Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will make representations to the World Health Organisation on publishing a detailed analysis of the covid 19 outbreak in Yemen.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The World Health Organisation already works with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to produce regular analysis on the COVID-19 outbreak in Yemen. Their most recent update can be found online here: https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-covid-19-preparedness-and-response-snapshot-13-june-2020-enar.
Additionally, my officials remain in close and regular contact with the World Health Organisation in Yemen to discuss the latest COVID-19 developments and ways of improving the humanitarian response.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) food, (b) water and (c) medicines are supplied to people in Yemen.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
As part of our £160 million aid commitment for Yemen in the 2020/21 financial year, the UK expects to provide support to at least 300,000 vulnerable people each month to help them buy food and household essentials, treat 40,000 children for malnutrition and provide 1 million people with improved water supply and basic sanitation.
Our funding will also help tackle the spread of COVID-19 in Yemen and we expect this new package to provide over 700,000 medical consultations, train 12,000 healthcare workers to work safely in a COVID-19 environment and provide a much-needed boost to nearly 4,000 health centres to continue providing existing health services.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the desert locust invasion in Eastern Africa.
Answered by James Duddridge
We are deeply concerned about the devastating locust outbreak in East Africa. It is destroying crops, livelihoods and essential food supplies.
UK aid is helping to tackle this outbreak though the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF has released £7.5 million to the UN Food and Agriculture Office (FAO) Locust Appeal. Our support is having an immediate impact, with UK aid backed funding, the FAO is spraying pesticides on the ground and by air to prevent further damage to crops and protect livelihoods.
DFID’s existing humanitarian and development programming in the region is working to address current food insecurity and poverty challenges and is ready to flex to respond to this crisis. We continue to monitor the situation closely and stand ready to help further.
As rising temperatures due to climate change make such events across Africa more likely, we are also helping communities adapt longer term to climate shocks.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the UK's contribution to the World Bank International Development Association will be over the next 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Over the next 12 months, the United Kingdom (UK) is expected to contribute £679 million to the International Development Association (IDA).
The next IDA replenishment will start from July 2020 and donors are expected to announce their pledges this December. No decision has been taken on the UK contribution to that. House of Commons consent is required before any UK payments are made.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Millennium Development Goal targets on access to clean water by 2020 will be met in sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Millennium Development Goal targets for clean water in sub-Saharan Africa were not met by the 2015 deadline. Between 2015 and 2018, DFID supported 17.5 million people in Africa to access clean water and/or better sanitation. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over 2.7 million people gained access to clean water with DFID’s support between 2015 and 2018. In Ethiopia, DFID supported 1.9 million people to access clean water and/or better sanitation.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when he is planning for an announcement by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative of a post-2019 date for the complete eradication of polio.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK is a long-standing supporter of the polio eradication efforts led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. These efforts have been incredibly successful, seeing a 99% reduction in cases of polio over the last 30 years.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has recently published its new strategic plan for the next phase of eradication activities, until 2023. The strategy does not commit to eradicate Polio by a certain date, as we know that the virus is still circulating in the most difficult environments where it’s extremely hard to reach every last child, such as parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There will be a Polio moment in November when international donors are expected to announce ongoing commitment to the global eradication efforts. The UK is currently considering the new strategic plan and will make announcements on Polio in November 2019.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make representations at the UN on (a) the increasing level of malnutrition among (i) young children and (ii) other people in North Korea and (b) reports that about 40 per cent of the population of that country are at risk of that condition.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UN estimates that 10.9m people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) (an increase of 600,000 over 2018), all of whom are food insecure. An estimated 10.3m people are under-nourished. The UK provides no bilateral funding to the DPRK. The UK contributes to the UN Central Emergency Fund (CERF), along with other bilateral donors. CERF provided US$10m in humanitarian funding to DPRK in 2018, including allocations to the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation for work on nutrition security. The CERF makes independent decisions on the allocation of resources based on assessed need.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has provided humanitarian assistance to Brazil as a result of the collapse of the damn in Minas Gerais.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID has been monitoring the situation and always stands ready to assist. No requests for assistance from HMG have been received. Our embassy is in contact with local authorities who are doing all that they can to help those affected. Our consulate in Belo Horizonte is in contact with British stakeholders that could provide assistance.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make representations to the Congolese Government on reported concerns with the adequacy of electronic voting arrangements in the forthcoming elections.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
I visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in April 2018 and discussed electronic voting machines with the Electoral Commission (CENI). At their request, the UK funded a technical analysis of the machines to help identify and mitigate the challenges around their use in DRC’s elections.
The UK has repeatedly encouraged CENI to adopt the recommendations from the analysis and address concerns of stakeholders with the electoral process, including most recently through a UN Security Council Statement on 21st November, and a meeting between senior officials and CENI on 11th December.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether his Department has set joint targets with African Governments on ending female genital mutilation.
Answered by Alistair Burt
All member states of the United Nations have jointly agreed the target on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) set out in Sustainable Development Goals; to eliminate FGM by 2030.
The UK government is committed to supporting African efforts to achieve this shared goal, and last month we were proud to announce a new £50 million package to support an African-led movement to end to FGM by 2030 – the biggest single investment by an international donor.