Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Global Disability Summit in July 2018 has on its agenda the needs of disabled people in Syria and the support systems those people require in order to be able to access education and work.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Both education and economic empowerment will feature prominently on the agenda of the UK’s Global Disability Summit. The Summit will also consider how these themes apply in supporting people with disabilities in conflicted affected states and humanitarian situations such as in Syria.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what (a) funding and (b) assistance the Government is providing to ease hunger and prevent famine in Sudan and Somalia.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK is providing a range of assistance in response to humanitarian needs across Sudan and Somalia, as well as pushing others to step up support.
DFID has committed £4.5 million to the World Food Programme in Sudan to provide cash and vouchers to 486,000 vulnerable people in Darfur between June and October 2017 and £4.5 million to the Sudan Humanitarian Fund, which is expected to reach at least 404,000 people across Sudan with food security and livelihoods assistance by the end of 2017.
On 17 June the Secretary of State visited Somalia to announce a £60m uplift in UK support to drought relief operations, on top of a contribution of £110m announced in February. Since February our support has provided emergency food assistance for 986,000 people and access to safe drinking water to 1,033,000 alongside a broader package of support to tackle malnutrition and disease and provide livestock vaccinations.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the Government's overseas development aid budget is spent on schemes to support economic growth in middle-income countries.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Around four per cent of UK official development assistance (ODA) was spent to support economic growth in middle-income countries in 2015.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps the Government has taken to ensure that its overseas development aid is targeted at the world's poorest people.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The 2015 UK Aid Strategy set out how the Government will strive to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. This means supporting the world’s poorest people to ensure that every person has access to basic needs, including prioritising the rights of girls and women.
The Bilateral Development Review, published on 1 December 2016, set out what DFID will achieve over the next four years to deliver the UK’s commitment to reaching the poorest and most excluded people.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance for medical care the Government provides for people living in Palestine.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK has contributed to medical care for Palestinians through our support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority. The UK is a long-term supporter of UNRWA, providing over £60 million in 2015/16. Through this funding, we have supported UNRWA to deliver comprehensive primary healthcare to 5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank and the region, as well as supporting them to access more specialised medical care.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Government plans to maintain funding to prevent deforestation in developing countries; and whether the UK provides any funding to help prevent large-scale forest fires in developing countries.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
Preventing deforestation is a key priority for the UK. More than one billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, and forests are vital resources which support economic growth in developing countries. At the Paris climate change conference in 2015, the UK Germany and Norway collectively committed to providing up to US$1 billion per year by 2020, or over $5 billion in the period 2015-20, to prevent deforestation and ensure that forests are managed sustainably.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
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 merits of increasing the level of funding for decentralised renewable energy to improve access to electricity for the world's poorest people.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The UK Government is already playing a leading role in improving energy access in developing countries through decentralised renewable energy. DFID’s energy work is aligned with the new Global Goals, particularly Goal 7, to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. DFID’s priorities for how we will achieve this include through flexible technical assistance, catalytic investments and engagement with international partners. DFID’s assistance looks across the energy spectrum and covers both on-grid as well as decentralised off-grid renewable energy.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the UK will take to safeguard children and other civilians in any assault on IS in Mosul; what steps she will take to put in place safe routes out for children and families; and if she will ensure that screening procedures take care not to separate families.
Answered by Rory Stewart
On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, taking our total commitment to £90 million this financial year and £169.5 million since June 2014. This new assistance will be targeted specifically to enable a scale up of humanitarian assistance ahead of the Government of Iraq-led Mosul operations. It will include support to efforts aimed at ensuring the protection of civilians, including children.
The UK will continue to lobby all parties to adhere to International Humanitarian Law and for screening to take place in a transparent manner, under a fully accountable chain of command, and to be monitored independently by the UN and other neutral and impartial humanitarian actors.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Government has made plans to assist with additional funding or aid subsequent to the changes in refugee numbers entering into Mosul.
Answered by Rory Stewart
On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, on top of £50 million committed earlier this year. This brings our total commitment in Iraq to £169.5 million since June 2014. This support will provide emergency life-saving assistance – such as food, shelter, medical and protection services – to support the Government of Iraq-led Mosul humanitarian response as well as continuing to provide assistance for displaced and vulnerable people across the country.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department will commit to maintaining or increasing funding that is allocated to eradicating violence against women in armed conflict, facilitating universal access to reproductive healthcare and supporting equal rights and opportunities for women and girls.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK has put the empowerment of women and girls at the heart of our international development work, and is delivering significant results for women and girls. We played an instrumental role in influencing the global agreement for Sustainable Development Goal 5 ‘to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. We also made firm commitments to support women and girls in the 2015 UK Aid strategy, underpinned by the 2014 International Development (Gender Equality) Act legislation, which ensures that UK Aid development and humanitarian work considers gender issues as a core part of everything they deliver. The UK is a global leader in promoting, protecting and supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including neglected and difficult issues. The 2012 London Summit on Family Planning put the issue firmly back on the international agenda, and the UK is a core convenor of the FP2020 movement established at the Summit to drive forward progress.
Full attainment of political, social and economic rights for women and girls is a UK priority, recognising its centrality to greater peace and stability. Violence against women and girls is one of the most systematic, widespread human rights violations worldwide. Globally, 1 in 3 women is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime. DFID has made significant progress in scaling up efforts to address violence against women and girls, nearly doubling our programming from 64 programmes in 2012 to 127 in 2016 (including the £25 million ‘What Works to Prevent Violence’ programme). The UK and the new Secretary of State will continue to lead the global effort to improve the lives of women and girls, promoting gender equality and women and girls empowerment in all contexts.