Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to maintain the Government's commitments under the Nutrition for Growth global pledging moment after December 2020.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK has been a global leader on nutrition since 2013 and remains committed to address malnutrition, particularly as the indirect impacts of COVID-19 are set to increase malnutrition significantly in the poorest countries of the world. We are looking carefully at options for a new UK commitment?post 2020?and will provide an update on our plans?in due course.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Department for International Development:
With reference to the 2020 Global Nutrition Report, what plans she has to increase support for nutrition programmes throughout the world.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Secretary of State was incredibly pleased to be invited to write a foreword to the Global Nutrition Report this year. As highlighted in the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report launched yesterday, progress to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 remains off-track and is set to stall further in the face of COVID-19. The UK remains committed to preventing and treating malnutrition as part of our commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children and DFID has contributed £15 million?of UK aid to the World Food Programme’s global COVID-19 response. In addition, I’m pleased to say that the RAF has now flown?four?UK aid-funded flights in support of WFP’s COVID-19 response plan.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will be taking on the Department for International Development legal obligation as set out in the International Development Act 2002 to prioritise poverty reduction.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Spending 0.7 percent of our national income on aid is enshrined in law. As per the Prime Minister’s statement to the House, the work of UK Aid to reduce poverty will remain central to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development office. We will undertake the necessary parliamentary process to transfer responsibilities under the International Development Act to the new department.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, what steps the Government is taking to help prevent hunger and malnutrition throughout the world.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK has been a global leader on nutrition since it hosted the first Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in 2013. The Summit generated £15 billion in new financing for nutrition up to 2020. Between 2015 and March 2019, DFID reached 50.6 million women, adolescent girls and young children with nutrition services in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, Somalia, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Yemen.
The UK remains committed to preventing and treating malnutrition as part of our commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, new-borns and children. Continued investment to prevent and treat malnutrition is important, particularly as countries face worsening levels of malnutrition in the face of COVID-19. The Secretary of State reiterated the importance of nutrition in her endorsement for the DFID-funded Global Nutrition Report 2020, which was published in May.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the Government's hosting of the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 on 4 June 2020, what steps she plans to take to help ensure that there is a globally coordinated response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK is proud to have raised $8.8 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance at the Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June. The UK pledged £1.65 billion to Gavi for 2021 to 2025. The Gavi Alliance, which includes the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, will play a vital role in maintaining essential services, including routine immunisation, throughout the pandemic. Routine immunisation is the strongest shield against secondary outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases. The funding raised by all donors at the Global Vaccine Summit will enable Gavi to immunise 300 million more children and save up to 8 million lives by 2025. The UK has also reallocated $60 million for Gavi’s Covax AMC, to ensure access in the poorest countries to any COVID-19 vaccine.
The UK is a key supporter of the COVID-19 pandemic response. This includes a global health response led by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The UK is a key donor to the WHO and has already contributed £75 million to help the organisation lead international efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 and end the pandemic.