Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of public investments in research and development towards delivering the targets set out in Sustainable Development Goal 3 on health.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Public investments in research and development have had significant impact across a range of diseases and have contributed to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3. For instance, UK support has been instrumental in the development of Coartem Dispersible, a child-friendly antimalarial drug. More than 390 million treatments of this life-saving drug have been delivered to over 50 countries since its launch in 2009. This is very likely to have helped reduce the number of deaths from malaria. DFID support also enabled the development of the first paediatric tuberculosis (TB) medicine, which is now available in 93 countries that account for 75% of the global paediatric TB burden.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of the $6 billion pledged at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London on 4 February has now been (1) delivered, and (2) dispersed in the recipient countries; and what plans there are to achieve further financial support, particularly for under-funded areas, such as the UN-coordinated humanitarian inter-agency appeals.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Department for International Development has set up a tracking mechanism that will report on the delivery of all the financial commitments made at the February 2016 Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London, including humanitarian and development funding and loans. As of 21 September 2016, of the $6 billion grants pledged for 2016 at the Conference, donors had committed $6.3 billion and delivered $4.7 billion.
The UK continues to work with other London Conference co-hosts to urge donors to deliver on the commitments they made in London and to consider what more can be done to meet the funding gaps of the UN appeals. This was discussed at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, where the Secretary of State for International Development co-chaired a Conference follow up event.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much private sector investment has been secured to tackle malaria as part of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Secretary of State recently announced a UK investment of £1.1 billion over three years in the Global Fund at their replenishment conference in September. This includes a commitment to double private sector contributions for tackling malaria, up to a maximum of £200 million.
At the conference, an additional $100million (USD) of investment was raised from the private sector to specifically tackle malaria and further investment will be raised in the coming year.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of Libyan refugees currently residing in Tunisia.
Answered by Baroness Verma
Since 2014, UNHCR has co-ordinated inter-agency efforts to prepare for a possible influx of refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya, at the request of the Tunisian government and in close cooperation with UN agencies and partners. Its most recent assessment reported that there were 928 people of concern residing in Tunisia, mostly from Syria.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are committed to the introduction of a universal Hepatitis B vaccination programme, as recommended by the World Health Organisation, in order to support the international community's effort to control worldwide transmission of the disease.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK is fully committed to the introduction of Hepatitis B vaccination programmes, as recommended by the World Health Organisation, and funds these in developing countries through our investment in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi delivers life-saving vaccine programmes in 73 of the world’s poorest countries. Gavi provides protection against Hepatitis B through the pentavalent vaccine, which has been introduced and scaled up in all 73 of these countries.
The UK is a firm and longstanding supporter of Gavi and as its largest donor will provide £1.44 billion from 2016 to 2020, which will save 1.4 million lives.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Northover on 21 October (HL2052), what proportion of spending on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria can be qualified as supporting research and development for new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The estimated proportion of spend in the 2012/13 financial year, which is the most recent year for which we have figures, is:
| Research as a % of bilateral plus Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria spend | |
| Malaria | 8% |
| TB | 4% |
| HIV | 3% |
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which United Kingdom non-governmental organisations the Department for International Development has supported in response to the ebola epidemic; and how much money has been given to each of those organisations.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The UK is leading the international response to Ebola in Sierra Leone, and we are working closely with a wide range of UK and International NGOs to contain and combat the outbreak. Given the shifting nature of the epidemic and the evolving international response, payments to NGOs are under constant review.
To date, our support to UK NGOs includes disbursement of £13.5million to the British Red Cross; £5million to Save the Children; £3.6 million to World Vision; £2.1million to UK Med, £50,000 to Riders for Health and £52,000 to Map Action.
We will make further disbursements to UK NGOs as needed throughout the Ebola crisis.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they are doing to support the development of a new tuberculosis treatment regimen.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The UK Government is a strong supporter of research to develop new tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimens and has funded the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) since 2005. The TB Alliance has three TB treatment regimens in late stage clinical development and will soon launch one of those into a registration study. In addition the TB Alliance is adapting existing regimens so that they can be used for children with TB.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which United Kingdom-based development and non-governmental organisations have received more than £1 million from the Department for International Development per year for each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Northover
Details of disbursements to UK based Civil Society Organisations (including Non-Governmental Organisations) made by the Department for International Development are available in tables that are too large in size to print in the Official Report. Details are made available online and will be placed in the Library of the House and provided to the Noble Baroness.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much the Department for International Development spent on the relief of (1) HIV, (2) tuberculosis, and (3) malaria, in 2013, including commitments to the Global Fund.
Answered by Baroness Northover
Details of the total expenditure on health are published online in Statistics on International Development (SID) at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-2013.
The Department for International Development’s (DFID) support to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria control is provided through: disease-specific bilateral projects and programmes; bilateral support to health systems and service delivery; UK Government contributions to multilateral and global initiatives that work on disease prevention and treatment; and by supporting research.
In 2012/13 the UK contributed £127.9 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Figures for direct bilateral spend in 2012/13 on HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis are reproduced below:
2012/13 £m | |
HIV | 90.4 |
Malaria | 111.5 |
TB | 12.7 |