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International Health Partnership

My hon. Friend raises an extremely important point. Violence against women in non-conflict and conflict situations creates huge problems for women's heath and for the future that they and their children can or cannot look forward to. In Ghana, our DFID officials have worked well with civil society to encourage that country's Government to pass legislation in respect of domestic violence, which has just happened. As we know only too well, this is about not just legislation. There is also a question of whether support will be in place for those women and whether there is somewhere for them to go if they have to leave their homes. There is a range of factors to consider. We know that global poverty and conflict often go hand in hand and that the violence against women that my hon. Friend describes is a feature of that. Such violence creates the big problem of the spread of HIV and AIDS. We therefore have to tackle not just conflict, but attitudes as well, and that is tough. I hope to respond to all the comments that have been made and I will attempt to do justice to them. With regard to Lord Crisp's report, I can assure hon. Members that the inter-ministerial group on global health will shortly issue the Government's response to outline how to take forward the recommendations, which we welcome. The role of the United States has been raised. I confirm that the United States is clear that it supports the principles of the international health partnership. The Government work very closely with the US, in four countries in particular, on developing the health work force, and I will return to that important matter in a second. We also work with the United States through the G8 to improve effectiveness and the volume of aid for health systems, so we see the United States as an important partner. We need more countries to want to be part of the IHP. I am delighted that Nigeria and Madagascar are asking to join. As I have mentioned, the event at the World Health Assembly in May will be an opportunity to promote the partnership still further. I hope that more developing countries will see the benefits and want to sign up. We will continue to encourage new countries to approach the World Health Organisation and the World Bank. I have been asked to make reference to progress in countries so far. I am very happy to give hon. Members greater detail on any of those countries if they so wish. In the past few weeks, Burundi has signed a country-level compact. In Ethiopia, the IHP road map was launched early last month and the compact will take that further. Every country is different, so we need to tailor the compact and the international health partnership to achieve the right approach. Tremendous progress is being made and I am heartened by the fact that new countries are clamouring to sign up.