Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what accreditation staff in her Department undertaking professional programme management training receive; and how many people at each grade in her Department have received such training.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Since 1st June 2014, when the scheme first started, 253 staff members have demonstrated sufficient expertise and knowledge, through a rigorous process of accreditation, into the Programme Management Cadre. They include three Senior Civil Servants and 15% have been senior advisors or team leaders. As would be expected, the remaining are made up of programme managers across the department.
Programme Management Training within DFID started in 2013 since when over 400 have attended a three day Delivering Effective Aid Programme. Following the introduction of the Smart Rules and the new programme management architecture, the course has been modified and a further 200 have attended from all grades across the department. Each month one course is held in the UK (alternating between London and Glasgow) and one course is held in a country programme.
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many Heads of Profession there are in her Department; and what professional programme management qualifications each of those Heads of Profession holds.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Table A3.1 in Annex A3 the Independent Commission on Aid Impact Report 34 on ‘How the Department for International Development (DFID) Learns’ lists the 13 technical advisory professions. There are also 7 heads of corporate professions (Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Internal Audit, Information Technology, Knowledge and Procurement & Commercial); a Head of Policy Profession and a Head of Programme Management Profession.
We do not provide personal information on individuals and cannot give precise details on the qualifications of each Head of Profession as requested.
All the Heads of the Advisory, Programme and Policy Professions have completed essential DFID internal programme management courses (or the equivalent in a European donor), and have at least 5 years programme management experience. Several hold post-graduate qualifications in fields related to programme management as well as qualifications in their technical area. In addition three of the heads of the Corporate professions are qualified in PRINCE (Projects in Controlled Environments).
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to tackle micronutrient deficiencies in countries defined by the World Health Organisation on high burden countries; and what further steps she plans to take in relation to such countries.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Tackling undernutrition in the first 1,000 days of life is central to DFID’s strategy to improve child health and wellbeing, and tackling micronutrient deficiencies is a key part of that strategy. Details of DFID’s bilateral support is published on its Development Tracker website: http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/.
In addition to bilateral programmes, DFID provides support to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), all of which contribute to tackling micronutrient deficiencies in WHO high burden countries.
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department (a) spent on infrastructure in 2013-14 and (b) will spend on infrastructure in 2014-15 via (i) bilateral and (ii) multilateral channels.
Answered by Justine Greening
Details of DFID’s spend by sector, including Infrastructure, is shown in Table 11 of our publication ‘Gross Public Expenditure Tables 2013/14’, which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statistics-on-international-development-2013-to-2014-gpex-tables. Figures for 2014/15 will be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to page eight of her Department's Annual Report and Accounts, published on 15 July 2014, what the content was of the commercial skills training received by senior civil servants in her Department; what accreditation those staff received upon completion of that training; and how many people at each grade in her Department received that training.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID’s Commercial training focuses on improving commercial capability across the department, in-line with the requirements of the Civil Service Reform plan as stated in DFID Annual Report and Accounts 2013–14. To date, ninety nine DFID Senior Civil Servants have completed the training.
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, who her Department's top 20 suppliers were on projects in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14; and what the value was of each of those suppliers' contracts in each of those years.
Answered by Justine Greening
Information on contracts is published at http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/ .
Asked by: Tony Cunningham (Labour - Workington)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department’s funding is spent on providing adequate housing; and how much such funding is available to be spent in Sierra Leone.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
We do not collect the information in the form requested however DFID promotes affordable housing centrally through the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) that works across 14 countries in Africa and Asia. By December 2015, CLIFF will have constructed 28,000 new core housing units and improved access to water and sanitation services for up to 445,000 people. CLIFF does not currently work in Sierra Leone.