Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department will urgently make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the level of bilateral overseas development aid to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq to help tackle a potential second wave of covid-19 infections in that region.
Answered by James Cleverly
The UK is supporting Iraq as it responds to the coronavirus outbreak. We have committed £16.9 million of funding to help combat coronavirus in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is helping to provide hospitals and primary care clinics with clean water, medication, soap and equipment. We are working closely with UN and INGO partners to help Iraq manage the pandemic whilst continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including displaced people.
Since 2014, the UK has committed over £272 million in humanitarian support, and £110 million towards stabilisation efforts in Iraq, helping those who are most urgently in need following the conflict with Daesh.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What steps her Department is taking to promote measures to limit the spread of covid-19 in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Answered by James Cleverly
During a recent ‘virtual visit’, the Secretary of State was inspired to meet young Iraqi entrepreneurs who are helping develop the Iraqi economy. The UK stands with Iraq as it responds to the coronavirus outbreak. We are working closely with UN and international partners to help Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, manage the pandemic whilst continuing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including displaced people living in camps.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions he has had with her Norwegian counterpart on that country's decision in 2019 to withhold funding to the Palestinian Authority if extremist content is not removed by the Palestinian Authority’s from the school curriculum; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Cleverly
The UK government is deeply concerned about the allegations of incitement in the Palestinian Authority’s school textbooks. The International Development Secretary reiterated our concerns in a call to the Palestinian Authority’s Education Minister just last month.
The UK has been at the forefront of international action to get to the bottom of the allegations. We funded work to develop the methodology for an independent textbook Review sponsored by our European partners. We expect an interim report in June, with a full report later in the year. The UK has regular discussions with our European partners on the Review. I have not had specific discussions with my Norwegian counterpart on this issue.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency's for Palestine Refugees in the Near East of reports that Palestinian school textbooks contain content which incites violence; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Cleverly
The UK recognises the UN Relief and Works Agency’s (UNWRA) unique mandate to support Palestinian refugees until a lasting political settlement is reached which determines their final status. Until that time, the UK will continue to meet humanitarian need and promote regional security by supporting the 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East through UNRWA. Our contribution to UNRWA last year helped provide education to more than 530,000 children (half girls), health services for over 3 million people, and social assistance for over 250,000 of the most vulnerable people.
Students in all UNRWA schools are taught the curriculum of their host country. UNRWA reviews host country textbooks and when problematic material is identified, develops alternative content and provides its teachers with support to ensure that the lessons taught in its schools promote tolerance and peace. The International Development Secretary spoke to the Palestinian Minister of Education in February to emphasise this point and encourage the Palestinian Authority to remove all inappropriate material from textbooks.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What progress has been made on the international review into the books included in the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum.
Answered by James Cleverly
Following the UK’s calls for international action, an EU sponsored independent review of Palestinian textbooks is currently underway. We understand that an interim report will be completed in Spring 2020 with the full report due later this year. The Development Secretary made it clear that incitement in education is unacceptable when she spoke with the PA Education Minister last week and she held him to account on progress to remove hateful content.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department takes to ensure, through the allocation of official development assistance, that children studying in schools run by the Palestinian Authority are not being taught that it is honourable to commit violent acts against Israelis; and if he will make representations to the Palestinian leadership on upholding their pledge to renounce violence.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The UK government strongly condemns all forms of violence and incitement to violence.
We have robust conversations with the highest levels of the Palestinian leadership, challenging them about the need to prepare their population for peace, including by promoting a positive portrayal of others. I most recently raised the issue with the Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Education at a meeting on 22 January 2020.
We continue to judge that the Palestinian Authority is demonstrating a credible commitment to DFID’s ‘partnership principles’, including the principle of non-violence.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans he has to require countries in receipt of Official Development Assistance for the health sector to commit five per cent of their GDP to spending on that sector.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
If we are to meet the ambition of Sustainable Development Goal 3 and ensure no-one is left behind, countries need to invest more public resources in health. The UK strongly supports the commitments in the United Nations Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage. This calls on countries to increase public spending, with an emphasis on primary health care, noting World Health Organisation recommendations of an additional 1% of GDP or more. We provide technical assistance to countries as part of our health system strengthening programmes through our country offices and through funding to the World Health Organisation. The UK will step up our efforts to end preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children in the developing world by 2030. This will include boosting our support for developing countries to make progress towards universal health coverage, focusing on ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights and helping the most vulnerable women such as survivors of female genital mutilation, and working with our global partners to deliver Gavi’s new strategy that will vaccinate a further 300 million children in the world’s poorest countries by 2025.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to help strengthen the tax systems of developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The UK is committed to supporting countries to achieve the Global Goals, including working actively with countries to help raise and manage public revenues, and thereby to invest in their public services and infrastructure.
In February 2019 we announced a new £47 million package of support to assist developing countries in strengthening their tax systems. This package will provide technical assistance and capacity building support through a number of partners. It will also help contribute to economic growth by helping to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, and by creating a more level playing field for businesses. In addition to this new package of support, the UK has a number of other initiatives underway to help strengthen tax systems; in August 2018 DFID Ethiopia launched a £35 million programme to support the Ethiopian government in transforming the country’s tax system, and HMRC’s Capacity Building Unit provides peer-to-peer expertise to raise the standards of tax systems of developing countries.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What processes are in place to monitor UK aid spending in the Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID continuously monitors UK aid spending in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We rigorously manage delivery partners according to the Supply Partner Code of Conduct, map the flow of funds through the delivery chain, and all our programmes are subject to independent audits. We evaluate and improve our programmes regularly through annual reviews.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance the UK is providing to livelihood creation for (a) internally displaced persons in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and (b) Internally Displaced Persons returning from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to the Nineveh Plains.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK funds livelihood projects in northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq through the UN’s Iraq Humanitarian Fund (IHF). In 2017 IHF-funded livelihoods projects provided 6,033 displaced or conflict affected people with temporary employment opportunities. The UK also funds livelihood creation through the UNDP Funding Facility for Stabilisation (FFS), which focuses on areas liberated from Daesh. In order to create conditions for people to return home, the FFS aims to kick-start local economies by rehabilitating critical infrastructure, providing grants for small businesses, and by directly generating income opportunities.