Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions he has had with the Prime Minister on the merger of his Department and the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister discussed the merger with both Secretaries of State ahead of his announcement in the House.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support improved (a) healthcare and (b) delivery of healthcare services to indigenous women in Brazil.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK Prosperity Fund’s Global Better Health Programme aims to strengthen the health system in Brazil through technical collaboration. In particular, the programme focuses on addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer; and driving improvements in quality of care to reduce infection, injury or premature death. This will directly benefit women and poorer groups who are often particularly affected as a result of these health challenges. The programme in Brazil is currently in the inception stage, as part of which we will consider with our country partners the likely impact of the programme on different demographic groups such as indigenous women.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment his Department has made of the humanitarian situation in north east Syria.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The situation in Northeast Syria remains very fluid, and we are continually adjusting our assessment of the current impact on the humanitarian situation in the region at this stage. Prior to the recent military action, there were already 1.65 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the region. The UN reports at least 170,000 people have been displaced since the Turkish military action began, including at least 70,000 children. Critical civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, has also been affected by the conflict. The ongoing military action on the ground is also impacting the humanitarian response. Many NGOs have already had to withdraw staff, and some have suspended activities altogether. This is very concerning, and we are discussing closely with our NGO partners and the UN. The Secretary of State has been in contact with Sir Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, to identify any gaps in the humanitarian response, and ensure those affected by the situation in Northeast Syria are getting the support they need.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World's report which found that global hunger has increased for the fourth year, what steps the Government is taking to (a) tackle global hunger and (b) achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Two.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report shows that without significantly increased efforts the world will fall far short of achieving the target of eradicating hunger by 2030. The UK is playing its part to ending hunger and undernutrition through its substantial portfolio of humanitarian support and longer-term responses to tackling chronic hunger and supporting food security by transforming agriculture. We are aware that the international community needs to do more. We are discussing opportunities for scaled-up and improved global interventions, including the German-initiated proposal for a SDG2 moment in 2020, and are supporting the Government of Japan in its preparations for the 2020 Nutrition for Growth Summit.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the recent State of the World Food Security and Nutrition report findings that global hunger has increased for the fourth year running, what steps the Government is taking to (a) help end this trend and (b) help ensure that sustainable development goal two is achieved.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The UK is playing its part in ending hunger and undernutrition through a substantial portfolio of agricultural and other economic development programmes, nutrition, agricultural research, social safety nets, resilience and humanitarian response interventions; through DFID’s bilateral programmes as well as support to multilateral institutions. But we are aware that more needs to be done if we are to end hunger by 2030, and the new report confirms the urgency. This is why we are discussing opportunities with partners for scaled-up and improved global interventions, to help reverse the negative trend on global hunger, including the German-initiated proposal for a major SDG2 moment in 2020.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
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 countries invest in their health care systems.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Strong and resilient health systems that meet essential health care needs for all are central to our health efforts. DFID supports countries to mobilise and allocate more of their own domestic resources for health through international advocacy, multilateral investment and our programmes. We also fund technical assistance to strengthen and implement robust health financing strategies and reforms, helping countries to achieve ‘more money for health and more health for the money’.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to the promotion of universal health coverage in each of the last five years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID is the world’s second largest health donor. Strengthening health systems to deliver universal health coverage (UHC) is a priority for the UK and an overarching goal for DFID health investments. However, we do not classify spend on promoting UHC separately from other health investments.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding from the public purse the UK has provided to the Trust Fund for Africa in each year since its establishment.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) was established at the Valletta Summit in November 2015. To date, the UK Government has made direct contributions to the EUTF of €0.6m (approximately £515,000) in 2016/17, a further €0.6m in 2017/18, and €1.6m (approximately £1,375,000) in 2018/19.
In addition, circa 15% of the €3.7bn (£3.18bn) in funds provided to the EUTF from the EU budget and the European Development Fund is attributable to UK Official Development Assistance, an amount of approximately €555m (£477m) in total.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much UK funding is allocated to the Department for Combating Illegal Migration in Libya; from which UK Department that budget is drawn; and how much of that funding qualifies as official development assistance.
Answered by Alistair Burt
No UK funding is allocated to the Libyan Department for Combating Illegal Migration.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to ensure that the effectiveness of UK ODA will not be affected by reductions in the number of staff in her Department.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
In common with other government departments and in response to a request from the Cabinet Office, DFID has been considering what support it may be able to offer other government departments in the event of a no deal EU Exit. This contingency planning is specifically for a no deal EU Exit scenario only.
In all scenarios, essential DFID business must continue to ensure that we meet the 0.7% commitment, with impact and value for money. EU exit will not prevent us from continuing the lifesaving humanitarian work that we carry out around the world.