Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support the promotion of democracy in developing countries.

Strengthening global peace, security and governance is one of the four pillars of the UK Aid Strategy. DFID champions democratic values at the international level. For example, the inclusion of a specific Goal 16 on inclusive, peaceful societies in the 2030 Agenda. We have scaled up our support to the Open Government Partnership’s global work and launched a new Transparency Agenda in 2018 promoting civic engagement in decision-making. And we have recently agreed a new centrally managed programme supporting the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to promote inclusive, democratic politics in a range of developing countries.

DFID promotes democratic institutions and politics in many of our focus countries, alongside the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, through support to build effective parliaments, and political parties; and empower civil society to hold governments to account. Between 2010 and 2015 we supported freer and fairer elections in 13 countries in which 162 million people voted. DFID’s recently launched UK Aid Connect programme will promote an independent, free media in developing countries as a fundamental pillar of democracy.