Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that ageing continues to be identified as a ministerial responsibility within an inclusive societies portfolio when the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is established.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The new FCDO’s guiding purpose will be to promote the UK’s national interest around the world. The new organization will take a broad view of national interest, which will be based on values, as well as our core interests of security and prosperity. The UK stands for open societies and democratic values, alongside poverty reduction and supporting the vulnerable, because they are right in themselves and also the best route to lasting stability and growth.
As the current minister for Inclusive Societies, I recognize that empowering older people is key to achieving poverty reduction. COVID-19 has thrown into sharp relief the vulnerability of older people to shocks and brought to the forefront the important roles they play in society.
The UK is committed to ensuring that, through all channels of support, our assistance reaches the most marginalized, which will include older people. The new department will continue to prioritise those furthest left behind and champion inclusion of vulnerable groups in our responses.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the risk of starvation to the people of the Afar region of Eritrea due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) whether that risk has been exacerbated by the actions of the government of Eritrea.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We are concerned that the population of Eritrea, including the Red Sea Afar people, are facing food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 and the desert locust outbreak are compounding existing humanitarian need caused by residual effects of war and climate change. Humanitarian and development programmes in Eritrea are being adapted to address current food security challenges. DFID funds life-saving activity in Eritrea, including providing £4 million to UNICEF in 2019-20 to help treat malnutrition in under-fives and provide access to safe hygiene and sanitation services. This programme continues to deliver basic nutrition supplies in the Afar region during the pandemic.
Like most countries affected by COVID-19, the authorities have imposed an internal travel ban and lockdown across Eritrea. We will continue to urge for these measures to be necessary, proportionate, time-bound, transparent and regularly reviewed. We raise our concerns about human rights in Eritrea with the Government at every opportunity, and we will continue to monitor the situation and risks in country.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that Government-funded international development and aid programmes do not involve forced labour in Eritrea, with particular regard to indefinite military conscription.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
UK Aid funds life-saving activity in Eritrea, including providing £4 million to UNICEF in 2019-20 to help treat malnutrition in under-fives and provide access to safe hygiene and sanitation services. UNICEF work with the Ministry of Health and at all levels of the local community to build the capacity of the health service in Eritrea and encourage a long-term, sustainable response to undernutrition. No military personnel are employed in the delivery of the programme and enhanced safeguards are in place to prevent the use of forced labour.
The UK continues to call for reform of Eritrea's use of a system of universal and compulsory national service directly with the Government of Eritrea. At the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in July 2019, the UK renewed calls for Eritrea to reform the national service system, recognising that sustainable reform of national service needs to happen in tandem with an improved economic situation and job creation.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support refugees and marginalised religious and belief communities which have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government works to ensure that all aid reaches the most vulnerable, including refugees and those from marginalised religious and belief communities. Vulnerable populations will experience COVID-19 outbreaks differently. COVID-19 is likely to reinforce their marginalised position in society, their experience of discrimination, violence and stigma, and further limit their access to essential support and services. For this reason, guidance has been circulated across DFID highlighting that inclusion must be central to our response and that the specific needs of refugees and all marginalised religious communities should be taken into account when developing practical programmes to tackle COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the World Health Organisation about the impact of the suspension of funding by the United States on its ability to lead partners in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We are in regular contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) about its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is working with multiple agencies and partners. The impact of the United States pause on funding, subject to review, is something we are closely monitoring. WHO continues to play a key leadership role in the overall response which we support, including on global coordination and planning for country level preparedness and response.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase UK funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a consequence of the suspension of funding to the WHO by the United States.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK’s funding for WHO is based on our assessment of the organisation’s needs and we continue to keep this under review. We are a key donor to WHO and have already contributed £75 million to help the organisation lead international efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 and end the pandemic.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what work the Department for International Development is funding to ensure that safe spaces are designated for women and girls where they can report abuse without alerting perpetrators during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
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.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that their international response to COVID-19 explicitly supports the health needs of older people in low- and middle-income countries.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
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.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they took to mark the International Day for Street Children on 12 April and its campaign for Safe Spaces for Children in order to raise awareness about the problems faced by street-connected children.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
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.
Asked by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that Department for International Development funded non-government organisations and international non-governmental organisation include street-connected children and homeless youth in emergency funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
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.