Earl of Sandwich

The UK remains committed to helping developing countries build their resilience to the impacts of climate change and support low carbon, sustainable growth. The UK has committed to provide £5.8 billion of International Climate Finance from the UK aid budget from 2016/17 to 2020/21, and at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September 2019 announced a doubling to £11.6 billion from 2021/22 to 2025/26.

In 2018 the UK provided International Climate Finance directly to the following Least Developed Countries through its bilateral programming in country:

In 2018 the UK also supported several multi-country and regional bilateral climate programmes and contributed core funding to the climate multilaterals the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.

The World Bank Group (WBG) can play an important role mobilising private sector finance for quality development projects that meet robust environmental and social standards – projects that are critical to providing the finance needed to achieve the Global Goals. Recognising the particular risks in the palm oil sector, the WBG has issued guidance that seeks to ensure improved benefit sharing with smallholders and communities and the widespread adoption of environmentally and socially sustainable standards (The World Bank Group Framework and IFC Strategy for Engagement in the Palm Oil Sector). The International Finance Corporation has a complaints procedure for affected people to express any grievances and seek redress where this guidance is not followed. This procedure is currently under review to ensure greater attention is devoted to responding to complaints at an early stage.

Sudan is a source, destination and transit point for migrants. While migrants have been accommodated by the Government of Sudan, their policy of encampment limits durable solutions. Integration is very challenging and most African migrants do not have the right to legally work in Sudan; third country resettlement is not viable as the UNHCR programme is currently suspended. Return is not possible for Eritreans due to human rights concerns. Protection is weak and many migrants are exploited.

In Libya, we remain deeply concerned over the appalling conditions for migrants in detention centres, particularly given the current escalation in violence. We urge all sides to ensure the safety of civilians, including vulnerable refugees/migrants; and continue to pressure the Libyan authorities to pursue alternatives to detention and implement a better functioning migration system that respects human rights. These efforts are part of our wider approach to protecting those who are travelling on the dangerous migration route into Libya.

There is insufficient data on border crossings between Sudan and Libya to be able to assess whether there has been any recent change in the direction of migration between those countries. Instability in both Libya and Sudan is likely to cause further displacement.

We broadly agree with reports from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM): escalating violence in the Diffa region of Niger has triggered the displacement of 18,000 people in recent weeks. However, we would note that IOM does not capture the total flows of people passing along migratory routes.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that Niger is home to one of the largest populations of refugees across the countries of the Sahel (174,767 people), including 55,496 people displaced by the conflict in Mali and 118,868 from Nigeria.

In 2019, the UK is providing £13.16 million to Niger via the World Food Programme, UNICEF and ICRC to provide food, respond to severe acute malnutrition, and provide protection to conflict-affected people.

The UK’s main development and humanitarian programmes, operated at Post are listed below.

All programmes, including humanitarian activities have been affected by Sudan’s current economic crisis. This includes rising procurement and operational costs and delays to activities due to fuel shortages.

The current demonstrations and Government of Sudan response to the demonstrations has led to the postponement of certain activities which involve convening large groups; and the postponement of meetings and monitoring visits that involve travel to areas where we or our partners assess increased risks to staff safety, in line with Foreign Office travel advice. There have been some delays in administrative procedures related to humanitarian programmes due to Government of Sudan officials being re-deployed to other areas. DFID and Embassy officials at Post continue to consider whether to maintain, adjust or suspend activities on a case to case basis.

Officials in Khartoum are in contact with delivery partners on the ground to assess evolving risks should the situation become protracted. These include the risk of redeploying staff of partners based in affected remote areas to Khartoum to mitigate safety risks and the ongoing risks to Sudanese staff that may be affected by the increased risk of violence.

DFID’s portfolio of urban programmes work to strengthen India’s capacity to make cities cleaner and more sustainable for all – including provision for water and sanitation. We have partnered with the Government of Odisha to improve the state’s water supply. We have also partnered with the Government of India on its SMART cities initiative. DFID has not had any specific programming on manual scavenging in the last three years; however, the Manual Scavenging Act provides for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers through training in alternative employment. This is the right way forward and should be upheld. DFID is committed to work with India on urban and skills development.

We are extremely concerned about the situation for returning refugees, undocumented Afghans and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. Our assistance is based on need and supports the United Nations-led Humanitarian Response Plan in Afghanistan. In 2016 and 2017 the UK provided urgent additional funding to UNHCR to ensure refugees were provided with immediate assistance upon return, including to cover immediate food, shelter and transport costs. In 2018 there have been fewer returns from Pakistan compared to previous years, so the focus of our assistance has changed. In 2018 UK aid will provide humanitarian assistance for up to two million Afghan people. This includes lifesaving food, access to water, shelter, nutrition, healthcare and demining activities. It will also support people who have been displaced for a long time to integrate sustainably into local communities. As recently announced at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, we have increased our funding for the humanitarian response to £67 million this year. We continue to press others to do more.

DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) make regular assessments of the economy of Nepal and its ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), including from the UK. Analysis suggests that there is potential for FDI in areas such as hydropower, education and tourism. However, constraints to investment remain from poor transport, energy and urban infrastructure, and aspects of the regulatory environment. The UK is working with the Government of Nepal to address these barriers to growth.

DFID, through its funding of Investment Board Nepal, helped to secure $1.2bn of investment for the new Arun 3 Hydropower project, which will double Nepal’s hydropower generation and energy exports to neighbouring countries. DFID funding supported the Nepal Tourism industry to recover following the 2015 earthquake, and has supported the construction of and marketing for the Great Himalayan Trails. Support has also been provided to approximately 250,000 small-scale entrepreneurs and farmers to significantly improve their business practices, for example through better management of crop diseases, and contributed to increased incomes.

Information on DFID spend in Nepal is available in the DFID Annual Report and Accounts. The most recent version of this publication (2017/18) reports that total UK ODA to Nepal was £88.2m in calendar year 2015 (of which £35.9m was humanitarian assistance) and £103.0m in 2016 (of which £13.2m was humanitarian assistance).

Further information on the sector breakdown of UK ODA to Nepal for 2015 and 2016 is available from Statistics on International Development on GOV.UK. This reports that the three largest sectors of investment for 2015 (excluding humanitarian) were Government and Civil Society (£17.1m), Economic Infrastructure and Services (£16.9m) and Multisector (£6.4m). For 2016 the three largest sectors of investment were Government and Civil Society (£20.8m), Health (£19m) and Economic Infrastructure and Services (£15.8m).

Our bilateral aid programme with India ended in 2015. The UK has forged a new development partnership with India that delivers benefits for both countries and our joint role in the world. Britain’s new cooperation with India aims to foster inclusive growth, create new investment opportunities, develop markets and stimulate mutual prosperity. Under this new UK-India development partnership, our ODA funds the sharing of expertise and the investment of development capital, the returns on which are available for reinvestment. This helps develop markets, trade, investment, technology and partnership opportunities for British as well as Indian companies and organisations.

The following net Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been directed to India from various UK government departments and agencies in the five years 2012-2016. Figures for 2017 will be released in November. Data on the provision of assistance to each state is not available.

This ODA has been directed through a number of channels, which are set out in the attached table.

The following data shows staff in DFID working in India. There are a number of regional teams within these figures.

These teams are based in India but do not work on India specific work, such as a regional IT and HR team. The figures are for total staff, not headcount. Where one person has left and been replaced by another within a year, this is classed as two people. Figures for 2018 are for January to September. Figures for 2013 and previous years are not available.

The OECD DAC determines which countries are ODA eligible based on World Bank GNI per capita data. The list of ODA eligible countries consists of all low and Middle-Income countries except for those that are members of the G8 or the European Union. The UK provided bilateral ODA through a range of government departments to the following middle-income countries in 2016:

Source: Statistics on International Development 2017

DFID has committed £237.5m in humanitarian support to Iraq since 2014, including £20 million this financial year. This support is provided on the basis of need, irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity, and in line with international humanitarian principles; it is not possible to provide figures on assistance specifically provided to Yezidis or other religious groups. The UK works with the Government of Iraq, the UN, humanitarian partners and minority representatives to support the rights of all minorities and to ensure our aid reaches those in the greatest need.

The UK government welcomes the EU’s intention to involve a broad range of actors in the EU’s post-2020 partnership with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. This is of particular interest to us as we consider the UK’s future partnership with the EU.

We will only continue our development collaboration with the EU where it is in our mutual interest and represents the best value for taxpayers’ money. As the successor to the current Cotonou agreement is still subject to negotiation between the EU and ACP countries, it is not yet possible to determine whether it will be in the UK’s best interests to seek to join any future agreement. We will continue to participate in those discussions while we remain an EU Member State.

The UK currently contributes to the European Development Fund (EDF) as part of its obligations as a Member State. For the period covering 2014-2018, 5.2% of the EDF was directed towards African-led peacekeeping, through the African Peace Facility.

The European Commission has recently published plans that would see future support to peace-keeping activities, currently managed by the European Development Fund, routed through a newly proposed European Peace Facility under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The UK will have left the EU when this comes into force in January 2021. After we have left the EU the UK will decide how best to fund the priorities previously funded through our EU contributions.

The UK Government has not provided any bilateral financial assistance to the Government of South Sudan in any of the last three years. We ensure UK Aid is effective by working through a range of UN and international organisations who are experienced in operating in South Sudan, and who can deliver flexibly according to need.

The table below shows total spend by the Department for International Development in South Sudan in each of the last three financial years. The top three sectors funded by DFID are humanitarian, health, and education.

DFID provides a range of support and training to National Statistics Offices in developing countries to gather, analyse and use a wide range of information, including data relevant to the SDGs. For example, through the UN Statistics Department, we are supporting 20 developing countries to disseminate SDG data through National Reporting Platforms, including technical assistance and training. We are also funding such support through the World Bank, the IMF and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) is also planning to host a meeting of Commonwealth heads of National Statistics Institutes (NSI) later this year. The ONS is proposing including in the agenda a focus on data gaps for global SDG indicators. This will build on publication on 19 March of a report on UK data gaps, including our initial Inclusive Data Action Plan.

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals is reported through various means, including the UN’s SDG indicators website, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/, which captures data reported to the UN by Member States under the global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda. In addition, Member States are expected to complete voluntary national reviews of progress towards the Goals at least once in the period to 2030. The reviews are presented to the annual UN High Level Political Forum each July.

We will continue to use these sources to monitor progress towards the SDGs by Least Developed Countries. We will not require additional staff to do so.

On 12 February, the Secretary of State for International Development wrote to all UK charities that directly receive UK aid. She asked them to provide her with assurance that the systems and culture that are needed to protect vulnerable people are in place and that they have referred any and all concerns organisations may have on specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities. DFID officials are now analysing those responses with independent oversight and have shared returns with the Charity Commission. We will share key findings, trends and themes at our Safeguarding Summit on 5 March and will then conduct further in depth analysis as required. DFID has also written to more than 393 international charities which receive UK aid to set out the high standards we expect, and we will undertake a similar exercise with all multilaterals, suppliers and stakeholders.

As reported in “Statistics on International Development 2017” (available at www.gov.uk) the UK’s humanitarian support to Nepal was £5 million in 2012, nothing in 2013 and 2014, £35.9 million in 2015 and £13.2 million in 2016. In 2016, the UK committed a further £83 million for Post-Earthquake Reconstruction (2016 – 2022). Although disrupted by the 2015 earthquake, we have maintained our commitment to healthcare and sustainable development over the period.

The UK government’s three main development priorities are:

1) Supporting Nepal’s transition to an effective federal democracy;
2) Accelerating the rate of inclusive growth to generate jobs; and
3) Ensuring that the most vulnerable are better protected from shocks.

Forestry support will be provided through our market development programmes that will work with forestry enterprises to create jobs and our climate programmes which will support afforestation to reduce emissions and protect watersheds. In addition the UK government is a core supporter of the World Bank, Forestry Investment Programme that is developing a £18.5m forestry programme in Nepal.

In line with the UK’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), DFID provides support for information-gathering and monitoring of the SDGs at the global and country levels.

While information on individual requests for SDG monitoring support is not held centrally, programmes and initiatives through which we support least-developed and post-conflict countries include:

• The UN Statistics Division - DFID is supporting 20 developing countries to disseminate SDG data through National Reporting Platforms. These countries include Ethiopia, DRC, and Nepal.
• The Inclusive Data Charter, which will play an important role in measuring whether SDG progress is equitable.
• The Health Data Collaborative, which aims to improve the availability, quality and use of health data for local decision-making and for tracking progress towards Goal 3 on health.
• The IMF and UN-ESCAP, where we are supporting 50 countries to strengthen their economic statistics, on which to make economic policy decisions.

Countries we support through these programmes and initiatives in monitoring their SDGs include:

Burundi, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Lao, Myanmar, Nepal, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Tajikistan and Vietnam.

In September 2017, the UN Human Rights Office reported that at least 5,144 civilians have been documented as killed by conflict in Yemen and at least 8,749 injured between March 2015 and August 2017.

We have increased our support for Yemen to £155 million this financial year, making the UK the second-largest donor to the UN appeal. Delivered by UN agencies and NGOs, our humanitarian assistance will provide enough food for 1.8 million people for a least a month, nutrition assistance to 1.7 million people, and clean water and sanitation to an expected 1.2 million people.

Nepal is at a pivotal moment. By early 2018, Nepal should have completed a set of elections bringing a new system of federal government into being, after a decade of insurgency and a similar period forming a new Constitution.

Broadly supported and inclusive elections would be a positive step towards greater stability. However challenges remain: expectations about what the new federal system can deliver will be high and not all communities are satisfied with the Constitution. Any associated political uncertainty or instability around the elections could dampen economic growth, which is currently forecast at 4% to 5% this fiscal year.

The Department for International Development is providing up to £1 million in assistance for local, provincial and federal elections in collaboration with the Embassy of Denmark and Swiss Development Cooperation. This includes support for long term national NGO and international organisation monitoring of the political and electoral environment before, during and after the elections.

In 2005, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was supplemented by the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The MDRI allows for the cancellation of debts to multilateral organisations and has been supported by the UK since inception.

Based on information from the World Bank Debt Relief Trust Fund and MDRI records, we calculate that the UK has provided £226 million to the African Development Fund (AfDF) and £808 million to the International Development Association (IDA) for foregone payments in relation to the HIPC Initiative since1996.

In its September 2017 Statistical report, the IMF states that between 2001 and 2015, the average debt service to export ratio for countries which have completed the HIPC process fell from 17.5% to 6.2%. Only 7 of the 36 countries did not have lower ratios of debt to exports in 2015 than in 2001 - Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Mozambique – and all but two of these countries still have debt service to export ratios of below 10%.

The UK continually assesses the scale of the need in South Sudan, which is beset by severe social, economic, and humanitarian challenges. UN agencies have said that the number of people in need of aid has risen to 7.6 million, and an estimated 4 million people are displaced, including 2 million who have fled to neighbouring countries. Over the next six months, the South Sudanese people will continue to be in dire need of food assistance, safe drinking water, and emergency health and education services.

The security situation continues to deteriorate, with violence perpetrated across the country, including by Government forces, in violation of the unilateral ceasefire declared earlier this year. We have been instrumental in agreeing a tougher approach to deliberate restrictions on humanitarian access by the Government of South Sudan. We ensure UKAid is effective by working through a range of UN and international organisations who are experienced in operating in South Sudan, and who can deliver flexibly according to need.

The UK is the sole donor to the Girls’ Education South Sudan programme and will contribute £60 million over 5 years. In 2016, we provided £14.1 million for grants to girls and payments to schools.

In 2016 the programme provided cash transfers equivalent to approximately £15 each to 135,000 girls, to help them to remain in school. By the end of the programme we will have supported over 200,000 girls.

The Government of Nepal reports that 29,689 homes have been rebuilt following the 2015 earthquake. We assess the number to have been larger but that many of these need additional work to be resilient to future earthquakes. UK humanitarian support was needs-based. Reconstruction support targeted four of the most affected districts: Dhading, Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Gorkha. Our response was coordinated with the government but channelled through non-government organisations (60%) and multilateral organisations.

The UK government is the second largest Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) contributor to the 2015 Nepal earthquake response, after Japan. The UK Government pledged £70m at the June 2015 International Conference for Nepal’s Recovery, which has been followed by a five year £83m reconstruction programme. We provided over 250,000 people with emergency shelter; over 200,000 people with winter including clothes, blankets and mattresses; and over 2000 hours of helicopter operations to reach communities inaccessible by road. Our assistance was provided via humanitarian delivery partners, including the use of volunteers by Voluntary Service Overseas, the Nepal Red Cross and the Nepal Scout Association.

In the last two years, her Majesty’s Government has supported the Government of Uganda in its efforts to host refugees from South Sudan by delivering food or a cash equivalent to 1 million refugees; vaccination and nutritional support to 350,000 children; and clean water for 150,000 refugees.

This support is delivered by UN agencies and non-governmental organisations. Support has been directed to the 12 refugee hosting Districts in Uganda.

The Government is engaging with stakeholders from every sector of the economy on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and will continue to consult closely with stakeholders to review EU funding schemes.

While the UK remains an EU member state we will continue to fulfil all the obligations of our membership. This includes taking full part in, and influencing, the EU’s development policies and programmes. The question of the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on those policies and programmes will form a key part of the exit negotiations: the EU will remain an important development partner for the UK.

The Department for International Development does not provide any direct funding support to Kosovo.