Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) attacks on Christian Rohingya refugee families by other refugees in Bangladesh, in particular reports of such attacks in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp on 27 January; and (2) what steps they are taking to ensure the safety of refugees around the world who are from religious minority groups.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We are aware of reports of attacks on Christian Rohingya refugee families in Kutupalong, Bangladesh, and are monitoring the situation closely. The UK government, working through the main agencies responsible for protection and safety, is committed to improving the safety of all the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. DFID is a major supporter of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR). UNHCR works to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance; and to seek permanent solutions for all refugees, returnees, stateless people and, in some instances, internally displaced people. This includes refugees from religious minority groups. UNHCR plays a critical role in ensuring that those persecuted because of their religion have protection in the country they have fled to. DFID works with UNHCR and all its humanitarian partners, including faith-based humanitarian organisations to ensure aid is given to those most vulnerable and most in need of assistance, in line with the humanitarian principles. This includes members of religious minority groups, who are often among those most in need of protection and assistance when assessed by our humanitarian partners.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much UK aid has been spent via the European Development Fund (EDF) in Africa in each of the past ten years; how much will be spent via the EDF in the next financial year; whether the spending priorities for the EDF will be reassessed; who will determine any such future priorities; and on what basis.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The European Development Fund’s (EDF) bilateral country allocations to Sub-Saharan Africa have varied over time, but historically have been at least 80% per year, with additional EDF funding to Africa going through regional components, trust funds and multilateral partners. There are no plans to reassess the EDF spending for 2020 as the instrument comes to an end in December 2020. Further information on the EDF and allocations of funding can be found at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/EPRS/EPRS-IDA-542140-European-Development-Fund-FINAL.pdf
Between the financial years 2009/10 and 2019/20 the UK contributed £4.1bn to the EDF. We estimate that at least £3.3bn has been used for allocations to Sub-Saharan Africa at country and regional levels. Full details of our annual contributions to the EDF can be found at: https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-200236
The Withdrawal Agreement sets out that the UK will honour commitments made to the EU budget during the period of our membership up to December 2020. The UK will fund all programmes approved during the current EU Multiannual Financial Framework (2014-2020), which includes obligations to the current, and previous, European Development Funds. For financial year 2020/21, we estimate that at least £516m of DFID’s EDF payments will be spent in Sub-Saharan Africa, though fluctuations may result from the rate of EDF programme delivery and exchange rate fluctuations over the coming year.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much UK aid has been provided to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in each of the past 10 years; how many Department for International Development employees work exclusively on the Democratic Republic of the Congo; what that aid has been used for; and what assessment they have made of the effect such aid has had on preventing corruption and building a rules-based society.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK is a longstanding development partner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Over the last 10 years (2009-2018) the DRC has received approximately £1.65 billion in UK bilateral Overseas Development Assistance. 56 people are currently employed by the Department for International Development to work exclusively on the DRC. UK Aid supports millions of Congolese in need through improved access to clean water, health care and education- providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance, by tackling outbreaks and global health emergencies such as Ebola, Measles and Cholera. We also contribute to creating peace and stability by tackling the underlying drivers of conflict, creating access to sustainable jobs and improved incomes. UK Aid is tackling corruption, strengthening accountability and contributing to rules-based society, including through both our public financial management and elections programme. The effectiveness of DFID programmes is measured against expected results, and the value for money provided. Individual programme performance is assessed annually and can be viewed on DFID’s development tracker.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much development aid has been given to Nigeria in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The total UK bilateral Official Development Assistance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria for each of the previous ten years is detailed below:
Year | £ thousands |
2009 | 121,277 |
2010 | 171,335 |
2011 | 186,428 |
2012 | 197,313 |
2013 | 248,734 |
2014 | 236,639 |
2015 | 262,685 |
2016 | 319,583 |
2017 | 327,199 |
2018 | 296,819 |
Source: Statistics on International Development 2018. Additional Table 4A. Published 19 September 2019. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2018 | |
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the UK's development aid to Nigeria is used to (1) promote community cohesion, (2) protect those at risk of attack by jihadists, and (3) bring to justice those responsible for any atrocities and crimes against humanity.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK’s development assistance to Nigeria seeks to address some of the root causes of conflict throughout the country (and particularly in the North East) and help build stability in the longer term. In particular, the UK is promoting community cohesion in North East Nigeria through a range of interventions from £3m in 2019/20 to improve relationships between communities and security forces to both build trust and ensure the protection of civilians in target communities in Borno State, North East Nigeria; £900,000 to build the resilience of women and children survivors of violent extremism and reintegrate them into communities; and £2 million of support for Nigeria’s Defections, Disengagement, Demobilisation, De-radicalisation and Reintegration programme that is managed by the International Organisation for Migration from December 2019 to March 2021.
To protect those at risk of attack as a result of the insecurity, DFID has a £16m two-year programme dedicated to providing support to those affected by the conflict in North East Nigeria, particularly victims of sexual and gender-based violence. DFID works with partners, the UN and NGOs to save lives, strengthen resilience, and protect civilians from attacks and violations of international law. To improve the effectiveness of security responses and the protection of civilians in Borno state, the UK is providing up to £800,000 from October 2019 to March 2021.
We are careful to ensure that our ongoing work in a complex environment to bring potential perpetrators to justice is compliant with International Human Rights Law.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations contained in the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Rights of the Rohingya's report A New Shape of Catastrophe: two years on from the 2017 Rohingya Crisis, published on 10 September.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
I am grateful for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Rights of the Rohingya's sustained work and attention on the Rohingya crisis response. I wrote to the Co-Chair of the Group, Anne Main MP, on 27 September in response to the report. The UK has recently announced further funding to the crisis, bringing our total commitment to the response in Bangladesh since August 2017 to £256 million, and making us the second largest donor to the 2019 international Joint Response Plan.
DFID’s latest funding to the crisis will maintain and improve protection and humanitarian assistance provided to refugees, including through the provision of food, healthcare, water, sanitation, care and counselling for sexual violence survivors, and protection of vulnerable groups. Over 75,000 children and adolescents from the refugee and host communities will have access to education and skills training and over £20 million of new support will be provided to the thousands of already vulnerable Bangladeshi families in Cox’s Bazar district. The UK is also one of the largest donors in Rakhine State, Myanmar, where over 600,000 Rohingya remain in need of assistance. The UK is committed to justice for the Rohingya, and has led international efforts on sanctions and establishing an evidence gathering mechanism.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they intend to have with the Pakistan Public Services Commissions about ways in which to support the training and professional development of workers from religious minority backgrounds; and what plans they have to increase aid funding to be used for training teachers in Pakistan to promote freedom of religion or belief.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We have already funded teacher training modules on equity and inclusion delivered to nearly 100,000 teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. UK aid prioritises support for the poorest and most excluded people and communities in Pakistan regardless of race, religion, social background or nationality. DFID Pakistan is currently developing new education programmes and as part of this process we will actively consider what we can do to benefit these groups.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include modules on freedom of religion or belief in all existing and future Department for International Development capacity building programmes.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID’s increasing use of country context analysis has improved the way in which religious dynamics and religious groups are factored into country programmes. Through this process, DFID identifies the most significant problems that hinder development and the main entry points and opportunities to create change. This includes the role of religion and freedom of religion or belief.
Through UK Aid Connect, DFID is funding a consortium led by the Institute of Development Studies to address the challenges in building tolerance and freedom of religion or belief. In November 2018, Lord Ahmad and Lord Bates launched this £12 million initiative which will contribute to making poverty reduction programmes more inclusive, by highlighting and redressing religious inequalities, with a focus on highly volatile contexts.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to support the government of Pakistan to develop financial incentives for parents from marginalised religious minority communities to register their children upon birth, and to send them to schools.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID supports the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) which is the Government of Pakistan’s national social protection scheme. Under the BISP education programme, a total of 3.2 million children will be supported to enrol and stay in primary schools. Targeting is based on poverty status, regardless of race, religion or ethnic background, and encourages parents to provide the birth registration certificate as part of enrolment into the programme.
We do not support financial incentives for any parents to register the birth of their children, as our assessment is that this is not the most appropriate tool to improve birth registration. However, we will continue to actively engage with the Government of Pakistan to promote increased accessibility to birth registration services for marginalised and hard to reach groups, including for religious minorities. We are also designing interventions under our Aawaz II programme to directly work with groups like religious minorities in communities to better access services.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require organisations that receive UK aid funding for projects in Pakistan to hire at least 5 per cent of any in-country staff from minority communities.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We do not have any plans to require recruitment by quota for DFID funded programmes. People from minority communities may be reluctant to disclose their minority status, which makes it difficult to count and monitor against this metric. However, our programme documentation makes clear that we require our partners to avoid discriminatory practices in recruitment as well as take action on safeguarding.
Our Aawaz programme has helped members of minority communities to challenge discrimination and its successor Aawaz 2 will continue this work.