Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to the Palestinian Authority to tackle the covid-19 pandemic in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK has pledged £744 million to support the global humanitarian response to COVID-19. We?have?delivered?additional vital support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by providing funding to WHO and UNICEF to purchase and co-ordinate the delivery of?medical equipment,?treat critical care patients, train frontline public health personnel and scale up laboratory testing capacity.
The UN assesses that although the current number of detected cases remains relatively low, the capacity of the Palestinian health system to cope with an expected increase in COVID-19 cases is poor. The situation is particularly severe in Gaza, where the health system has shortages in specialised staff, drugs and equipment. We continue to monitor the situation and are working closely with the UN and the international community to ensure a co-ordinated response.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to encourage international donors to release funds pledged for humanitarian relief in Yemen.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
We remain very concerned by the potential funding gap the UN humanitarian response in Yemen is facing this year. The 2019 Yemen Pledging Conference in Geneva this March saw $2.6 billion pledged by international donors (against a $4.2 billion UN humanitarian appeal for 2019), approximately 20% of which has been disbursed to date.
The UK is regularly engaging with other donors at senior levels to urge the rapid disbursement of funding to the UN to enable it to cover urgent needs.
The UK has also brought forward funding and will have made available over half of our £200 million pledge for this financial year (2019/2020) by the beginning of June.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support his Department is providing to help tackle the cholera epidemic in Yemen.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK is deeply concerned about the rise in cholera in Yemen this year, with a suspected 300,000 cases recorded between January and April 2019. In response, the UK rapidly disbursed £18 million last month to the UN’s pooled fund and UNICEF to help tackle the issue. We have seen a decline in suspected cholera cases in the last five weeks and hope this continues.
To help prepare for outbreaks of cholera, the UK is leading a joint Met Office, NASA and US scientist team to accurately predict where the disease will spread to in Yemen. We contributed 25% towards the cost of cholera vaccination campaigns this year which have vaccinated over 2 million people in both Houthi and Government of Yemen controlled areas to date.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to assist humanitarian relief in Yemen.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Yemen is now one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The UK is the fourth largest donor having more than doubled our commitment to £85m in 2015-16. We have so far helped more than 1.3m Yemenis, providing food, medical supplies, water and emergency shelter to those most in need.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress has been made on delivering the commitments made to Jordan at the Syria Donors Conference.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
In Jordan, a Management Unit has been set up within the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation to which DFID has seconded staff. Existing co-ordination mechanisms, such as the Government-Donor Education group, are developing plans to deliver the Conference goals.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to Christian communities in Iraq and Syria.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
There have been horrific cases of attacks on Christians and other religious communities by violent extremists including Daesh. We prioritise reaching the most vulnerable people across Iraq and Syria, including Christians and others who have suffered from such violence. All UK funded humanitarian assistance is distributed on the basis of need, and need alone, to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, or ethnicity. The UK continues to work with the UN and the international community to ensure all minorities’ rights are protected and our aid reaches those in greatest need.
To date, the UK has committed £79.5 million to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. In response to the Syria crisis, we have pledged over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.
As a result of UK support to Syria and the region, between February 2012 and June 2015, almost 20 million food rations were distributed, 1.6 million people were provided with clean water, 2.5 million medical consultations were provided, over 4 million relief packages were distributed and over 250,000 children were supported in formal and informal education.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to provide relief in those parts of Nigeria affected by the activities of Boko Haram.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK has provided £1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to deliver food, safe water, clothes, shelter material and other basic necessities to those people displaced following attacks by Boko Haram.
A further £1 million of UK funding is committed to the Nigerian Government’s “Safe Schools Initiative” to help protect children at school in North East Nigeria and provide schooling to children displaced by the violence. The UK has also contributed £1.7 million to the UN’s and EU’s relief efforts.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what refugee relief work her Department is undertaking in Jordan.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID is providing £122 million for humanitarian work in Jordan, providing food, healthcare and other support to thousands of refugees from Syria now living there. In addition, DFID is expanding support to municipal services and education in Jordan, to help the country deal with the impacts of the crisis.