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 her Department is taking to increase the number of Syrian children in Lebanon in education.
Answered by Rory Stewart
At the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference, the UK committed to double education funding for Lebanon, to up to £40 million per year. This supports the Conference goal of getting all refugee children from Syria and vulnerable children in host communities into quality education by the end of the 2016/17 school year. DFID is aligning its funding behind the Government of Lebanon’s national education plans to expand access to educational opportunity; both through formal education, and through quality and regulated non-formal education for the most vulnerable out of school children.
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 her Department is taking to ensure that other countries follow up the commitments made at the Supporting Syria conference held in the UK in February 2016.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID has worked closely with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and other departments, alongside the UN and Co-Hosts, to press countries to deliver on commitments they made at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference. The Prime Minister and Co-Hosts wrote to Leaders of pledging countries in May, to encourage them to deliver on their pledges. Lobbying at senior level has also been carried out in bilateral meetings and at international meetings, such as the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings and the World Humanitarian Summit. The UN General Assembly in September will provide an important opportunity to review progress further and press for more.
DFID has also set up a Post-London Conference Financial Tracking Mechanism. This will track and report on delivery of the financial commitments made at the Conference, and will be a key tool to hold countries to account for their pledges.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will increase her Department's expenditure on water and sanitation.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK has increased its bilateral spend on water and sanitation year on year since 2004, from £31.2million (2004/05) to £180.8million (2014/15).
The Department for International Development does not allocate a set proportion of the aid budget to water and sanitation. The UK Aid strategy commits the UK to helping at least 60million people get access to water and sanitation by 2020. We will allocate the resources required to achieve this to the relevant programmes.
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 UK aid budget is spent on water and sanitation; how that proportion was decided; and if she will increase that proportion.
Answered by Nick Hurd
In 2014 (the year for which figures are last available) UK bilateral expenditure on water supply and sanitation was £180.8 million. This was 2.6% of the UK’s total bilateral Official Development Assistance. This does not include our core contributions to multilateral organisations, anumber of which have large water and sanitation and programmes which we contribute to.
We do not allocate a set proportion of the aid budget to water and sanitation. The UK Aid strategy commits the UK to helping at least 60 million people get access to water and sanitation by 2020. We will allocate the resources required to achieve this to the relevant programmes.
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 she plans to endorse the (a) commitment on explosive weapons at the World Humanitarian Summit and (b) other core commitments on protecting civilians in armed conflict.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK is working through the 32 Core Commitments proposed by the World Humanitarian Summit and will make a decision shortly on which we can align with.
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 is taking to support the provision of climate risk insurance to people who are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change; and how much funding she plans to allocate to such support.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The UK is a leader in climate risk insurance and is committed to contributing to meeting the G7 “InsuResilience” collective target set out in the Elmau declaration of helping up to an additional 400 million people in the most vulnerable developing countries to gain access to climate risk insurance by 2020.
Recent UK support for the provision of climate risk insurance includes contributions of up to £100m to African Risk Capacity (ARC), up to £15m for the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative, £5m to help developing countries with disaster contingency planning backed by risk finance, £3m of technical support to the Government of the Philippines to help them implement their financial protection and insurance strategy, and £1.4m to support livestock insurance for pastoralists in Kenya.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if her Department will take steps to ensure that all children and young people affected by the Syrian conflict are in school and learning in (a) 2016-17 school year and (b) future years.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.
At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to encourage other participants in the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference to (a) increase access to accredited quality non-formal education for Syrian refugee children in host countries in that region and (b) ensure that funding for Syrian refugee education is sustained beyond short-term humanitarian support.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.
At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.
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 Government is taking to encourage the Lebanese government to resume the registration of Syrian refugees.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK recognises the refugee presence in Lebanon is placing great strain on the country. It is important however that those who seek refuge from the conflict in Syria are able to do so, and after fleeing are able to register as refugees in order to gain access to essential basic services. UNHCR, as the mandated UN agency to advocate for the protection and promotion of the rights of refugees, plays a crucial role in registering refugees. That is why to date, the UK has allocated £46 million to UNHCR’s operations in Lebanon, of which a proportion will go to funding registration.
Alongside its support to UNHCR, DFID is also providing over £8 million to the Norwegian Refugee Council, a proportion of which will go to funding information, counselling and legal assistance to refugees in Lebanon to ensure they are aware of their rights and are able to access all relevant services available to them. The UK also continues to work with Government of Lebanon and UNHCR to ensure that all refugees and persons of concern are registered and receiving the help they need.
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 plans she has to attend the World Health Organisation meeting in March 2016; and what her policy is on proposals to be discussed at that meeting on creating a system of health research which prioritises need and efficiency over profit.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Arrangements for the meeting at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2016 are at an early stage. DFID officials will be in discussion with WHO senior managers about UK representation at the meeting.
The UK Government supports systems that separate the market incentives to produce a drug or vaccine from the Research & Development process, that prioritise public health need over profit and that work in partnership with a wide range of different organisations, covering the public, private and philanthropic sectors. The proposals to be discussed at the meeting at the WHO in March are one element of a wider system. The UK is the second largest government supporter of the development of new products through product development partnerships, which prioritise need over profit.