Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Overseas

Thursday 16th October 2014 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

I am pleased to take this opportunity to update the House on my work as ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas.

We enter the autumn after a summer of work that the UK can be proud of, continuing to take a leading role on tackling violence against women and girls; and working alongside all the tireless campaigners who have made this their lives’ work. We can be particularly proud of hosting two highly successful global summits: the “Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict” summit in June (which I spoke about in my last written ministerial statement); and in July the “Girl summit” —focused on ending female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in a generation. We secured 170 commitments to action, and 475 signatories to the Girl Summit Charter.

In 2012, DFID committed to scaling up our programming to tackle violence against women and girls. Following a comprehensive review of DFID’s progress, I am delighted to announce some really encouraging results. Over the past two years, we have had an estimated 63% increase in the amount of DFID programmes that include an element to tackle violence against women and girls. This equates to 54 new programmes, such as working with communities to stop FGM in Sudan and supporting survivors of violence against women and girls in Afghanistan.

Despite significant progress, girls and women around the world remain particularly vulnerable when conflict erupts or disaster strikes. Since my previous ministerial statement in July 2014, we have been closely following the reports of sexual violence, forced marriage and other atrocities carried out by ISIL. The UK Government is working closely with humanitarian partners to support victims of sexual violence in Iraq and to understand the scale and patterns of violence so we can channel additional assistance where it is needed most. We continue to challenge the international community to do more to address sexual and gender based violence in emergencies, most recently at the Call to Action event at the United Nations General Assembly where the Secretary of State called for increased efforts to protect vulnerable women and girls in the face of today’s unprecedented humanitarian needs.

However, violence against women and girls does not just take place in humanitarian emergencies. I am continuing to push for as much progress as possible towards our goal of ending all forms of violence overseas and ending FGM in all contexts within a generation. I was delighted that this campaign led to FGM being given the level of international attention it deserves at the Girl summit this summer. On 10 October, we launched the global social change campaign: Girl Generation. This will build momentum to end FGM in a generation and unify all those working on this important agenda across the globe. Launches took place in east and west Africa (Kenya and The Gambia) as well as the Southbank Centre in London. We have committed £31 million to the Global Girls Research Initiative to generate new evidence on issues such as how best to address harmful social norms like child marriage. The Secretary of State also announced up to £25 million for a new UN multi-country programme in 12 countries to end CEFM.

I take this opportunity to note progress on another of my ministerial priorities: access to clean energy for girls and women. Women and girls are often put in danger as they collect firewood for their family’s cooking needs, and the World Health Organisation estimates that 4.3 million people die each year from cooking with inefficient fuels on smoky stoves. In November, I will be co-hosting the Global Alliance for “Clean Cook Stoves Future summit” with Hillary Clinton, to bring together the international community to mobilise action to tackle this problem. Studies have shown that most sexual violence among displaced people occurs when women and girls leave camps to collect firewood. I am committed to bringing about meaningful change on this issue - improving the health and safety of girls and women, and their economic opportunities, through clean, affordable and modern energy.

I visited South Sudan early last month, to meet with NGOs working with girls and women who have experienced violence and see the living conditions of internally displaced people. I was impressed by how the NGOs are tackling violence, and how DFID South Sudan is already responding. I also met with key partners to discuss what more we can do to unblock constraints on humanitarian aid. I announced an additional £30 million to support life-saving assistance, including to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls.

My trip to South Sudan was the first of several visits I am making to countries over the next six months to drive forward our commitments on FGM, CEFM, sexual violence and intimate partner violence. I will also be using these visits to hold Governments, multilateral organisations and others to account for the commitments they have made to tackle violence against women and girls. My mission is to break the silence that is pervasive around these issues and champion work to stop violence before it starts—as well as crucial work supporting survivors of violence.

Over the coming months, I will also be working with key partners across the international community, such as the EU and World Bank, to increase their focus on and resources for these issues. My goal is to ensure that the elimination of VAWG in all its forms is considered to be a core part of all development and humanitarian work.