Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK is deeply concerned about the surge in violence against women and girls (VAWG) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is more important than ever to support safe spaces and services for survivors of violence. These are essential and life-saving.

The UK is already the largest donor to the UN Population Fund and we have committed an additional £10 million to their COVID-19 response, which will provide services to women and girls through safe spaces. We have provided £20 million to support the UN Children’s Fund COVID-19 response, strengthening and establishing response and referral mechanisms for survivors. We are urgently reorienting existing bilateral programmes to ensure women and girls can continue to access support during the lockdown, including safe spaces. For example, in Nepal, DFID is financing safe spaces for women in nine shelters and 42 COVID-19 quarantine sites. In Uganda, DFID is supporting the Government's response to the spikes in VAWG by funding 13 shelters across the country and supporting revisions of standard operating procedures to ensure safety of frontline staff and survivors.

DFID is committed to protecting the most vulnerable children in the world. We are working with international partners to ensure that child protection is integrated into a comprehensive response to COVID-19 that supports those groups who will be hit the hardest and are often with limited or no state protection. We are also working to ensure that existing UK programming is responsive to the challenge of supporting those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DFID is committed to protecting the most vulnerable children around the world including children who live and work on the streets. We provide significant support to protect children from violence in conflict and humanitarian crises and to reduce their risks of violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

DFID’s Education support focuses on the needs of the most marginalised children. In August 2019 at the G7 Summit, the UK Prime Minister announced £90 million of new UK support for education in emergencies and crises across the world, this will support 600,000 children living in conflict areas and areas of protracted crises. This investment is key to the PM’s plan to ensure more girls benefit from 12 years of education. This funding will provide safe spaces and psycho-social support to some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

We recognise that that older people are disproportionately impacted and at more risk of severe complications and death due to COVID-19.

As well as the primary impacts of COVID-19, marginalised groups also experience secondary impacts of virus. This includes reduced access to healthcare, food and medications, due to increased pressure on healthcare systems, markets and supply chains, made worse by pre-existing accessibility challenges and barriers. We also understand that older people live in a variety of settings where social distancing advice may be challenging to enact, such as humanitarian settings or where older people are living in residential care. We are working hard to ensure that our help reaches those most in need, including older people, through close collaboration with our partners.

Our funding is supporting a range of initiatives and partners to ensure that it can reach those in need and strengthen fragile health services in the world’s poorest countries where there is a high risk of the disease spreading rapidly. This includes supporting the United Nation’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan to tackle COVID-19 and help to the most vulnerable across the globe. The plan explicitly identifies older people given their susceptibility to the virus and their broader vulnerability. Our latest UK aid announcement on 12 April of £200 million, is supporting humanitarian organisations to help reduce mass infections in developing countries that often lack the healthcare systems to track and halt the virus. This includes £130 million to UN agencies in response to their COVID-19 humanitarian appeals.

In addition, we are redirecting existing support and programmes ensure responses to COVID-19 are fully inclusive, including supporting the needs of older people.

The Summit will bring together African leaders and delegations from 21 countries who have been invited: Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda.

6 multilateral organisations and international financial institutions have also been invited: African Development Bank, African Union, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank.

We have invited hundreds of UK and African business representatives and representatives from Civil Society Organisations.

The UK-Africa Investment Summit will create new lasting partnerships that will deliver more investment, jobs and growth. This will benefit people and businesses across Africa and in the UK. The IMF estimates that Africa is home to eight of the world’s 15 fastest growing economies. By 2050, over 2 billion people will live in Africa and 1 in 4 global consumers will be African. But African countries receive less than 4% of foreign direct investment and around 20 million jobs a year must be created to keep pace with population growth. Hosted by the Prime Minister, the Summit will bring together UK and African business representatives, African leaders and delegations from 21 countries, international institutions and young entrepreneurs. As we strengthen our place in the world, we want the UK to be the investment partner of choice for African nations. We have world-leading expertise on tech and innovation, the City of London is the number one global exchange for African businesses, and we are committed to green growth.

Based on our initial assessment, the Africa Investment Conference was a success, with more than 2,800 visitors including over 1,000 individual delegates from the African and UK business communities respectively, and a positive uptake of businesses interested in further engagement after the conference.

We are carrying out an evaluation of the conference to obtain more information about its impact, and plan to follow up the event with further activity both in Africa nations and the UK.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) uses published national statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to track investment involving UK companies in other countries, including African countries. We also have an internal monitoring system that tracks business investment activity supported by DIT.

DIT provides market access entry advice for UK firms looking to invest in African countries. We have established an online deal platform that matches UK investors with high-growth African businesses, and an Africa Investors Group which comprises some of the largest UK investors in Africa.

At the Climate Ambition Summit on 12 December 2020, the Prime Minister announced that the UK will no longer provide any new direct financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas, other than in exceptional circumstances, and will align its support to enable clean energy exports.

A public consultation was announced at the same time to seek stakeholders’ views on i) how to enable an accelerated growth in UK clean energy exports, and ii) on the impacts of the timing of implementation of the policy shift on international fossil fuel energy sector support.

The consultation can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/aligning-uk-international-support-for-the-clean-energy-transition.

The United Kingdom and Andean Countries agreed in May 2019 to transition the European Union-Andean Countries Free Trade Agreement. The agreement does not include any provisions regarding visa reform.

The UK engages in and encourages transparent consultation with civil society organisations on proposals for the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Senior UK officials held a briefing with civil society organisations on Tuesday 25 July 2023, which forty representatives attended. The UK delegation also intended to engage with civil society at the Preparatory Committee.

UK officials will deliver statements highlighting Russia's illegal war of aggression and condemning the Russian Government's reprehensible actions which are an egregious violation of international law and the UN Charter. The UK will not have bilateral meetings with Russian state representatives but remains open to attending meetings among the five Nuclear Weapon States in order to fulfil our obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, and reduce risks around miscalculation.

The FCDO Director for Defence and International Security and the UK Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament will represent the UK at the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference. The UK remains committed to the full implementation of the NPT. The UK is focused on increasing efforts to expand access to nuclear technology to support delivering the Sustainable Development Goals; and will also underline the importance of the non-proliferation system in protecting global security.

I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations], represented the UK at the EU Indo-Pacific Forum in Stockholm on 13 May. I had substantive dialogue with many EU and Indo-Pacific Ministers during the meeting, as well as bilaterals with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marsudi, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rabbani Khar, Bangladesh's Minister of Information, Mahmud and Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström. Discussions at the Forum were useful and demonstrated strong collective commitment to promoting peace and security, stability and shared prosperity across the region. The UK will continue engaging with our EU and Indo-Pacific partners in multiple formats to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations], represented the UK at the EU Indo-Pacific Forum in Stockholm on 13 May. I had substantive dialogue with many EU and Indo-Pacific Ministers during the meeting, as well as bilaterals with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marsudi, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rabbani Khar, Bangladesh's Minister of Information, Mahmud and Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström. Discussions at the Forum were useful and demonstrated strong collective commitment to promoting peace and security, stability and shared prosperity across the region. The UK will continue engaging with our EU and Indo-Pacific partners in multiple formats to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Poor implementation of South Sudan's peace agreement to date is driving violence and the humanitarian crisis. It is vital that the South Sudanese government deliver progress according to timelines set out in their Roadmap. The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) and the Ceasefire & Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring & Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) play an important part in monitoring the peace agreement. The FCDO funds in-kind support through the placement of technical experts in both CTSAMVM and RJMEC. In Financial Year 2021-2022, this amounted to £1.2 million in-kind support and in Financial Year 2022-2023 support totalled £407,261. For Financial Year 2023-2024, the FCDO has committed to up to £480,000 continued in-kind support.

Faith-based actors play a crucial role, particularly in the areas of peacebuilding, health and education, across South Sudan. The Ecumenical visit in February 2023 demonstrates how the Churches can help to support peace building at a local and national level in South Sudan. The UK engages regularly with South Sudanese civil society, including faith-based organisations, through humanitarian and diplomatic fora. The UK-funded Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) has supported communities to reach local peace agreements, ensuring women's participation, and integrating gendered provisions including the return and reintegration of abducted women and children. The UK is chair of the Humanitarian Donor Group in South Sudan and is an important voice in coordinating donor response to the crisis. This includes through diplomatic action that aims to ensure the protection of civilians and improving the operating environment so humanitarian organisations can access difficult areas and reach those most in need.

The UK unequivocally condemns all attacks on humanitarian workers who must be able to carry out their vital work safely.  The UK is chair of the Humanitarian Donor Group in South Sudan and is an important voice in coordinating donor response to the crisis. This includes through diplomatic action that aims to ensure the protection of civilians and improving the operating environment so humanitarians can access difficult areas and reach those most in need.  The UK called on the Government of South Sudan to remove all constraints on humanitarian access at the UN Security Council on 6 March 2023. We also called for the Government of South Sudan to act urgently to address the ongoing theft of humanitarian resources.

The UK is the largest donor to the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) in South Sudan providing up to £175 million from 2018 to 2024. In August 2022, the FCDO, on behalf of HPF donors, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of South Sudan setting out how we'll work together to transition responsibility for funding for eight state hospitals. HPF completed the phased withdrawal from the eight state and referral hospitals by 31 March 2023. In mid-March 2023, the Minister of Health for South Sudan reported that the Government of South Sudan would be procuring essential medicines for the unsupported health facilities.

The UK has supported the health sector in Kasai province since 2013. Minister Mitchell visited the UK's bilateral health programme in Kasai on March 19. The programme supports implementation of The Democratic Republic of the Congo's policy on Universal Health Coverage by strengthening pillars of the national health system and increasing access to lifesaving reproductive, maternal and child health services (including nutrition and family planning).

From 2017 to 2022 UK supported provinces increased childhood immunisation coverage from 63 percent to 90 percent, and the proportion of births attended by a skilled attendant from 83 percent to 99 percent. The prevalence of child malnutrition was halved over the same period.

The UK has taken a leadership role at the first UN Water Conference in decades, which coincides with World Water Day, as co-chair of the interactive dialogue on water for health. Lord Goldsmith, the FCDO Minister of State with responsibility for Climate and Environment portfolios, opened the meeting and announced new support to strengthen Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) systems in up to five countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This will prevent disease, protect people's health and safeguard the environment. It contributes to the UK government's commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, children and babies by 2030.

The Aid Dialogue between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia took place on 15-16 March. Discussions highlighted how the UK and Saudi Arabia can work together to address global food insecurity, delivering humanitarian aid including in areas of conflict, targeting support where it is most needed across Africa and enhancing the effectiveness of aid. As major global aid donors, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia are committed to partnering together to tackle global challenges and support those most in need.

Implementation of the 2018 Peace Agreement remains the best prospect to a lasting end to conflict in South Sudan. Full implementation is needed to address the instability and humanitarian crisis that affect millions of South Sudanese. However progress is slow. The international community has needed to maintain pressure for the Parties to deliver their commitments.

Recent incidents of violence have put the progress that has been made since 2018 at risk. We have made our concerns clear in Juba and at the UN Security Council. Renewed public commitment by the Parties to the Peace Agreement and progress on unifying the armed forces are welcome. Given the slow pace of implementation and continued incidents of violence we have made clear that South Sudan's leaders must continue to deliver progress. We also urge the region, as guarantors of the Peace Agreement, to use their influence with the Parties to deliver progress.

Putin's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is leading to further steep price rises in commodity markets, exacerbating the already deeply worrying deterioration in global food security. Even before the war, almost 1 billion people in 92 countries did not have enough food to eat on any given day, and 55 countries were already in acute hunger crises, emergency or famine conditions.

We know from the last crisis that the most immediate way to contain prices is to keep trade flowing. The UK has led a statement at the WTO, supported by nearly 60 countries, including a commitment by signatories to keep their food and agricultural markets open, predictable and transparent. We have announced a package of emergency humanitarian assistance to address critical rising food insecurity in the Horn of Africa and in Yemen and have pledged £286 million to meet needs in Afghanistan. Over the next 3 years, we will direct £3 billion to the most vulnerable countries and people to help them recover from crises. With our G7 allies, we support Germany's proposal for a Global Alliance on Food Security, to help scale up a rapid, needs-based coordinated response in a way that avoids a fragmented global response.

The UK's Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, represented the UK at the Horn of Africa Drought Roundtable on 26 April, and announced a £25 million package of support for Somalia. Senior officials also attended the event including the UK's Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa as well as the UK's Development Director for Somalia.

The UK also played a critical role in convening the recent 'UN Horn of Africa Drought Roundtable' which took place in late April in Geneva. This included working with states in the region and the UN to ensure appropriate levels of participation. It helped to bring much needed focus to the drought and importantly it mobilised roughly US$400 million in new funding.