Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the £2.9 billion reduction to the Official Development Assistance budget on faith organisations throughout the world.
Faith groups play an essential role in reaching the "bottom billion" around the world, and we continue to engage extensively with them on development issues as part of our relationship with wider civil society. This engagement has included understanding the problems organisations are facing as a result of COVID-19, including financial. Furthermore, Lord Ahmad hosted a "faith in development" roundtable in June which discussed how faith groups are contributing to the response to COVID-19; where those interventions have been most effective, and what the challenges are for faith groups. We continue to assess the impact of potential Official Development Assistance reductions in all areas, and all amended programmes and projects are uploaded on DevTracker in the normal way.