Asked by: Baroness Quin (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in what ways they are currently supporting the education and advancement of women in Afghanistan.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK has prioritised education for girls as part of its development support to Afghanistan. The UK provides £58 million through its Girls Education Challenge Fund, which supports over 180,000 girls in some of the poorest rural and hard to reach areas of Afghanistan to have better access to a quality education. In addition the UK supports the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), a World-Bank managed multi-donor fund. A proportion of this is used to support education and as a result, in 2015 there were more than 3.2 million Afghan girls attending school compared to virtually none in 2001.
The UK also supports programmes to protect women from violence, promote women’s economic empowerment, and strengthen political participation – all necessary to achieve lasting and transformative change for women in Afghanistan.
Asked by: Baroness Quin (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they give, when allocating aid to Ethiopia, to the human rights situation in that country, particularly in relation to the Oromo population.
Answered by Baroness Northover
When allocating aid to Ethiopia, Her Majesty’s Government assesses the commitment of the Ethiopian government to our ‘Partnership Principles’, one of which relates to ‘Human Rights and International Obligations’. This assessment shapes how we work with the Government of Ethiopia in delivery of our aid.
We are concerned at recent events related to student protests in Oromia and have raised this issue at the highest levels of the Ethiopian government. We will continue to raise our concerns, press for an investigation into what happened, and for any members of the security forces who have used excessive force to be held to account.