Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken or plans to take to build the capacity of communities to (a) engage with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and (b) hold their governments to account for engagement on that issue.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK is the third largest donor of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, pledging up to £1 billion between 2014 and 2016, subject to a 10% donor share cap. This is improving the lives of millions of people, saving approximately 580,000 lives by preventing 8.4m new malaria, HIV and TB infections.
The Global Fund encourages active participation of communities at all levels, from grant design, implementation and oversight at country level through country coordination mechanisms, to the Global Fund Board.
DFID is a founding supporter and pledged up to £9m to the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund. We are also amongst the top five funders of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) which was created in 1996 to respond to the growing HIV/AIDS crisis. Both of these are critical in building the capacity of networks of inadequately served communities to engage with the Global Fund and hold governments to account.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to implement all of Sustainable Development Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and what steps she is taking to meet target 5.2 to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK worked hard to secure a comprehensive standalone goal on gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment in the Global Goals, and to integrate gender equality throughout the remaining goals. The new Global Goals will help us to influence others, achieve even more, and are critical to achieving transformational change to the lives of girls and women across the globe. The UK has put women and girls at the heart of our international development and humanitarian work. The UK is committed to helping 6.5 million more girls to go to school over the next 5 years. This programme of work will include tackling the difficult issues that keep girls out of school like FGM and child marriage.
The UK led efforts across the globe to ensure that a target to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) formed part of the Global Goals. We are now focused on seeing this target implemented. This includes stepping up DFID action to build the evidence base for what works to prevent violence, which will help to convince others that effective action is possible. It also means DFID working with international partners to ensure financial and technical resources are mobilised to tackle VAWG, and working with national and local partners in developing countries to transform social norms to tackle the discriminatory attitudes and behaviours that are the root causes of VAWG.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of (a) 1.5, (b) 2, (c) 4 and (d) 6 degrees of global warming on (i) countries belonging to the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Alliance of Small Island States and (ii) the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced detailed assessments of the effect of global warming. Its study on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability contained in the 2014 Fifth Assessment Report (available here: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/) makes clear how the impacts of climate change are expected to slow down economic growth, erode food security and make poverty reduction more difficult. The report notes that higher levels of warming increase the chance of severe and pervasive impacts.
The poorest and most vulnerable will be hit first and hardest by climate change and the World Bank has estimated that without action to address climate change it could result in an additional 100 million people living in extreme poverty by 2030. The UK Government is committed to tackling poverty and climate change through its International Climate Fund, which the Prime Minister has announced will increase by 50% over the next five years.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility budget has been spent on (a) private and (b) public schemes for energy infrastructure in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Justine Greening
PPIAF does not finance the provision of infrastructure through either public or private schemes. Its role is to assist governments in developing countries to improve the enabling environment for the provision of basic infrastructure services by the private sector.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the UK's position will be on the future of its donor commitments and requirements at the conference on Somalia taking place in Copenhagen on 19 and 20 November 2014.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The Copenhagen conference on 19-20 November took stock of progress in the first year of implementation of the Somali New Deal Compact. We called for political stability, continued progress on building peace and stability and the avoidance of further conflict. We also called for greater transparency and accountability in public financial management and the awarding of concessions, and a focus on resource sharing agreements as a key building block of the state formation process required to establish a stable Somali federation. We also emphasised the importance of ensuring the full inclusion and empowerment of women and girls in Somalia and improvements in access to justice. These requirements will provide the framework for our aid relationship with Somalia as we move forwards into the second year of the implementation of the compact.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to adopt the UN monitoring group on Somalia's calls for a moratorium on the new oil and gas deals until appropriate constitutional, legislative, fiscal and regulatory provisions had been clarified and agreed to by the federal government and its regional authorities; and if her Department will take steps to discourage new oil deals in Somalia.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
We have stressed to the Somalia authorities the need to agree resource and revenue sharing arrangements with the emerging federal states in Somalia, and put in place appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks for the management of Somalia’s natural resources. We are funding the World Bank to support a Somali-led process leading to agreement on revenue sharing, and to providing technical assistance to review the legal and regulatory framework.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will place in the Library a copy of the needs assessment report on Government support for the Somalia extractives sector; what steps the Government is taking as a result of that report; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
A copy of the needs assessment report on the Somalia extractives sector has been placed in the Library. In response to the report, and following discussions with the Federal Government of Somalia, we are funding the World Bank to support a Somali-led process to reach agreements on revenue sharing. The project will also provide technical assistance to review the legal and regulatory framework.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what financial or other support is provided by her Department to the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Justine Greening
DFID does not currently provide any funding to the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much the UK has (a) pledged for and (b) deposited in the UN Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund; and how much such funds represent as a proportion of the amount requested by the UN.
Answered by Justine Greening
As part of the UK’s £205 million commitment to the Ebola response, £20 million has been pledged to the UN Ebola Multi-Partner Trust Fund, in response to the UN’s call for almost $1 billion to tackle the crisis.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the report of Parliamentary Ombudsman into the complaint raised by a constituent of the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion regarding her Department's oversight of CDC Group Investments published in February 2014 and her letter of 19 November 2013 to the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion stating that she would reply in full after the publication of the Ombudsman's report, when she plans to make that full reply.
Answered by Justine Greening
I have replied to the Hon. Member's latest correspondence on this issue.