Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department plans to provide to UK-based international charities during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
DFID is engaging with civil society partners to understand the delivery and operational challenges they face as a result of COVID-19. We will work collaboratively with civil society partners in receipt of DFID funding to find pragmatic solutions to support both our partners and continuation of our programmes where appropriate.
The COVID-19 response will continue to develop rapidly, and we are assessing and monitoring the overall financial health of supply partners to identify organisations we believe are at risk due to COVID-19.
We will deliver a comprehensive COVID-19 response through programming to support the global health and economic response, funding for further vaccine development, preparing for the recovery phase and leadership within the international community.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department will take steps to reduce bureaucratic requirements for UK-based international charities during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
DFID’s approach, in line with the government’s overall approach, is to work collaboratively with partners, including UK based international charities, to find flexible solutions that maintain delivery of essential programmes as far as possible. This applies across grants and contracts, and we are working hard to develop more comprehensive guidance for our partners in these areas.
DFID Smart Rules and programme delivery processes are kept under constant review to ensure that they are appropriate, both for partners and in meeting our responsibilities for spending public money.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to promote an inclusive humanitarian response to COVID-19 to meet deliverable 5 of her Department's Strategy for Disability Inclusive Development 2018-23, published in December 2018.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is playing a leading role in the global response to COVID-19. The UK has, so far, pledged £744 million of UK aid to help end this pandemic as quickly as possible. In addition, we are urgently redirecting existing support and programmes to be more responsive to COVID-19.
The UK continues to work with international partners, including the United Nations and its agencies, to ensure aid reaches those most in need. We are providing expert advice to governments and international partners to act quickly to assess how and where social protection or humanitarian cash systems could be best used to support an efficient, coordinated response. We are prioritising inclusion across this support and ensuring that the needs of the most vulnerable, including people with disabilities, are central to our discussions with partners and governments.
Through DFID’s co-chairing role for the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) donor Network, DFID is pushing for a coordinated response to COVID-19 by GLAD members, comprising of bilateral and multilateral donors, foundations and the private sector.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what his Department’s policy objectives are on preventing sexual violence in conflict.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Preventing and responding to all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), including conflict-related sexual violence, is a priority for DFID. The FCO leads HMG’s work on this important agenda through the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI). DFID contributes towards PSVI’s objectives through investing in evidence revealing both the scale of the problem and effective interventions to prevent it. This has shown that violence is preventable.
In communities in the DRC, a project with faith leaders and community action groups resulted in domestic violence halving from 70% to 30% in less than three years, while conflict-related sexual violence reduced from 21% to just 4%. We are sharing this evidence across Government and with international partners to encourage increased investment globally in effective approaches to tackle sexual violence.
In November 2019, the Secretary of State announced a new £67.5 million programme to scale up interventions to prevent VAWG across development and humanitarian contexts, and to continue expanding the evidence base as a global public good.
The UK is also a leading member of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies – a global initiative working to drive system change to protect women and girls in emergency situations.