, led by our Prime Minister, will seek to do exactly that, following on from the Gleneagles summit and other major initiatives.

Of course, Governments lead by consent and, in general, they must reflect the priorities of the people. Although the people of the UK can be astonishingly generous, it is also a harsh reality that international aid and development rarely sit atop people's list of priorities, especially in these difficult times. Moreover, there is great competition for people's attention with regard to international development, and there is sometimes a risk that if Governments attempt to highlight too many problem spots in the world, people can suffer a sort of fatigue on the subject.

That is why the ability of some people and organisations, such as the Make Poverty History campaign, to influence and mobilise public opinion is crucial to giving Governments more power to their elbow to help the least well-off in the world. It is also possible for highly motivated people, sometimes with bags of media savvy, to make a targeted intervention aimed at changing the lives of many for the better.

In the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I would like to mention an initiative that has the power to alter the lives of millions of women in one of the hardest places—perhaps it is the hardest place—in the world to live as a woman: the eastern DRC. In my view—I am not the most qualified to say this, but I have been out a few times—the best prism through which to view life in the eastern Congo is that of the experience of women who potentially face unspeakable sexual violence every day.

When somebody goes out to the Congo, as I and members of the all-party group on the great lakes region and genocide prevention have, they are struck by the many great efforts of the non-governmental organisations in the region and by how enormously challenging a task they face. The Congo has a population roughly the same size as the UK's, and it is roughly the size of western Europe. It is covered in tropical rainforest and it is a difficult country from a communications perspective.

The Government in Kinshasa were democratically elected through a great triumph of organisation, both by the Congolese and the international community, which made a great effort and contributed lots of cash. However, when visiting, one is struck by the fact that the Congo has a sophisticated body politic in Kinshasa, but an area of utter lawlessness in the eastern Congo. Many hon. Members from all parts of the House are familiar with the things that have taken place there, even in recent years—not just in the past 10 years, but in the past year or so, most recently with the CNDP getting the Congo on television by having, in effect, a kind of civil war. That is now being sorted in diplomatic terms, although Bosco Ntaganda, the man who now runs the CNDP, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court as an alleged war criminal. That will have to be dealt with in due course.

That is the politics of the matter. The reality on the ground is absolutely stunning, albeit in a very bad way. The first time I went to the Congo some years ago with a former Member of the House and good friend, Oona King, we were taken to a health centre where we were told that we would visit a ward. I was expecting a new build, Tesco-type thing, funded by a number of NGOs. What we came across was a kind of hut. The clinic comprised one room with a fridge, which had nothing in it because there was no power, and another room, which was an operating theatre and had some basic utensils—shiny instruments, sharp implements and things for holding hot water—that had been donated by NGOs.

There was a ward, and in the ward was a woman, apparently waiting to give birth to a child. The child, we were told, would be a breech birth—it was in the wrong place. A number of other hon. Members were with me at the time, but there it is: a mother was sitting there. It was one of those branding experiences that has not left me. We asked how long the birth would be and the nurse—a man who had had some rudimentary training—said, "It be may be tomorrow morning. She might last until the next morning." We said, "What do you mean 'She might last'?" and he said, "Well, she's going to die. There's nothing I can do about a breech birth. I've got the skills taught in some basic courses, but I don't know what to do about a breech birth. The nearest doctor is 2 miles away." Two miles in the Congo, through tropical rainforests and with all the logistics problems, which as my hon. Friend will know—possibly he is my right hon. Friend—

indicated dissent.

Well, in due course. My hon. Friend will know that 2 miles in the Congo can be a long, long way.

In a way, we did that classic thing that politicians do. Arriving on the scene in lovely long-wheelbase Land Rovers, we had the potential to change the situation, but we had to make a judgment. In due course we made the judgment that other people in our circumstances would have made, which was that we should move the woman, but that would have disturbed many aspects of how local people were being treated with those limited resources. The point was that that woman expecting a breech birth could have been quite readily dealt with here in the UK, but she was simply going to die, because there was nothing that could be done for her there. As it was, she did not die, but many other women in her situation would have done.

What I want to talk about this evening, if I can, in the minutes left—a fairly generous number are left, actually, so I will wax slightly rhapsodic—is violence. I go about my constituency occasionally with the cops on a Friday or Saturday night. We see a bit of violence in the streets and recognise where it comes from, what is happening and who the bad guys are—who has been caught up in things because they have drunk too much and so on. All the incidents involve men, and the violence is mainly between them. I am also aware, as are all Members of this House, that behind the scenes in people's homes, violence is being inflicted against women. There is a fabulous women's aid organisation in Scotland, as indeed there is fabulous women's aid provision across the UK. Such violence is a more hidden thing. In a privileged position and with a certain lifestyle, as it were, I do not see anything of it, but many people do. It is a hidden thing, but it exists.

It occurs to me—psychoanalytically, I might be miles off on this—that when I go and talk to young men in the Congo who have been involved in astonishing acts of violence against women there, they show traits similar to those of the young men involved in the much lower-level stuff going on in my own constituency. In such an area, however, there is a kind of civilising influence and a series of constraints in the law—there is a legal system and the cops are going about. All sorts of things are civilising influences, such as families, including extended families and so forth. Such an influence is brought to bear on many people—it does not apply to everyone—who get involved in violence, particularly violence against women early in their lives. They can change their ways, but some people do not and such behaviour continues throughout their lives.

When we look at the Congo, what we kind of see, in a bad way, is a Platonic ideal of violence against women. It is completely unmitigated by any mediating institution or mediating experience, and it can be the most brutal thing imaginable on the planet. When we look at the Congo in context, as DFID has to do, it is with the realisation that all sorts of countries in the world need our help and could do with our assistance—the collective assistance of the international community. The best way to look at the situation, however, is through this very easily understandable link between the kind of violence exerted against women in our constituencies at a certain level, and the astonishing dehumanising violence exerted against women in the Congo.

I have just read the complete works—they are not a big bunch; there are about 10 books—of Cormac McCarthy, a great writer. It is boysy stuff; there is a bit of violence and a bit of lovely stuff. He is a fantastic writer, as I have said. There is a scene in "Blood Meridian", which is an especially boysy book—a bit cowboy-ish, if I can put it that way. This scene occurred to me as I was preparing for tonight's debate. A young boy called "the kid" is being recruited into a kind of militia. It does not have any legal status or legal authority. It is a militia formed of a brutal bunch of guys who go about in 1849 taking what they want and what they can. They have got enough power and enough resource; in a way, they are beggars in the land, but they are quite heavily armed.

At one point, the kid is asked by the recruiting sergeant of the militia if he would like to join it. The kid says, "What do they give you?", and the recruiting sergeant says, "Every man gets a horse and his ammunition. I reckon we might find ye some clothes in a case." The kid says, "I ain't got no rifle" and the recruiting sergeant says, "We'll find ye one". The kid says, "What about wages?" and the recruiting sergeant says, "Hellfire, son. You won't need no wages. You get to keep everything you can raise." Essentially, he is saying, "If you've got a horse, some kit and a weapon, you'll be fine; you can take whatever you want from anyone."

That is an almost exact parallel with the situation for young men in parts of the eastern Congo today. Viewed as a human experience for young men—this is certainly not to sanitise the kinds of things that some of them get up to—that is a useful way, to say the least, to understand the way things are for them and for the victims, with the lack of any kind of justice or legal system in the eastern Congo. Before moving on to issues such as health or education, we should start by trying to establish a coherent justice system. Lord Mance, who is a member of the all-party group and an Appeal Court judge, has compiled a fantastic report of which the Government have taken note. I hope it will play a part in helping to create an effective justice system in the Congo in the coming years.

It also behoves us to look carefully at what articulate and able individuals in the UK can do to give the Government more power in saying, "Look, we want to spend extra cash on these difficult places." As I said at the beginning of my wee speech, the reality nowadays is that if we say we want to spend an extra £100 million on the Congo, people will often say, "Hang on, but all these people in our country have just lost their jobs and charity begins at home." People are decent, but they very often look after their own first, and we can all understand that.

There is an initiative at present that extends from an initiative my hon. Friend the Minister will have heard about. It is called V-Day and it essentially comes out of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues", which is played all over the world to great effect, including in the Congo. V-Day is focusing on the Congo for the next five years, which is a significant period for such an important campaign that operates all over the world. V-Day is headed in the US by Jane Fonda, and in the UK Lynn Franks and Gail Rebuck are leading lights, and Tamsin Larby organises many of its activities. They currently have a campaign that is designed to enhance the facilities of Panzi hospital in Bukavu. The hopsital is led by Dr. Denis Mukwege, as my hon. Friend the Minister knows. Many of us have met Dr. Mukwege, an inspiring character who travelled around the US recently raising cash for the "City of joy" project. The campaign is essentially aimed at both the treatment of the women who find their way to the hospital and other places like it, and also their rehabilitation. It is entirely focused on the gender issue because that offers the best political perspective, and it is where the greatest need is.

Once a justice system and the rule of law is established, or progress is made towards that, the next thing to deal with is health. In terms of women who are the victims of violence in the Congo, all these strands come together, because until we start to deal with the way in which men instinctually behave towards women—because they can and they are not subject to the educational learning influences that we in the west are—we will essentially get nowhere.

In asking my hon. Friend to say what he can about these matters, I want to conclude with three quick points. There is a great demand for all public resources throughout the world at present. A lot of stuff is going on, and a lot is taking place in the Congo involving many different NGOs. There seems to be scope to harmonise some of the efforts, as there is some duplication of effort by Governments, NGOs and so forth, and NGOs are open to that argument. It is also worth mentioning Lord Mance's important report on justice and the rule of law in the Congo. It is very well written, and it is a profoundly important document. Most important of all is the campaign by V-Day UK to help the City of Joy project. It is going to raise $1 million or £1 million—I am not sure which. It will be helped by UNICEF. I have visited the site and I know that the Department for International Development has contributed to it. Can my hon. Friend say that it will keep a close watch on the project in the coming months? There are many other things going on in the world and in the Congo, but it is a profoundly important project where we will actually see results. DFID is a great force for good in the Congo, and I believe that V-Day UK is also a great source of inspiration and a great force for good in the Congo.

May I, in the usual way, congratulate my hon. Friend Mr. Joyce on securing this debate and on the way in which he has made his case? I join him in praising the huge contribution made by the non-governmental organisations and development professionals who operate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—they are a force for good. I also join him in praising the contribution of Women's Aid and the many other organisations across the UK that do so much to champion efforts to prevent and reduce domestic violence in the UK.

My hon. Friend described the challenges facing the Government and people of the DRC extremely well. He discussed not only the challenges in terms of infrastructure, but the legacy of the conflict and the fragility of the political situation in the eastern DRC. I also join him in praising the work of V-Day UK, and I reassure him that we will certainly keep a close eye on the City of Joy project. I shall bring his specific request in respect of that project to the attention of the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, my hon. Friend Mr. Lewis, who leads on Africa and, therefore, on the DRC work.

My hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk has been a consistent campaigner for providing more help to the DRC, and as chair of the all-party group on the great lakes region and genocide prevention he helps to keep these issues in the view of not only the Government but the general population in the UK. He rightly alluded to the fact that that is hugely important in helping people to understand that we have not only a fundamental duty to our own citizens, but, given our comparative wealth internationally, a responsibility to the world's poorest.

My hon. Friend focused in particular on violence in the eastern DRC and on gender-based violence. I shall certainly try to respond to those points, but may I try to put the UK's response to the situation in the DRC in a broader context? That country faces the immense challenges of chronic poverty and conflict, and now, as he rightly said, the global economic crisis. Every single day nearly 100 Congolese mothers die in childbirth because they are unable to afford medical help—he rightly reminded us of that from the experience of one of his earlier visits. In total, Congolese mothers and fathers watch one in five of their children die before their fifth birthday due to lack of health care and clean water.

As my hon. Friend knows only too well, the DRC is also a country of immense potential. It is home to vast mineral wealth, which could make it one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. We are committed to helping the DRC on the road to a prosperous and peaceful future. The UK is one of the largest bilateral donors to the DRC, providing about £80 million in aid this year, and we plan to increase our support—to £100 million next year and to £130 million the year after. We will certainly use our financial influence and our expertise from other countries to try to bring together more effectively still the work of NGOs and other donors, as he rightly requests.

The UK's commitment to the DRC is having an impact. As my hon. Friend will know, in 2008 almost 1 million more people in the DRC got access to clean water. We are helping to begin the introduction of free health care provision in some 20 health zones in the DRC. Potentially, that will benefit about 2 million people living in those areas, both by removing the need to pay health user fees and by providing further access to health clinics. The risk of malaria for more than 6 million men, women and children in the DRC has been substantially reduced through the purchase and distribution of more than 3 million treated anti-malarial bed nets. We are also empowering nearly 2 million people in 1,400 villages to take control of their own development. We are helping local communities to decide their own development priorities and to implement projects to meet those.

My hon. Friend mentioned the global economic slowdown and there is a real risk that the gains in development—which are significant, although there is much more to do—could be reversed. This year has already seen the currency significantly weaken against the dollar, foreign exchange reserves drop to very low levels, and mining companies close across the country resulting in an estimated 300,000 miners losing their jobs.

The IMF and the World Bank have approved emergency funding that will help to ease the economic pressures in the short term, and we will use the G20 summit to stress the importance of maintaining aid flows to countries such as the DRC, so that long-term investment in health and education continues.

My hon. Friend rightly highlighted the terrible problem of sexual violence. We seek to focus our support for tackling that issue on two areas. First, we are helping the victims of sexual violence through medical treatment and psychosocial counselling. DFID is helping to finance a comprehensive health package in the eastern DRC that will enable greater access to health care for all, including victims of sexual violence. The health component of the humanitarian action plan, created by donors to respond to the situation in the DRC, has ensured that more than 14,000 victims of sexual or gender-based violence were treated in 2008. Some 12,000 women received psychosocial counselling to which DFID contributed financial support.

Secondly, we want to prevent sexual violence from happening in the first place. That is why we are supporting integrated brigades to bring together people from different ethnic groups to reduce the likelihood of human rights abuses occurring. We are funding specialist training for the judicial police and magistrates and improving the police's ability to investigate cases of sexual violence.

My hon. Friend is right about the importance of putting in place the beginnings of effective law and order systems in the eastern DRC. We are also supporting awareness-raising and sensitisation work with local communities. For example, we have supported awareness-raising work led by the Minister for Gender, Family and Children, who recently launched a media campaign against sexual violence, including the provision of a professional helpline for victims. We continue to lobby the Congolese authorities at the highest levels, including President Kabila, to stress the urgent need to tackle sexual violence.

We are also watching closely the threat of renewed conflict, which still bedevils the DRC, given the fragility of the political situation in the east. The joint DRC-Rwandan military operations to tackle the FDLR in February have provided hope that the years of conflict in the east may now be in the past. But the situation is still fragile and unpredictable. The potential remains for further violence following recent reprisals by the FDLR militia group. The humanitarian situation remains serious with more than 850,000 internally displaced people in North Kivu alone.

Ensuring a smooth army integration process will be critical in ensuring a permanent peace in eastern DRC. The accelerated integration of the CNDP into the Congolese army is more or less complete but it is by no means irreversible. MONUC, the United Nations mission in the DRC, will continue to play an important part in supporting the progress that has been made. The commitment of Egypt, Bangladesh and Guatemala to make extra troops available to MONUC is therefore hugely important. We hope to see them deployed in the east as soon as possible.

My hon. Friend has done the House a great service by raising, once again, the issue of further support to the DRC and the particular horror of the sexual and gender-based violence that bedevils the eastern part of the DRC, in particular. My hon. Friend asked the Government to continue to focus on those issues and I assure him that we shall certainly do so. The Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South, is planning to visit the region later this month and to assess the situation for himself. I will draw the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk to his attention. I hope that my hon. Friend will be reassured that the Government continue to focus on the concerns with which the House is now more familiar as a result of his securing the debate.

Question put and agreed to.

House adjourned.