Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to commence aid drops in Syria.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK continues to press for sustained humanitarian access to all besieged and hard to reach areas in Syria. We are a core member of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which demanded in May that the Asad regime allow land access to all besieged areas from 1 June, or the international community would call on the World Food Programme (WFP) to carry out humanitarian airdrops to those areas. This was only necessary because the regime has consistently failed to live up to its commitments under International Humanitarian Law to ensure free, unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies.
As a result, June saw improved levels of humanitarian access. Eight besieged locations were reached by road, including Darayya which received its first deliveries of food since 2012. However, seven remained unreached at the end of June. The regime has now agreed in principle road access to all 16 besieged areas requested by the UN in July. The ISSG is working with the UN to hold the regime to this commitment.
While delivering aid by road is the best approach to safely deliver the quantities needed and to ensure that it gets to those who need it most, if there is no improvement we must look to the WFP to carry out its plan for airdrops to reach those in need. The ISSG is united in its resolve to ensure full, sustained humanitarian access to the people of Syria.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what reports and representations she has received on the effects of the work of New Alliance on local farmers in areas where it operates; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that local farmers are not subject to displacement and do not fall into debt as a result of that programme's activities.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition group publish a comprehensive report on an annual basis that can be found on the New Alliance website. Every DFID programme which contributes is subject to DFID’s annual review processes the reports of which are posted on the DFID Development Tracker website (http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/).
DFID and G7 donor partners, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the African Union Policy Initiative have responded to a commission by the New Alliance Leadership Council and drafted a due diligence framework for private sector land investments. This provides guidance on best practice and applicable legislation, including displacement. The framework was adopted in June and is now being piloted with support from our partner Grow Africa. It is available on the New Alliance website.