Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Verma on 1 February (HL5238), what proportion of UK aid spending on water, sanitation and hygiene is targeted at the maintenance and upkeep of existing facilities.
Answered by Baroness Verma
Our WASH programmes take an integrated approach to both provision and maintenance of existing facilities, involving building national, local and community capacity and systems to ensure that services continue to function over time. In 2014, total UK bilateral ODA spending on water supply and sanitation was £181 million. UK aid expenditure is reported in Statistics on International Development report at table A6a which I have attached for your convenience.
We do not collect data separately on the amount of funds allocated to installation of facilities and their subsequent maintenance. In most countries responsibility for financing operation and maintenance is passed to the community where services have been installed, after appropriate training has been provided.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action the Department for International Development is taking to ensure that teachers, including refugee teachers, are paid appropriate wages and receive appropriate training and support in countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The UK remains at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have doubled our commitment and have now pledged a total of over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.
DFID is not currently financing public sector teachers’ salaries directly in Lebanon or Jordan. However, we helped launch and mobilise international support for the No Lost Generation Initiative (NLGI). As part of this support, the UK has allocated £115 million to provide protection, psychosocial support and education for children affected by the crisis in Syria and the region. As a result over 251,000 children have received formal and informal education inside Syria and in the region. We are working to ensure that each host government considers where and when they can employ and fairly compensate Syrian teachers under their national legal and policy frameworks for both education and jobs.
In Lebanon, DFID is investing £21m in the World Bank managed Emergency Education System Stabilisation Programme and an additional £1.3m for the Research for Results: Lebanon Education System Improvement Programme. These programmes support the Government of Lebanon to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its education system including their public expenditure on teachers.
At the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference we co-hosted in London, leaders came together to pledge more than $11 billion, the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis. On education, the UK and co-hosts worked with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. Commitments made at the Conference will help to create 1.1 million jobs and provide education to an additional 1 million children.
We continue to work with refugee hosting governments, in particular, to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground. This includes a regional policy dialogue on integrating refugee teachers into national education systems, where possible.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are pressing to be agreed at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in February.
Answered by Baroness Verma
The "Supporting Syria and the Region London 2016)" Conference was held on 4 February last week, and more than US$11 billion was pledged to support people in Syria and the region affected by the conflict, the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis. Commitments made at the Conference will help to create 1.1 million jobs and provide education to an additional 1 million children. The UK remains at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have doubled our commitment and have now pledged a total of over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action the Department for International Development is taking to use its influence with countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region to allow NGOs to provide non-formal education opportunities for out-of-school children.
Answered by Baroness Verma
At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February , we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education, formal school or non-formal, by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.
At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures the Department for International Development is taking to reach rural communities with water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, as well as urban ones.
Answered by Baroness Verma
DFID reached over 62 million people with water, sanitation and/or hygiene in the five years to 2014/15. Approximately 90% of these results were delivered in rural communities.
DFID supports large programmes focussed on basic rural water and sanitation services for the poor. These include programmes with the governments of Ethiopia and Mozambique and a programme implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and WaterAid in Nigeria.
Through partnerships with organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), DFID is supporting the water and sanitation sector in developing better and faster ways of delivering improved urban water and sanitation services in unserved slums and low income communities in towns and cities.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the Department for International Development’s spending currently goes towards water, sanitation and hygiene programmes.
Answered by Baroness Verma
Expenditure by sector is reported in Statistics on International Development which I have attached for your convenience.
In 2014, UK bilateral expenditure on water supply and sanitation was £180.8 million. This was 2.6% of the UK’s total bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA).
When DFID or other UK government departments provide core contributions in support of multilateral organisations, we do not break down by sector. However, there are a number of multilateral organisations that are focussed on water and sanitation. Details of the contributions from DFID to each multilateral organisation can be found at Table A8 of the attachment.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of global demographic change in which almost 24 per cent of women globally are aged 50 and over, what steps they are taking to ensure that sustainable development goal indicators on violence against women specifically include women over the age of 49, and to ensure that those women are not excluded from reporting mechanisms in the future.
Answered by Baroness Verma
Supporting robust indicators for Sustainable Development Goal 5.2 on violence against women and girls is critical. DFID is working with international partners including the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data to support the development of strong indicators and the development of rigorous, available national data that will enable measurement of progress to end violence against women and girls of all ages.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the statement by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 17 September that the Department for International Development has a "refreshed approach to LGBTI matters" (HL Deb, col 2045), whether they will publish details of that new approach.
Answered by Baroness Verma
A note describing “DFID’s approach on LGBT rights” will be published on the UK Government website by the end of 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department for International Development has published a LGBTI Strategy; and if so, where and when.
Answered by Baroness Verma
A note describing “DFID’s approach on LGBT rights” will be published on the UK Government website by the end of 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which Minister in the Department for International Development has responsibility for ensuring that the particular vulnerabilities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are addressed through international development.
Answered by Baroness Verma
I am the Minister in DFID who has responsibility for ensuring that the particular vulnerabilities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are addressed through international development.