Oral Answers to Questions

Eddie Hughes Excerpts

Thursday 6th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Dr Murrison]

I think I can reassure my right hon. Friend that I will in no way be caving in.

[Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)]

4. What steps his Department is taking to help increase women’s equality throughout the world.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Harriett Baldwin)]

Our strategic vision for gender equality focuses on ending violence against women and girls, on girls’ education, on promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, and on women’s empowerment.

[Eddie Hughes]

It is vital that girls in developing countries have access to high-quality education, so what progress is the Department making to help ensure that happens?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I am so pleased that my hon. Friend can support the “12 years of quality education” campaign that we are leading around the world, together with France and Canada. It is an incredibly important part of development, because evidence suggests that for every year that a girl spends in school, her lifetime earnings increase by 10%. Hon. Members can see how powerful that is in terms of prosperity for our world.