Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether it is the policy of her Department to always use the word Rohingya when discussing the Rohingya with Burmese Government officials and Ministers.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK does not have a specific policy about using the word Rohingya in discussions with the Burmese authorities. The UK recognises the rights of all communities to self-identify, including the Rohingya. We continue to urge the Burmese authorities to ensure basic rights for all people of Burma.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department is providing to 9,000 displaced ethnic Shan and Karen people from Burma who are no longer receiving support via the Border Consortium.
Answered by Alistair Burt
At present DFID is not providing support directly to this specific population. Humanitarian Advisors are monitoring the situation, speaking to the Border Consortium and aiming to visit the area in early 2018 to make an assessment. DFID’s current humanitarian assistance in Burma is channelled through the Burma Humanitarian Assistance And Resilience Programme, which provides support to Burmese refugees in Thailand and over 100,000 conflict-affected and internally displaced people across Burma.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what safeguards her Department has put in place to ensure UK aid projects in Burma are not purchasing goods and services from military-owned or controlled companies.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Before DFID Burma’s programmes work with private sector companies we conduct vetting and due diligence to identify and screen out any companies or individuals who may have military links. It is however difficult in Burma to assert that none of our project partners are not purchasing any goods or services from military-owned or controlled companies. Over 50 years of dictatorship the military has built up a range of commercial interests. The services and goods they provide range from drinking water to port handling services and mobile phone towers.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on its strategy on trade and aid of the establishment of the Institute for Free Trade; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I welcome the establishment of the Institute for Free Trade, which fully acknowledges the vital role trade can play in boosting developing countries’ economic development and lifting people out of poverty.
This Government is committed to engaging with a broad range of stakeholders as we further develop our trade and development policy. I look forward to considering the work of the Institute as this progresses.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to recent reports of sub-standard teaching and unsanitary learning facilities and the decision in the High Court in Kampala in August 2016 to order the closure of 63 Bridge International Academies in Uganda, whether her Department has taken steps to change Government funding patterns to that organisation.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In Uganda, the Bridge International Academies (BIA) schools remain open with BIA and the Government of Uganda in dialogue to ensure that BIA meets the requirements set out.
There is no set funding pattern to BIA. CDC has a total UK investment in BIA of $7.1m, made in 2014. The investments made were long term and will be returned to the UK taxpayer, they are not specifically for any country of operation. A DFID £3.45m grant, awarded competitively, was also provided to open 23 Bridge academies in Lagos, Nigeria. This grant is now completed.
Any future funding decisions will follow DFID’s due process that aims to achieve best value for money and developmental impact, taking into consideration a broad range of evidence.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of growing drug resistance upon the globally-agreed target of reducing malaria cases and deaths by 40 per cent by 2020.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Our assessment is that drug resistance, along with insecticide resistance, pose a real threat to the recent progress seen on malaria. This is why DFID is a leading global funder of efforts to tackle malaria, through research funding, bilateral treatment and control programmes and our funding to multilateral institutions such as the Global Fund. This support includes developing new drugs in response to current levels of drug resistance. We also support drug management programmes that decrease the chances of resistance building up, and other measures of tackling malaria, such as the use of bednets.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of progress towards the amount the Government pledged for education in Syria at the London donor conference in February 2016.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Since 2012 the UK has pledged £2.46 billion in response to the Syria crisis, the UK’s largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. As well as supporting children with food, shelter and healthcare, the UK helped to launch UNICEF’s No Lost Generation Initiative, which provides education, protection, and mental health support for children in Syria and neighbouring countries. At the 2016 London Syria Conference we did not make a specific pledge for education inside Syria, but in 2016/17 alone DFID helped ensure that over 350,000 children accessed formal primary and secondary education in Syria, and that over 80,000 benefitted from non-formal education.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to change OECD-DAC rules.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In line with the Conservative Manifesto, this Government is pressing for the rules that govern how, on whom, and for what purpose development assistance is spent to better reflect the breadth of our assistance around the world. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) determines what may be counted as Official Development Assistance. As it operates by consensus, we are working with our DAC partners and other stakeholders to achieve this.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent humanitarian assistance her Department has provided to victims of floods and monsoons in south east Asia.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID led the way in the crisis as the international community’s largest bilateral donor. In Bangladesh we made the first international contribution of £660,000 to help over 60,000 people with food, shelter, and water and sanitation. Following flooding earlier in the year, we allocated £3m for early recovery in North East Bangladesh. In Nepal, we provided water, hygiene, sanitation and shelter support to 30,000 people through pre-positioned supplies, and gave £400,000 to the Nepal Red Cross Society for the response. In Pakistan, we committed over £410,000 for emergency response, which included cash support for 1,300 families to repair damaged homes, and provide temporary access to clean drinking water to 400,000 people. In India, we committed £400,000 through the multi-donor START fund in India.
Over several years DFID has helped Bangladesh and Nepal to prepare for natural disasters. Previous UK support in Bangladesh funded emergency flood shelters, and in Nepal the UK funded the construction of a humanitarian staging area at Kathmandu airport. In addition, DFID Bangladesh is earmarking £7.9 million for disaster preparedness from 2016-2021, and DFID Nepal is setting aside £46 million between 2016 and 2022, for strengthening disaster resilience and responding to humanitarian emergencies.
Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to change her Department's financial contributions for sexual and reproductive health rights.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK leads the world in our long-term support for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): from tackling HIV, to family planning, to maternal and newborn health, to combatting Female Genital Mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, to supporting safe abortion. We are the second largest donor to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; the largest donor to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and we recently opened bids for innovative civil society consortia to address SRHR.
In July 2017 the UK again rose to the challenge, hosting the London summit on family planning, and committing to spend an average of £225m every year on family planning for the next five years, an increase of 25%, which we estimate will prevent 6 million unintended pregnancies.