Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ethical implications of the creation of emergency funds by multinational corporations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a severe impact on those who work in and supply global value chains. 292 million jobs in manufacturing supply chains are at high risk globally due to the COVID-19-related drop in consumer demand. These include 73 million in textiles and garment supply chains – a critical source of labour demand for many of the poorest and most vulnerable workers globally.
Multinational corporations have significant reach and can have a positive impact on their supply chains. DFID is partnering with Unilever to deploy a Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition to combat COVID-19 where our support is matched in-kind from Unilever. DFID is also supportive of initiatives such as the ILO/IUTC Action in the Global Garment Industry that encourages good practice. We also support the efforts of organisations like the Ethical Trading Initiative and Fairtrade Foundation, who work with companies to ensure good working conditions in their supply chains. Finally, DFID has provided funding to the Business and COVID-19 Response Centre, which is working to accelerate global learning and action to support the most vulnerable people in companies’ supply chains.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that there will be an equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine among developing nations, if such a vaccine is developed in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
As the world grapples with the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has been clear that equitable global distribution of a vaccine will be the best defence, enable collective recovery and reduce the risk of repeat outbreaks.
The UK is supporting the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) which aims to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries. At the Global Vaccine Summit, which the Prime Minister hosted on 4th June, the UK repurposed £48 million to the AMC. At the Summit, AstraZeneca also announced a commitment of 300 million doses of the University of Oxford candidate vaccine to the COVAX facility.
The COVAX AMC will incentivise vaccine manufacturers to produce sufficient quantities of eventual COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure access for the world’s poorest countries. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization are working together to ensure that the vaccines are affordable and available equitably. Through the deal with AstraZeneca, the University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate have been committed towards the COVAX Facility.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress towards the Every Woman Every Child goals.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK government welcomes the Independent Accountability Panel’s recently published report. The report highlights that global progress towards the Every Woman Every Child 2030 targets were already lagging by around 20%, and now with the current COVID-19 pandemic are likely to slip further, with significant impacts for pregnant women, children and adolescents.
The UK Government is committed to work with others to end preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030. We are working to ensure essential health services continue despite the challenges of the pandemic. Our approach covers sexual and reproductive health and rights, maternal and new-born health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene services, all of which can help prevent mothers, new-borns and children dying unnecessarily.
We are also leading internationally: the UK hosted the Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June and raised $8.8 billion for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance’s, next five years (2021-2025) of work, including the UK’s pledge of £1.65 billion. Using these vital funds, GAVI will immunise a further 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives against vaccine preventable diseases.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the international aid response to COVID-19 will be affected by the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government remains fully focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives. We are using UK aid to its full effect to counter the health, humanitarian and economic risks and impact of this pandemic in the developing world.
Through aligning our efforts, we will maximise our influence and expertise and ensure we are in the best position to continue to drive the international response to the pandemic – funding the development of a vaccine and supporting the global recovery.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Burkina Faso regarding early and forced marriage.
Answered by Lord Bates
During the 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Burkina Faso’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council, we asked the Government of Burkina Faso for an update on their efforts to end early and forced marriage. We welcomed their adoption of the National Strategy to Prevent and Eradicate Child Marriage and the establishment of a multisectoral platform for its prevention and elimination. We encouraged them to review the Personal and Family Code to set the marriageable age at 18 years for both sexes.
In addition, through our global programme 'Action Against Child Marriage', the UK is supporting UNICEF and the UN Population Fund in Burkina Faso to:
strengthen frameworks, laws and policies;
scale up access to basic services for girls who have experienced or are at risk of child marriage;
provide direct investments for adolescent girls at risk of early marriage;
shift harmful social norms
We are also targeting key drivers of child marriage through investments in education and sexual reproductive health and rights
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Sierra Leone regarding early and forced marriage.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government regularly raises concerns about child, early and forced marriage with the Government of Sierra Leone. Most recently the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone raised the issue with the President in October 2018. We welcome the Government of Sierra Leone’s new National Strategy for the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Marriage, which was launched in December 2018.
Empowering adolescent girls is a priority for the UK in Sierra Leone. We are supporting work to keep girls in school and reduce rates of child marriage, including through the global programme Action Against Child Marriage.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Senegal regarding early and forced marriage.
Answered by Lord Bates
We have raised the question of early and forced marriage in bilateral exchanges and official forums, including Senegal’s November 2018 Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, in which one of our recommendations to the Senegalese Government, subsequently accepted, called for the implementation of existing laws on early and forced marriage, alongside child begging and child trafficking. We also fund multilateral partners such as UNICEF and the UN Population Fund who are working on early and forced marriage in country. Their representations to government include advocacy for the harmonisation of the family code with international conventions on child marriage and advocacy for child protection mainstreaming in policy development.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many scholarships and fellowships have been awarded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in each year since 2010; for which courses; and in which locations.
Answered by Lord Bates
The total number of scholarships and fellowships awarded since 2010 are set out below. Details of how many scholarships and fellowships have been awarded in each year since 2010; for which courses; and in which locations are set out in the attached table (data provided by CSC).
Total awards by programme (Masters, Phd, Fellows etc) from 2010-2017: 6,631
Total awards by field of study excluding Professional Fellowships, (science, health education etc) from 2010-2017: 5,742
Total awards by UK Institution (excl. Distance Learning and Professional Fellowships) from 2010-2017: 4,147
Total awards by UK Institution (Distance Learning) from 2010-2017: 1,595
Total awards by UK Host Institution (Professional Fellows) from 2010-2017: 877
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what land or buildings owned by, leased by, or under the control of, the Department for International Development they are seeking to dispose of, and for what purposes.
Answered by Lord Bates
DFID has 2 UK Headquarter buildings, 22 Whitehall and Abercrombie House in East Kilbride. Both are freehold. There are no plans to dispose of either building.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to eliminate food insecurity in developing countries.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK believes that poverty is the main cause of hunger, as most people are hungry or undernourished because they cannot afford to buy sufficient nutritious food. Much of the solution to hunger will therefore depend on inclusive economic growth, in particular in the agriculture sector. We have just published our new Conceptual Framework on Agriculture which sets out our priorities to accelerate impact on economic development, poverty reduction, and sustainable food systems and nutrition.
Alongside this policy work, the UK has committed to a number of results that will deliver on the Global Goals, particularly on ending hunger. First, our nutrition manifesto commitment will improve by 2020 the nutrition of 50 million people who would otherwise go hungry. Second, with other Nutrition for Growth (N4G) signatories, we will prevent 20 million children becoming stunted. Lastly, in 2015, alongside other G7 countries, we will help address hunger and malnutrition among 500 million people by 2030 as part of the G7 Broad Food Security and Nutrition Development Approach agreed in Elmau.