Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) fund projects following the launch of the £65 million Just Rural Transition support programme at COP26.

The Just Rural Transition Support Programme will work with developing countries to design and implement approaches that help their farmers build resilience and drive investment into more sustainable methods of agriculture through repurposing agricultural policies and support. This programme will build on and scale-up current UK Government support to the Just Rural Transition (£9 million, 2020-23), which is helping countries to take initial steps towards implementing sustainable land use policies and practices, to deliver benefits for people, climate and nature. Programme funds will be used for analytical support to help identify opportunities, technical assistance to design new policies and support schemes, engagement with farmer groups and local communities in the development of schemes, and assisting with the resources required to run trials and pilots leading on to implementation at scale. The programme is still at the design phase with the selection of partner countries expected to follow later this year.

The Just Rural Transition programme builds on an existing $2 million partnership with the World Bank that is currently supporting nine countries to assess opportunities for repurposing public policies and support and on funding to a Policy Action Coalition under the Just Rural Transition initiative to support a transition to sustainable agriculture.