Local MP Rushanara Ali has been speaking at numerous events and meetings at the Labour Party Annual Conference 2011. During a busy week in Liverpool, Rushanara Ali raised the key issues affecting constituents in Bethnal Green and Bow relating to jobs and policing alongside wider issues related to her work on international development.
Rushanara Ali met A4e, the prime provider of the Work Programme in East London. Rushanara Ali said: “For me, this was a crucial opportunity to discuss how the Work Programme could be best implemented in East London to help tackle the chronic unemployment affecting residents of Bethnal Green and Bow. I realise that gaining and keeping a job is the top priority for many of my constituents, and I want to ensure that we are always looking to enhance and assist a diverse range of job creation in Bethnal Green and Bow.” Rushanara Ali also met with the Police Federation to discuss cuts to policing - how best to fight these cuts and to tackle any impact this may have in Bethnal Green and Bow.
Rushanara Ali was on the panel for a UNICEF event on Tuesday, discussing how climate change will affect children in the developing world and how Britain can help to tackle this. She emphasised how important this was saying “For many countries, particularly low-lying countries like Bangladesh, climate change will have a devastating effect. The international community must act now to find ways to ensure that such countries are prepared to deal with the consequences – we’ve spent decades working on development, this is the next great challenge. We cannot allow children, many of them living in the poorest countries in the world, to bear the cost of climate change.”
Rushanara Ali was pleased to speak at the Labour Friends of Bangladesh event as well as to discuss women’s political participation in the Middle East at an Amnesty event.
Speaking at the Institute for Development event on the role of the private sector in development, Rushanara Ali emphasised the importance of using British aid to help develop small businesses and jobs in the developing world. Ms Ali also participated in a seminar with World Vision about the value health and in particular what we can be doing in fragile countries where these issues are more acute.